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Post by Admin Pete on May 20, 2015 7:33:57 GMT -5
When you play OD&D do you ever throw in any old archaic words for flavor? Not everyone's players would appreciate it, I am sure; however, many of us enjoy words and play many different word games. I am a Scrabble fan myself; however, when I play I have one house rule - if an English word appears in any dictionary I can access, the word is valid. When you play Scrabble using the OED and others it greatly increases the number of words available.
Or do you make up new (old) words in the course of the game. Words or phrases that are unique to your campaign?
Here are some of those olde words:
Sough - the sound of the wind amongst the trees, the sound of one sleeping.
Sic-Sic - Said to pigs when called to the trough by those who think little that they are speaking pure Saxon, in which sic is pig.
Pulpatoon - A dish made of rabbits, fowl, etc., in a crust of forced meat.
Forced Meat - Minced and highly seasoned meat.
Martingale - A gambling term which means the doubling of a stake every time you lose, so that when you win once, you win back all that you have lost. So called from the fact that, as in all fair games you must win once, you have a safe hold of fortune. The difficulty is to obtain a bank large enough to do this effectively ... in a fair game.
Curtain-lecture - A lecture or homily delivered by a wife to her husband when in bed, upon the shortcomings and errors of his daily life.
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Post by Admin Pete on May 20, 2015 7:36:37 GMT -5
Continuing on with some of these fun archaic words:
Pixilated - Led astray, as if by pixies; confused, bewildered. Also intoxicated.
Pixilated - An early American expression derived from the word pixies, meaning elves. They would say, "The pixies have got him, " as we nowadays (1930's) would say a man is balmy.
Pixilated - To use the word in the sense of crazy is not correct. A Vermonter would not hesitate to use crazy if that conveyed his meaning. A pixilated man is one whose whimseys are not understood by practical-minded people ... More nearly a synonym of 'whimsical.'
Tree-geese - A name given to barnacles, from their supposed metamorphosis into geese.
Fiddler's green - A name given by sailors to their dancehouses and other places of frolic on shore; sailors' paradise.
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Post by Admin Pete on May 20, 2015 7:36:55 GMT -5
Some more olde words to lighten up your day and stimulate your thinking!
Duck's dinner - A drink of water without anything to eat.
Wolfshead - An outlaw, meaning a person who might be killed with impunity, like a wolf.
Shoot the moon - To remove furniture from a house in the middle of the night without paying the landlord.
Shuttle-gathering - An expedient for stopping weaving factories without breaking the machinery. The shuttles from the looms were forcibly gathered and taken away by the discounted weavers and, as they could not be replaced for several weeks, business had to be suspended.
Eyeshot - sight, glance, view. Hence, eye-reach, the range or reach of the eye; extent of vision.
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Post by Admin Pete on May 20, 2015 7:37:15 GMT -5
Continuing the list of olde archaic words for your enjoyment and enlightenment:
Duck-shoving - A cabman's phrase. In Melbourne, before the days of the trams, the wagonette-cabs used to run by a time-table from fixed stations at so much a passenger. A cabman who did not wait his turn on the station rank, but touted passengers up and down the street in the neighbourhood of the rank, was called a duck-shover.
Fumbler - An unperforming husband, one that is insufficient: Fumbler's Hall, the place where such are to be put for their nonperformance.
Sal ammoniac - a volatile salt of two kinds. The ancient type was a native salt generated in inns where pilgrims ... used to lodge, who traveling upon camels, urinating in the stables; out of this urine arose a kind of salt, denominated ammoniac. The modern sal ammoniac is entirely factitious, and made in Egypt with soot, a little sea salt, and the urine of cattle.
Grave-merels - It is thought unlucky on the Borders to tread on the graves of unbaptized children ... He who steps on the grave of a stillborn or unbaptized child, subjects himself to the disease of grave-merels. ...There is a remedy for the grave-merels, though not of easy attainment. It lies in the wearing of a sark, thus prepared: The lint must be grown in a field which shall be manured by a farmyard heap that has not been disturbed for forty years. it must be spunby an old Habbitrot, that queen of spinsters, it must be bleached by an honest bleacher, in an honest miller's milldam, and sewed by an honest tailor. On donning this mysterious vestment, the sufferer will at once regain his health and strength.
