Review: The Word Museum by Jeffrey Kacirk

by Chriss Cornish published: June 16, 2010 No Comments

This Book Is About

The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten: As the largest and most dynamic collection of words ever assembled, the English language continues to expand. But as hundreds of new words are added annually, older ones are sacrificed. Now from the author of Forgotten English comes a collection of fascinating archaic words and phrases, providing an enticing glimpse into the past. With beguiling period illustrations, The Word Museum offers up the marvelous oddities and peculiar enchantments of old and unusual words.

My Thoughts On This Book

The Word Museum is another great dictionary of lost and odd English words from Jeffrey Kacirk, the author of Forgotten English.

What sets this book apart from other such collections of antiquated verbage is that the definitions are period. Instead of writing definitions for the words himself, the author actually inserted the text from dictionaries and lexicons published in the 1500s, 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s. Which is interesting, both for history and word lovers, but means that a few of the definitions make no earthly sense to the modern person.

Some of the words also end with the name of the country or county (whose name is in italics) where the word is from. That’s really cool information to have. There are also a few engraving-style illustrations in each letter’s chapter. At least half of them don’t make particular sense, though. I would have left them out of the book, personally.

Another great book of old and out-of-use English words to add to my library.

Some favorite words from The Word Museum:

aquabob An icicle; [from] Latin aqua, water. Kent [Holloway]

batterfanged Beaten and beclawed, as a termagant will fight with her fists and nails. [Robinson, GWW] [Hotten] SEE clapperclaw

count kin To count kin with one, to compare one’s pedigree with that of another. It is common for one who has perhaps been spoken of disrespectfully, in regard to his relations, to say of the person who has done so, “I’ll count kin with him whenever he likes.” [Wedgwood]

flurch A multitude, a great man; spoken of things, not persons, as a flurch of strawberries. [Ray]

mercurial-finger The little finger. [R. Hunter] The thumb, in chiromancy, we give Venus, the forefinger to Jove, the midst to Saturn, the ring to Sol, the least to Mercury. [Jonson] SEE wedding finger

prunck Proud, vain, saucy. [J. Wright]

scart To scratch; [whence] scart-free, without a scratch of the slightest injury. [Mackay] To scart one’s buttons, to draw one’s hand down the breast of another so as to touch the buttons with one’s nails; a mode of challenging to battle among boys; perhaps a relique of some ancient mode of hostile defiance. [Jamieson]

And many more…