Archaic Words That You Like to Use

[Black Dragon]

Do you have a favorite archaic word that you use in your writing? If so, share it in this thread, and tell us why you like using it.

I'll begin:

apothecary - someone who prepares and sells medications and drugs.

It sounds much cooler than pharmacist, and has an aura of mystery to it.

Your turn.

 

[CupofJoe]

Poltroon - A Coward or acting in a cowardly way. For some reason, it feels much nastier than just calling someone a coward.

 

[Bandicoot]

Cartograph - an illustrated map; not sure if it's archaic though. Don't see it being used much.

 

[Mythopoet]

I have a skewed idea of what is archaic and what isn't. I developed my vocabulary from books and I often have no idea I'm using archaic or difficult words until people around me don't understand them. Not bragging, I just grew up as the sole voracious reader in an almost totally non-reader family. And I never had people to recommend books to me so I'd just wander around the library until something caught my interest.

 

[FifthView]

Garderobe - lavatory in a castle

I can't say this is my favorite, per se, since I cringe when I use it. But yeah, I've used it. It's a convenient word for adding an air of ye old times. Smelly air, maybe, but still. Other choices seem too modern—with exception of latrine, but that's for a different place/context than a castle's royal quarters. [Edit: also, privy might work in some contexts, come to think of it...]

 

[Futhark]

The old four fundamental personality types: sanguine, choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic.

 

[Ban]

Garderobe - lavatory in a castle

You may cause international readers to scratch their heads if you use garderobe in that sense of the word. In the Netherlands and Germany, garderobe is the term used for the room in which you store your jackets and coats. It would be a bad idea to use a garderobe as a latrine here

As for which words I use, I will have to echo Mythopoet. I learned english as a second language and I can't say I've developed a strong sense for what is archaic and what is modern.

 

[skip.knox]

One I use frequently is phlogiston, just because of the role it plays in Altearth.

One of my favorites, though I don't use it, is vivisection. It remains in memory because I managed to read the entirety of The Island of Dr Moreau without understanding that word. In my defense, I was fifteen at the time. Still makes me smile.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

Eldritch.

 

[skip.knox]

It's worth distinguishing between a word that is archaic and a word that is rarely used. There are also words in current use that have archaic meanings. The word "glamor" comes to miind. It has one connotation in common parlance, but we all learned from D&D and fantasy books another connotation.

 

[Riva]

I don't have a trained ear for english, but when I want to do so in italian I try to imitate 13th century poets and writers. It might be worth noting that when I do it it's usually for fun though.

Check out Dante or Petrarca or even Cecco Angioleri for some examples if you are interested.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

I like the word "oubliette." French for a hole to put someone to forget about them. "Merde" is also a good one and very, very old, existing in common usage from the Roman period.

Writing urban fantasy, I actually get a lot of chances to use fairly archaic words and phrases since we have a lot of characters who were young hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago. It's a lot of fun to figure out what sort of words might have lingered in an immortal vocabulary.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Mooncalf. There are plenty of others, but off the top of my tired head... Mooncalf. Peccant mooncalf, heh heh. An old priest calls a monk that in Eve of Snows, it was most excellent and fitting.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Not archaic, just a weird turn of phrase. I'm doing a reread of our first two books in preparation for hitting Book 3 hard, and I find I use the phrase "of long practice" rather a lot. Probably need to keep that in mind going forward.

 

[Caltan]

Yonder, as in 'over yonder'.

Genuinely think it should still be used commonly, it's a great word.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Yonder, as in 'over yonder'.

Genuinely think it should still be used commonly, it's a great word.

Yeah, I’m big on yonder. There’s a classic BC cartoon. One caveman asks the other where some place is, and the other said “yonder”. After the other one leaves, he says: I always wondered where yonder was.

 

[TheKillerBs]

Seconding yonder. Or would this be thirding? I'm also rather partial to 'yesternight'. Like yesterday, only that it's night.