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Post by Admin Pete on May 20, 2015 7:37:36 GMT -5
Continuing the list of olde archaic words for your enjoyment and enlightenment:
Gull-groper - A bystander that lends money to the gamesters.
Blutterbunged - confounded, overcome by surprise.
Minnock - To affect delicacy, to ape the manners of one's superiors.
Word-wanton - Obscene in speech.
Taghairm - A wild species of magic was practiced in the district of Trotternish that was attended with a horrible solemnity. A family who pretended to oracular knowledge ... was sewed up in the hide of an ox and , to add to the ceremony, was placed on a precipice beside a waterfall. The trembling enquirer was brought to the place where the shade and the roaring of the waters increased the dread of the occasion. The question is put, and the person in the hide delivers his answer. And so ends this species of divination styled taghairm.
Vomitory - a door of a large building by which the crowd is let out; from the Latin vomitorious.
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Post by Admin Pete on May 20, 2015 7:37:57 GMT -5
Continuing the list of olde archaic words for your enjoyment and enlightenment:
Clock-faces - A favorite name for the small circles of ice formed upon a pool when it begins to freeze over.
Bundling - Bundling used to be a widely diffused Welsh custom before marriage. (It was also practiced in the American south up through the 1800's and perhaps longer in some areas) The betrothed or engaged pair went to bed or more frequently lay together, in their clothes . . . Even among families of good position it is tacitly recognized and tolerated, and it was at the outset the product of the clothed state, where touch had to play the part of sight in the unclothed. It is a rigorous condition that no liberty be taken with the dress. Prudent mothers gave daughters approaching bundling age a "courting-stocking" completely covering the girl's body from the waist downwards, with room for both legs within it; such stockings . . . were often heirlooms.
Bundling boards - A wooden board the length of the bed and 8-12 inches in width that was placed upright in the bed between the bundling couple.
Drink-meat - Ale boiled, thickened with oatmeal, and spiced.
Town-bull - It was formerly the custom to keep a bull for the common use of the town.
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Post by Admin Pete on May 20, 2015 7:38:15 GMT -5
Continuing the list of olde archaic words for your enjoyment and enlightenment:
Daw, in common speech, is to awaken; to be dawed, to have shaken off sleep, to be fully awakened and to come to one's self out of a deep sleep.
Chilblains - An inflammation of the feet, hands, &c., occasioned by cold . . . Chilblains are treated by accustoming the parts to exposure, stimulant, terebinthinate and balsamic washes.
To thrash chilblains with holly is an old-fashioned cure, but in some places it is only efficacious if the feet are crossed during the painful operation.
Snoutfair - A person with a handsome countenance.
Screevers - Writers of false or exaggerated accounts of afflictions and privations . . . professional begging-letter writers. Persons who write begging-letters for others sometimes, though seldom, beg themselves. They are, in many cases, well supported by the fraternity for whom they write. A professional of this kind is called by the cadgers their "man of business." Their histories vary as much as their abilities, generally speaking, they have been clerks, teachers, shopmen, reduced gentlemen, or the illegitimate sons of members of the aristocracy, while others, after receiving a liberal education, have broken away from parental control and commenced the profession in early life, and will probably pursue it to their graves.
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Post by Admin Pete on May 20, 2015 7:38:35 GMT -5
Continuing the list of olde archaic words for your enjoyment and enlightenment:
Snuff-dipping - A mode of taking tobacco practiced by some of the lower class of women in the United States, consisting of dipping a brush among snuff and rubbing the teeth and gums with it.
Primovant - In ancient astronomy, that sphere which was supposed to carry the fixed stars in their daily motions, to which all the other orbs were attached.
Celibatist - A person who is unmarried.
Hungerslain - Having a famished appearance. The term is freely applied where circumstances hardly warrant it, as in the case of a family who occupy a large residence without having the means to provide suitable attendance.
Clapperclaw - to jangle and claw each other about. (from Dutch & German klappen, to strike.
