Archaic Words

[Sethomas]

I regularly use "lest", which I hadn't thought to be archaic but I always have to explain its usage to people. This can be tricky!

Back in high school I made it a point to use as many archaic words and constructions as possible, and at one point a friend and I had a thing where we made fun of this where we would say "wyrd" in place of "word" inside contemporary colloquialism. Someone once gave me a daily calendar of "Forgotten English", and while I loved it to death the only one that stuck in my verbiage was my adopted mantra, "chantepleur". One of my favorite words is "mumpsimus", which traces its etymology to a conversation between Erasmus and a Tudor diplomat to whom I make dubious claims of familial relation.

However, these days my biggest shtick is my attempt to resurrect the popularity (and proper usage) of the subjunctive mood within the English language. I was talking to someone today who asked as a Christmas gift from her brother a home-made Mr Potato Head, and knowing him to be a broke alcoholic I said, "come the day, hope it not to be made from an actual potato". Furthermore, while I concede that there are occasional instances where it's orthographical to end a sentence with certain prepositions, I avoid it like the dickens and often amuse myself with the tortuous results.