Wonderful words of old
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- Stylist Team
- Published
Last week, the Concise Oxford English Dictionary - which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year - announced that modern vocabulary such as "retweet", "sexting" and "jeggings" had been chosen for inclusion in the 12th Edition.
However, a commitment to covering "the language of its own time" inevitably leads to various words being eliminated from the dictionary from edition to edition. In a bid to avoid losing these forever, we asked OED editor Angus Stevenson to dig through the archives to share some of the lost (and wonderful-to-pronounce) words that no longer feature on the dictionary's pages.
Get your tongue around the 11 wonderful words of old below. Now, if you need us, we'll be in our growlery, mafficking with a slapping novel and goluptious glass of wine...
Picture credits: Rex Features
Brabble
Meaning: Paltry, noisy quarrel
Removed: 6th edition - 1976
Foozle
Meaning: Do clumsily, bungle, make a mess of
Removed: 8th edition - 1990
Goluptious
Meaning: Delightful, luscious
Removed: 8th edition - 1990
Growlery
Meaning: Growling; place to growl in, private room, den
Removed: 6th edition - 1976
Hum
Meaning: A sham, hoax
Removed: 6th edition - 1976
Kheda
Meaning: An enclosure used in Bengal to catch elephants
Removed: 6th edition - 1976
Maffick
Meaning: To exult riotously
Removed: 8th edition - 1990
Mag
Meaning: A halfpenny coin
Removed: 6th edition - 1976
Marconigram
Meaning: A message sent by Marconi’s system of wireless telegraphy
Removed: 8th edition - 1990
Slapping
Meaning: Very big, good, or fast
Removed: 6th edition - 1976
Squiffer
Meaning: A concertina (as seen on Paloma Faith's head, right)
Removed: 6th edition - 1976