Fascinating - Old words we use...sometimes

[Mt_Rider]

Kith....hue....fro......roughshod.....dint......sleight [with an 'e']  ....eke.....

 

What do they really mean.  Are we using them right.  Do Millennials even know about them...or CARE.   

 

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/12-old-words-that-survived-by-getting-fossilized-in-idioms?utm_source=pocket-newtab

 

MtRider  

[Ambergris]

Hue and cry is actually an old legal obligation, too.  If someone raised the hue and cry, all males of a certain class...I think all free men...were required to take part in the hunt for the miscreant until he was apprehended even if he crossed the county line.  Sometimes they would just grab someone to end the hunt.  If he escaped, everyone in the county was collectively responsible for the crime, if I recall correctly.  The Normans brought this with them, as the Hue part was from a French hunting/fighting yell (also used to call out to horses).

 

You're thinking of kit and caboodle, right?  But caboodle never really meant anything on its own.

 

Consider also words like ruthless, which give us a silhouette of another word, ruth, that nobody ever uses anymore.

 

 

[Jeepers]

I still hear Kith and kin once in awhile. Usually the person means everyone. Like all your family and friends. It might have gone out of style because people heard your 'kissin' kin'. I see 'eke' a lot in crossword puzzles.

[Ambergris]

Nimble...nim used to be a verb, to take, like taking a five-finger discount.  It seems to have been more of a clever, quick thing than a dishonest thing.  Or maybe that was the eye of the beholder.

Edited June 13, 2020 by Ambergris

[Annarchy]

  

 

I still hear almost every word on that list.  That’s funny.

[snapshotmiki]

18 hours ago, Jeepers said:

I still hear Kith and kin once in awhile. Usually the person means everyone. Like all your family and friends. It might have gone out of style because people heard your 'kissin' kin'. I see 'eke' a lot in crossword puzzles.

 

Only heard that in "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation"  LOL

[Mt_Rider]

I actually use a number of those....waxing eloquent, y'know.   

 

MtRider   ....waxing?     As in waxing and waning moon?

[Jeepers]

I love that show, Miki. That squirrel on old Sparky's back gets me every time.