Monday, August 28, 2006

The Word Museum


The Word Museum

...is a book of extinct words. Its author is Jeffrey Kacirk, who should win the Pulitzer Prize.

I at least never knew that there were words that just didn't exist anymore. Some words have become archaic but they're still in the dictionary. These words have just disappeared. I'm amazed that we wouldn't be able to understand much of what a 16th century Englishman was saying even though we were speaking the same language. In many instances the words disappeared because the practices that they described disappeared, so we also get a better look at life at the time. The Word Museum project is a brilliant one. Imagine doing a movie with the actors having to speak in the language of the time. Or writing a short story.

Mr. Kacirk has collected a small dictionary full of the most colorful of these extinct words. He also has an extinct word of the day on the web. Here are a few.

"Knocker up"-When personal timepieces were still too expensive to be common, the knocker up was the person who would go around and wake up the workers. He used a "knocking-up-stick," a long pole with buttons attached to the end which he would use to rap the bedroom windows.

"Piper's news"-old news. From the piper who would go from town to town calling the news.

"Queer plungers"-Working in twos, one man would throw himself into the river while the other shouted the the situation so that all could hear and then jump in the river to rescue the "victim." He would then take the victim to the Humane Society and collect the one guinea that was given to people who saved those from drowning.

"Resurrectionist"-a body snatcher.

"Carpet knight"-one who does better work in a lady's bedroom than on the battlefield.

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