Words That are Somewhat Obscure, But Still Quite Usable

Black Adder III

Ink and Incapability

E: Edmund Blackadder
G: Prince Regent George
J: Dr. Samuel Johnson


In Prince's House

(knock at door)

G: Enter!

E: Dr. Johnson, Your Highness.

G: Ah, Dr. Johnson! Damn cold day!

J: Indeed it is, sir -- but a very fine one, for I celebrated last night the
encyclopaedic implementation of my pre-meditated orchestration of demotic
Anglo-Saxon.

G: (nods, grinning, then speaks) Nope -- didn't catch any of that.

J: Well, I simply observed, sir, that I'm felicitous, since, during the
course of the penultimate solar sojourn, I terminated my uninterrupted
categorisation of the vocabulary of our post-Norman tongue.

G: Well, I don't know what you're talking about, but it sounds damn saucy,
you lucky thing! I know some fairly liberal-minded girls, but I've
never penultimated any of them in a solar sojourn, or, for that matter,
been given any Norman tongue!

E: I believe, sir, that the Doctor is trying to tell you that he is happy
because he has finished his book. It has, apparently, taken him ten years.

G: Yes, well, I'm a slow reader myself...

J: (places two manuscripts on the table, but picks up the top one)
Here it is, sir: the very cornerstone of English scholarship. This book,
sir, contains every word in our beloved language.

G: Hmm.

E: Every single one, sir?

J: (confidently) Every single word, sir!

E: (to Prince) Oh, well, in that case, sir, I hope you will not object if
I also offer the Doctor my most enthusiastic contrafribblarities.

J: What?

E: `Contrafribblarites', sir? It is a common word down our way.

J: Damn! (writes in the book)

E: Oh, I'm sorry, sir. I'm anus-peptic, phrasmotic, even compunctious to have
caused you such pericombobulation.

J: What? What? WHAT?

G: What are you on about, Blackadder? This is all beginning to sound a bit
like dago talk to me.

E: I'm sorry, sir. I merely wished to congratulate the Doctor on not having
left out a single word. (J sneers) Shall I fetch the tea, Your Highness?

G: Yes, yes -- and get that damned fire up here, will you?

E: Certainly, sir. I shall return interphrastically. (exits) (J writes some
more)

G: So, Dr. Johnson. Sit ye down. Now, this book of yours...tell me, what's
it all about?

J: It is a book about the English language, sir.

G: I see! And the hero's name is what?

J: There is no hero, sir.

G: No hero? Well, lucky I reminded you. Better put one in pronto! Ermm...
call him `George'. `George' is a good name for a hero. Er, now; what about
heroines?

J: There is no heroine, sir...unless it is our Mother Tongue.

G: Ah, the *mother's* the heroine. Nice twist. How far have we got, then? Old
Mother Tongue is in love with George the Hero. Now what about murders?
Mother Tongue doesn't get murdered, does she?

J: No she doesn't. No-one gets murdered, or married, or in a tricky situation
over a pound note!

G: Well, now, look, Dr. Johnson, I may be as thick as a whale omelette, but
even I know a book's got to have a plot.

J: Not this one, sir. It is a book that tells you what English words mean.

G: I *know* what English words mean; I *speak* English! You must be a bit
of a thicko.

J: (stand) Perhaps you would rather not be patron of my book if you can see
no value in it whatsoever, sir!

G: (stands) Well, perhaps so, sir! As it sounds to me as if my being patron
of this complete cowpat of a book would set the seal once and for all on
my reputation as an utter turnip-head!

J: Well! It is a reputation well deserved, sir! (sarcastically) Farewell!
(opens door to find Edmund with tea tray)

E: Leaving already, Doctor? Not staying for your pendigestatery
interludicule?

J: No, sir! Show me out!

E: Certainly, sir -- anything I can do to facilitate your velocitous
extramuralisation.