- To tongue-beat, to scold.
- To scratch, maul, fight in an unskillful manner; generally used of women . . . Hence, clapperclaw, a noisy woman.
- A man having his face scratched by his wife is said to be "clapper-claad."
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Post by Admin Pete on May 21, 2015 21:39:50 GMT -5
Resurrection Men - body-snatchers, those who broke open the coffins of the newly buried to supply the demands of the surgical and medical schools. The resurrectionist took the corpse naked, this being in law a misdemeanor, as opposed to a felony if garments were taken as well.
- First applied to Burke and Hare in 1829, who rifled graves to sell the bodies for dissection, and sometimes even murdered people for the same purpose.
Thraw - The Scots thought formerly, and may do still, that to die with what they call a thraw, that is, in pain and contortion, was an indication of having lived an ill life.
- To die with a thraw is reckoned an obvious indication of a bad conscience. When a person was secretly murdered, it was formerly believed that if the corpse were watched with certain mysterious ceremonies, the death-thraws would be reversed in its visage, and it would denounce the perpetrators and circumstances of the murder.
Scrofula - Hard swellings of the glandules of the neck and ears; the King's Evil - so called because it was thought that the touch of the King would cure it.
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Post by Admin Pete on May 21, 2015 21:40:09 GMT -5
Man-browed - Having hair growing between the eyebrows. Here is is deemed unlucky to meet a person thus marked, especially if the first one meets in the morning. Elsewhere, it is a favourable omen. The term, I suppose, has been primarily applied to a woman, as by this exuberance indicating something of a masculine character, having brows like a man.
Almner - An officer of a king or prince's house whose function is carefully to collect the fragments of meat and victuals and distribute them . . . and likewise to receive and faithfully distribute *cast horses, robes, money and other things given in alms. He ought also to excite the king with often admonitions, especially on festival days, to be bountiful in giving alms, and to beseech that his rich robes may not be given to parasites, maskers and stage-players.
*Cast Horses - A horse can get stuck - or cast - in his stall. A horse is said to be cast when he has lain down or rolled and managed to position himself with his legs so close to the wall that he can neither get up nor reposition himself to roll the other way. A horse can be injured from this and have to be put down.
Water-quake - A disturbance of water caused by volcanic action.
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Post by Admin Pete on May 21, 2015 21:40:34 GMT -5
Riding the hatch - In the district about the Land's End, a custom once prevailed known as riding the hatch. Persons suspected of immorality were mounted on the half-door (a Dutch door), which was then violently rocked until they fell off. If the accused fell into the house, he was judged to be innocent; if into the street, guilty.
Keak - A distortion or injury of the spine that causes deformity. It seems to have some affinity with the Cheshire word kench . . . "a twist or wrench, a strain or sprain." Our term, however, is never used but for a wrench in the spine.
Curglaff - the shock felt in bathing when one first plunges into the cold water; hence curgloff, panic struck.
Box harry - To live in a poor manner, or on credit. To go without food; to make a poor or coarse meal; to rough it; to take things as they are . . . Hence Boxharry-week, the blank week between pay-weeks when the workmen lived on credit or starved.
The phrase "to box Harry" probably means to box or fight, the devil.
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Post by Admin Pete on May 21, 2015 21:40:54 GMT -5
Weeping-ripe - Ready to weep; ripe for weeping. A notion long prevailed in this country that it augured ill for a matrimonial alliance if the bride did not weep profusely at the wedding. As no witch could shed more than three tears , and those from her left eye only, a copious flood of tears gave assurance to the husband that the lady had not plighted her troth to Satan, and was no witch.
Shinnock - The game of shinny . . . resembling hockey, the and club used for the game.
Bog-oranges - Potatoes. A phrase perhaps derived from the term "Irish fruit, " which by some strange peculiarity has been applied to potatoes, for even the most ignorant Cockney could hardly believe that potatoes grow in a bog.
Gabriel's hounds - These phantom hounds, jet black and breathing flames . . . frequent bleak and dreary moors on tempestuous nights, and woe betide the unlucky wretch who chances to cross their path.
