I really should call this “words of the day” because there’s no way I can pick just one word from this week’s book, Horologicon by Mark Forsyth, proprietor of the InkyFool blog.

I’ve said before I’m a word geek. Show me a book about words and their origins, or the evolution of language and I’ll show you a book that’s going to be on my nightstand next week. Horologican is about words that have gone out of use for the most part. Sadly out of use, because they are delightful, magical. They are fizzy on the tongue and I am keeping a list of my favorites in the hopes that I will find occasion to use them.

I want it to be a natural usage, though. For instance: As a writer, I am often awake in the wee hours writing and rewriting in my head, in a state of uhtceare (pronounced oot-kee-ar-uh, meaning lying awake and worrying) over the essay I just wrote or the chapter I’m working on. See, it’s not that hard. What about decrying the snollygosters that run our country, saying anything to get elected and reelected and making it sound like sense while doing so? Doesn’t that tell you that a snollygoster is an unprincipled person, especially a politician?

Just because my favorite meal is breakfast, I’d like to see the return of the word aristologist or someone who devotes him or herself to finding the perfect morning meal. And then I’d like to apply for that job, as long as finding the perfect breakfast isn’t the end of the task. I’d like to be able to eat it, too.

I don’t understand why some onomatopoeic words fall out of favor. Consider hurple, a word from the northern parts of England that means to pull up ones shoulders and scurry along, like one does on a cold wet day when one has forgotten a coat and umbrella. It’s a perfect word for that.  And although it’s not really an instance of onomatopoeia, constulting, when used in relation to business or politics, makes perfect sense: it’s the act of being stupid together.

A word that describes me to a T: quidnunc. It’s someone who always wants to know what’s what. It’s Latin translation is “what now”. There’s another word that is particularly apt for me, as I do my best work — and most of it — only when the threat of deadline is looming close by. Hours and minutes close, not days and weeks. The Russian word for sudden bursts of work is rather cumbersome: shturmovshchina. I like the French one better: charette. The former didn’t catch on in the US, but the latter did, so why not bring it back?

Forsyth has many gems in his book that show his deep understanding of writers. My favorite isn’t a word, but the story of Hermann the Recluse, a very bad monk of the 13th Century who made a deal to have all his sins expiated if he wrote the biggest book in the world in one night. How many writers make deals they think will be a doddle only to realize afterward that they are rather more work than they anticipated? So Hermann has to make another deal, this one with the devil, for help with the book. For this he gives up his soul. He tried to make a third pact with the Virgin Mary to get his soul back, but apparently that didn’t work and he took the primrose path to the everlasting bonfire when he died. The book survives, though, about three feet long by about 18 inches wide, and just under eight inches thick. Forsyth doesn’t report what’s in the book or if it reads well. I’m guessing if the devil wrote it, it’s probably at least amusing.

I don’t think I’d make a deal with the devil to finish my work. I wouldn’t want to cede control of the end product. I already have  issues with first readers making suggestions. God help me when an agent and editor get their hands on it. I wonder if there’s a word for that.

Do you have any favorite obsolete words?