Readers who get a kick out of unfashionable affixes may also enjoy this post on obsolete be- words, such as:
BEBUTTER: to cover with butter (1611)
BEDINNER: to give a dinner to (1837)
BEMISSIONARY: to pester with missionaries (1884)
BEMONSTER: to make a monster of (1692)
BEPAW: to befoul as with paws (1684)
BETHWACK: to thwack soundly (1598)
BEWIZARD: to influence by a wizard (1862)
https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2017/09/25/bewondered-by-obsolete-be-words/
#words #language #OED #RareWords #linguistics #grammar #etymology #affixes
More on "coolth" at Language Hat: https://languagehat.com/coolth-shorth/
I've updated my post with other marvellous -th words from the OED, including arghth,* blueth, frumth, gloomth, ortrowth, and rimth: https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2024/08/16/birth-of-the-coolth/
* which sadly does not mean what I hoped
Pleasantly surprised that my post on "coolth" has flushed out a couple of readers who regularly use this super-rare word
If you like rare words, "imberb" is a fun one. Borrowed from French "imberbe", it means beardless.
The OED has one example, from Aldous Huxley's Antic Hay (1923): "A face of such childish contour and so imberb that he looked like a little boy playing at grown-ups."
Wiktionary adds one more: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/imberb #etymology #words #language #beard #RareWords
Stan Carey