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Post by Admin Pete on May 23, 2015 7:38:59 GMT -5
Snickle - A snare for birds, constructed of horsehair.
Invalid's table - At Yale college in former times, a table at which those who were not in health could obtain more nutritious food than was supplied at the common board.
Queer rooster - An informer that pretends to be sleeping, and thereby overhears the conversations of thieves in night cellars.
Fangast - A marriageable maid.
Quill-driver - A scrivener, a clerk, satirical phrase similar to "steel bar driver," a tailor.
Cramp-rings - Ring(s) made out of old coffin-lead , and worn as a preservative against cramp.
Aroint - A word of aversion, to a witch or infernal spirit, of which the etymology is uncertain . . . It occurs in Shakespeare's Macbeth, "Aroint thee, witch, the rump-fed ronyon cries"
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Post by Admin Pete on May 23, 2015 7:39:25 GMT -5
Settlers' matches - A name occasionally applied to the long pendulous strips of bark which hang from the Eucalyptus and other trees during decortication, and which, becoming exceedingly dry, are readily ignited and used as kindling wood.
Octogamie - Marrying eight times. From Latin ecto, and Old French gamie (marriage).
Purse Proud - Haughty on account of wealth.
Extranean - An outsider, stranger; one not belonging to a household . . . in the grammar school at Aberdeen, the extranean was one who had not gone through the regular curriculum from the lowest to the highest classes, but had come from other schools for the last quarter in order to get a final drill or finishing touch before going to compete for the university bursaries or scholarships.
Seeksorrow - One who contrives to give himself vexation.
Chair-days - A time of repose; the evening of life.
Crump - One that helps solicitors to affidavit- men and overseers . . . who, for a small sum will be bound or swear for anybody, on that occasion putting on good cloaths to make a good appearance, that bail may be accepted.
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Post by Admin Pete on May 23, 2015 7:43:52 GMT -5
Cuckoo-ale - Ale drunk out of doors to welcome the cuckoo's return. The cuckoo was looked upon as the embodiment of spring in early times, and the weather was supposed to change as soon as it appeared.
Ragrowtering - Playing at romps, and thereby rumpling, roughening and tearing the clothes to rags, or playing the rogue in a wanton frolic; from ragery and rout, tumultus. Risking the damage of clothes by rude or rough personal handling in play.
Man of straw - The old clothes of a man, stuffed with straw; hence, an imaginary person, a person of little consequence put forward to deceive.
Tricked up and made fine; a metaphor taken from a horse's hounces, which is part of the furniture of a cart-horse which lies spread up on his collar.
Apple-john - An apple, so called from its being at maturity about St. John's Day, May 6 . . . Sometimes called the Apples of King John which, if correct, would militate against the notion about St. John's Day. . . In the United States there is a drink called apple-jack, which is apple or cider brandy.
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Post by Admin Pete on May 23, 2015 7:44:11 GMT -5
Groaning-cheese - Cheese provided on the occasion of child-birth. It was the practice to cut the groaning-cheese in the middle, and by degrees to form it into a large kind of ring, through which the child was passed on the day of christening.
Rat-rhyme - To repeat from memory without attaching any meaning to the words; anything repeated by rote. The fanciful idea that rats where commonly rhymed to death in Ireland arose probably from some metrical charm or incantation used there for that purpose.
Snapper-back - in foot-ball, a center rusher . . . Neither the snapper-back nor his opponent can take the ball out with the hand until it touches a third man.
Ruckle - A loose heap or pile; figuratively, a ruckle of bones, a very lean person.
Fowerty-frappers - Fireworks of any kind.
Simmiting - An inclination or fondness for a person of the opposite sex; related to simmity, to look after admiringly, to pay attention to.
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Post by merctime on May 23, 2015 9:12:39 GMT -5
Ok, that tears it... I simply MUST play an illusionist known as... The Man of Straw!!!
