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desperanceAccording to Collins Dictionary (a publication I confess I do not favour; for historical authority, give me Oxford every time, and for contemporary, Chambers), these words have fallen into desuetude and should be regarded as extinct:
wittol
drysalter
aerodrome
cyclogiro
charabanc
supererogate
succedaneum
woolfell
Some of these I have never heard or seen, and am prepared to accept their judgement (a wittol is a man who knows of his wife's infidelity and submits to it: probably from wittal, a bird in whose nest a cuckoo lays its eggs; succedaneum is a substitute, something used in the place of something else), but others - well. Charabanc and cyclogiro are particular kinds of transport; the machines may be redundant, but we do still need the words. Aerodrome is the word I grew up with; I have had to train myself to say airport instead. If a word was current less than fifty years ago, I think it's premature to call it obsolete now. My childhood hasn't gone away, it's just moved further off. And supererogatory is a word I use, currently and without apology; and drysalter and woolfell are words that I have instantly battened onto and intend to use forthwith. Collins, I defy thee...
wittol
drysalter
aerodrome
cyclogiro
charabanc
supererogate
succedaneum
woolfell
Some of these I have never heard or seen, and am prepared to accept their judgement (a wittol is a man who knows of his wife's infidelity and submits to it: probably from wittal, a bird in whose nest a cuckoo lays its eggs; succedaneum is a substitute, something used in the place of something else), but others - well. Charabanc and cyclogiro are particular kinds of transport; the machines may be redundant, but we do still need the words. Aerodrome is the word I grew up with; I have had to train myself to say airport instead. If a word was current less than fifty years ago, I think it's premature to call it obsolete now. My childhood hasn't gone away, it's just moved further off. And supererogatory is a word I use, currently and without apology; and drysalter and woolfell are words that I have instantly battened onto and intend to use forthwith. Collins, I defy thee...