h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

>
Always with the militaristic viewpoint, eh.


But that's cool 'cuz i just thought of a whole new field
of moribund words that are form ye olde days of battle.

berserkers
skirmishers
arbalest
grenadiers
lancers
hunga munga
caltrop
pike
trebuchet

Not that we've outgrown war or weaponry but we have outlived
many of the cruder forms of killing. The ancient 'breastplate'
is now a kevlar flak jacket.


~jwf~
<


every year here at my Uni, many members of staff seem to refer to a year group as a 'Cohort'
I always makes me wonder if that makes me a centurion

Perhaps we could punish the students for late essay submissions with decimation

Garrotte is another old militaristic word. I'm all choked up that it isn't used much any more.

Garrote vil in Spanish.
A word that won´t die because of this film. A black humour film and an apology against the death penalty.

http://www.filmreference.com/Films-Tw-Vi/El-Verdugo.html

This is a very famous scene within the spanish filmography.
The man with the white hat is the verdugo, the executioner. He somehow was forced by circunstances to take that job. He tries to delay his first day at the jail where he has to execute by garrote vil a man.

http://youtu.be/jH2k9cR7NrQ

Orcus mentioned cohort, an excellnt example of a word
that has been contorted into a more modern usage. Like
berserker and trebuchet, still known to historians in specific
historical context in discussing ancient warfare formations,
but like phalanx it has also been reassigned in modern life.

People will sometimes use cohort to mean a group of fellows
usually involved in some nefarious activity; and phalanx is
often used to describe a surging crowd of common purpose
such as protesters, or commuters rushing for the subway, or
queueing for concert tickets.

~jwf~

"Cohorts" is also just a synonym for "Pals" or "peers," with or without the nefarious connotations.

"Haubregon" is a word from the very popular Renaissance song "L'homme arme" [The Armed Man, or Soldier]. Basically, haubregon is a suit of armor. Armor is a word that is still used, often for psychological armor like denial.

"Mail" is still in use, but its primary meaning is no longer that of woven links of metal. Meanings change even as words stay the same.

Modern usage:

Phalanxed

(adj.) Drunk

Maria's OP has pre-occupied my mind for some time now
and keeps me wondering how many other words we have yet
to consider. My own mind tends to drift to outmoded machines,
technologies and medical procedures.

flat-iron, farrier, phrenology, phlogiston

But there are many more. Especially in areas of social and
behavioral descriptions. These continue to elude me and again
I blame literacy, my ability to read older works and be aware
of the meaning in context even when the words are no longer in
common verbal usage.

I have today thought of some fashion terms such as milliner
and haberdasher.

But for social terms, only spinster, which went from being
the proper term for any unwed woman to a prejudicial and
value laden, hurtful expression suggesting some unnatural lack
of sexuality. It is still used in jest, a mildly comic way, in the old
Victorian newspaper manner, to describe the status of a woman
as 'spinster of this parish'.

Another might be master as the form of Mister used to address
young boys (especially the gentry and upper classes).


~jwf~

Does that still exist in Happy Families? (the card game).

Also - one man's extinct expression may be another's everyday usage.

It depends where you work, and in what circles you - um - circulate.

I finally thought of an example of what to me is
a completely moribund word - behooves - as in it
behooves me to ask what might still exist in the
card game Happy Families. It behooves me because
I am not familiar with that game.

Trouble is, I looked up behooves and find it has
a very long history (c900ad) and its root behoof
is still regarded as a viable term as a synonym for:

>> Synonyms
2. benefit, advantage, serve, better, advance; suit, befit, beseem. <<

I only knew of its meaning as 'proper' or 'due' action.
All of which leaves me somewhat befuddled.

~jwf~

There's an old joke about J S Bach practicing on an old spinster in his attic. Old maid is a variation on the term, for which there used to be a card game with that name.

Gnomon posted this link on a thread about aging technology
which has a few more moribund words and phrases:

http://www.globalnerdy.com/2014/01/21/a-joke-about-the-floppy-disk-in-2014-and-the-alphabet-of-the-obsolete/

*Note the "old" dude in the first picture is wearing a 42 T-shirt.



~jwf~

It seems to me that technology ages too fast for people to figure out all the possible uses to which it can be put. Something is being lost in the hurry toward whatever is next.

A spinster was originally someone who span wool . I guess that was a task that tended to get taken up by older unmarried women, hence the shift in meaning.