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dipsydoodle

(42,239 posts) Sun Dec 29, 2013, 03:39 PM Dec 2013

11

12 Old Words that Survived by Getting Fossilized in Idioms

English has changed a lot in the last several hundred years, and there are many words once used that we would no longer recognize today. For whatever reason, we started pronouncing them differently, or stopped using them entirely, and they became obsolete. There are some old words, however, that are nearly obsolete, but we still recognize because they were lucky enough to get stuck in set phrases that have lasted across the centuries. Here are 12 lucky words that survived by getting fossilized in idioms.

Read the full text here: http://mentalfloss.com/article/51150/12-old-words-survived-getting-fossilized-idioms#ixzz2otWI3uTQ
--brought to you by mental_floss!

6 replies

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12 Old Words that Survived by Getting Fossilized in Idioms (Original Post) dipsydoodle Dec 2013 OP

Thank you for this ailsagirl Dec 2013 #1

That site's as bad as Cracked. Iggo Dec 2013 #2

Excellent! rug Dec 2013 #3

Crossword puzzle fans know all these words! Scuba Dec 2013 #4

Do you mean use of "spelled" or "spelt" dipsydoodle Dec 2013 #5

There's no wheat involved and I can't recall seeing "spelt" in any crosswords ... Scuba Dec 2013 #6

ailsagirl

(22,897 posts)

1. Thank you for this

Reply to dipsydoodle (Original post)

Sun Dec 29, 2013, 03:55 PM

Dec 2013

I love words !!

Iggo

(47,558 posts)

2. That site's as bad as Cracked.

Reply to dipsydoodle (Original post)

Sun Dec 29, 2013, 06:01 PM

Dec 2013

I just keep clicking and clicking and clicking until I don't know where the time went.

rug

(82,333 posts)

3. Excellent!

Reply to dipsydoodle (Original post)

Sun Dec 29, 2013, 06:15 PM

Dec 2013

Scuba

(53,475 posts)

4. Crossword puzzle fans know all these words!

Reply to dipsydoodle (Original post)

Mon Dec 30, 2013, 05:34 AM

Dec 2013

Although I've never before seen "spelled", um, correctly.

dipsydoodle

(42,239 posts)

5. Do you mean use of "spelled" or "spelt"

Reply to Scuba (Reply #4)

Mon Dec 30, 2013, 05:39 AM

Dec 2013

Some notes here : http://grammarist.com/spelling/spelled-spelt/

Scuba

(53,475 posts)

6. There's no wheat involved and I can't recall seeing "spelt" in any crosswords ...

Reply to dipsydoodle (Reply #5)

Mon Dec 30, 2013, 05:42 AM

Dec 2013

... but then my memory may not be all that great.

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