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Post by Admin Pete on May 23, 2015 22:15:48 GMT -5
Ok, that tears it... I simply MUST play an illusionist known as... The Man of Straw!!!  Love it! I am hoping this inspires me and all of you to invent old words or perhaps alter the definitions of some of these for your campaign. |
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Post by merctime on May 23, 2015 22:18:28 GMT -5
In the Navy days, one guy used to run around complaining about all of the "Hugger Mugger".
...Evidently, that phrase means chaos and disorganized confusion! HAHAHA.
"Lo, and if'n those goblins get out to these parts, it'll be all sorts of Hugger-Muggery for us fine folk!!"
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Post by Admin Pete on May 23, 2015 22:19:47 GMT -5
In the Navy days, one guy used to run around complaining about all of the "Hugger Mugger". ...Evidently, that phrase means chaos and disorganized confusion! HAHAHA. "Lo, and if'n those goblins get out to these parts, it'll be all sorts of Hugger-Muggery for us fine folk!!" that is quite a good one - Hugger -Muggery! |
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Post by Admin Pete on May 27, 2017 23:14:42 GMT -5
Continuing the list of olde archaic words for your enjoyment and enlightenment:
Snollygoster - A shrewd, unprincipled person, particularly a politician.
Twitter-light - formerly used instead of twilight.
bedchamber - meaning bedroom
Zafty- A person very easily imposed upon or taken advantage of.
Interlard - To put lard or fat between layers of meat. Metaphorically, to mix what is the solid part of the discourse with fulsome and irrelevant matter. Thus we say, "to interlard with oaths, compliments," etc.
Hemicrania lunatica - Pain in the head arising from changes in the moon.
Fulhams - Loaded dice are called high- and lowmen, or high and low fulhams, by Ben Jonson and other writers of his time, either because they were made at Fulham [between Kensington and the Thames, in London], or from that place being the resort of sharpers.
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Post by Admin Pete on May 27, 2017 23:15:23 GMT -5
Bobbery-pack - A pack of hounds of different breeds, or oftener of no breed at all, wherewith young officers hunt jackals or the like; presumably so called from the noise and disturbance (known as a bobbery) that such a pack are apt to raise.
May-dew - The dew collected off the grass with sponges, used as a cosmetic. As late as the 1930's Scottish girls gathered May-dew at dawn during the month of May and partook of its beautifying virtues.
Joggs - On the outside of the church, strongly fixed to the wall, are the joggs. These were made use of, when the weekly market and the annual fair stood, to confine and punish those who had broken the peace, or used too much freedom with the property of others. The stocks were used for the feet and the joggs for the neck of the offender, in which he was confined at least during the time of the fair.
Album nigrum - The excrement of mice and rats, formerly used both externally and internally as a remedy, but now very properly abandoned.
Fence-month - The month during which, in England, hunting in any forest is prohibited. A month in which it is unlawful to hunt in the forest because in that month the female deers fawn; it begins fifteen days before Midsummer.
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Post by mormonyoyoman on May 28, 2017 0:00:19 GMT -5
Town-bull - It was formerly the custom to keep a bull for the common use of the town. Ewwww! |
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Post by mormonyoyoman on May 28, 2017 0:03:12 GMT -5
Decimate - Still has the same definition, but these days is hardly used to mean "to destroy 10% of something."
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Post by Admin Pete on May 28, 2017 0:03:39 GMT -5
Town-bull - It was formerly the custom to keep a bull for the common use of the town. Ewwww! |
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Post by mormonyoyoman on May 28, 2017 0:08:33 GMT -5
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Post by mormonyoyoman on May 28, 2017 0:11:31 GMT -5
You leave my wife's family out of this! |
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Post by Admin Pete on May 28, 2017 5:40:03 GMT -5
Is that you that published this and a whole lot of other things? |
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Post by mormonyoyoman on May 28, 2017 9:42:49 GMT -5
That would be Good Old Charlie Fleming, though I've done did a few articles and such.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2017 16:42:11 GMT -5
Going more medieval --
"Nitheling" was a Norse word for a person worth nothing
"Devoir" meant honor or devotion
"Eek" (pronounced "ache") meant "also"
"Certes" (ser-tees) meant "certainly"
"Bobance" means boasting
"Lurdlan" meant fool
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Love it!