J: (to Prince) You will regret this doubly, sir. Not only have you
impecuniated (turns to Edmund and makes a boasting noise, then continues)
my Dictionary, but you've also lost the chance to act as patron to the only
book in the world that is even better.

E: Oh, and what is that, sir? "Dictionary II: The Return of the Killer
Dictionary"?

J: No, sir! It is "Edmund: A Butler's Tale" (Edmund knocks over some of the
teacups) by Gertrude Perkins -- a huge rollercoaster of a novel crammed
with sizzling gypsies. (to Prince) Had you supported it, sir, it would
have made you and me and Gertrude millionaires.

E: (shocked) Millionaires!! (clears his throat as J and P look at him oddly)

J: But it was not to be, sir. I fare you well; I shall not return.

E: (to Prince) Excuse me, sir. (follows Johnson out) Er, Dr. Johnson...
A word, I beg you.

J: A word with you, sir, can mean seven million syllables. You might start
now and not be finished by bedtime! (pauses, realised he's forgotten
something) Oh, blast my eyes! In my fury, I have left my Dictionary
with your foolish master! Go fetch it, will you?

E: Sir, the Prince is young and foolish, and has a peanut for a brain. Give
me just a few minutes and I will deliver both the book and his patronage.

J: Oh, will you, sir... I very much doubt it. A servant who is an influence
for the good is like a dog who speaks: very rare.

E: I think I can change his mind.

J: Hmpf! Well, I doubt it, sir. A man who can change a prince's mind is
like a dog who speaks *Norwegian*: even rarer! I shall be at Mrs. Miggins'
Literary Salon in twenty minutes. Bring the book there. (exits)

No, Walter, "delative"...(expresses motion downward"..

(I hope my stocks are not delutive..) :wink:

supercilious - adj - cooly and patronizingly haughty;

Example: He somehow managed to be arrogant and supercilious, without revealing any symptoms of intelligence.

Vaniloquence - vain or foolish talk...

dilatory: adj.
slow
Francis is quite dilatory when it comes to taking his turn in the Where Am I thread. :wink:

Not slow but extending time...

But jesus, what a phenom vocab, eh Letty? Only he and Walter have stumped me so far, and if Francis' correction of Walter had merit, then only Francis.

Did you eat a thesauras, Francis?

JTT - Take it in the light manner, I ate several thesauruses.

But a collection of words doesn't make me an expert of language...

I just read through dj's marvelous spoof on the English vocabulary. Funny, Canada.

Hubris: noun
exaggerated pride or self-confidence, often resulting in fatal retribution. (of course, The Greeks had another word for it.)

The hubris of the man ultimately resulted in total rejection by his constiuency.

Hight . . . look it up sometime . . . huge entry in the OED, but it just dropped out of sight, very quickly, in the 16th century.

I hight me Setanta . . .

Amazing, Setanta.

hight (ht)
adj. Archaic
Named or called.


[Middle English, past participle of highten, hihten, to call, be called, from hehte, hight, past tense of hoten, from Old English htan; see kei-2 in Indo-European roots.]

Yep, you'll find such words when reading original sources in English history.



source: "hight." Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster, 2002. http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com (11 Sep. 2006).

hight, nuthin'. How about 'yclept'?

sobriquet - noun - 1. An affectionate or humorous nickname. 2. An assumed name.

Then there is the use of the word "prick." As in, he went pricking over the field--which meant he rode his horse at a gallop.

"slow elk"
when poaches a beef from a western ranch, one is hunting "slow elk"
(bean there, done that)

That's a new one on me, Dys. Thanx.

verisimilitude: noun
Something that has the appearance of being true or real.

The verisimilitude of the fictional presentation was so believable, that the audience thought it was factual.

Good 'un, Set. I'm guessing it derives from 'pricking' a horse's flanks with one's spurs, much like 'raking' which has the same meaning.

I wish you people would stop calling most of my favourite words "obscure".

I even use hight and yclept.