Underused but delightful, descriptive words

MissAdventure

Stout.
My nan would say "You remember her; stout girl, used to work on the buses"

This reminded me of a nice way of saying overweight. "She's a bonny girl". Overweight men weren't called bonny.

Stout.
My nan would say "You remember her; stout girl, used to work on the buses"

holly

Nymphomaniac.

(True NotSpaghetti, we are dead posh😁)

Obviously then hollysteers - that must be why we only have napkins!

The thing that catches gravy in this flat is generally called "my jumper".

I wonder if serviette is from France, originally?

MissAdventure

A napkin has always been something you put on a baby's bum around these parts.

I think the dictionary definition of "napkin" is that it is a small, square piece of textile so it applies equally to the thing that covers your baby's bum and the thing that catches the gravy splashes at dinner.

Splendid, alas, adept

A napkin has always been something you put on a baby's bum around these parts.

Daddima

hollysteers

Esmay I say frock instead of dress, also scent instead of perfume.

Scent is frightfully upper class, like lavatory and napkin!

I actually use a lot of the words mentioned, except for things like eiderdowns, which don’t exist any more.
The ‘ fossilised fish hooks’ reminds me of my brother’s expletive, ‘ Oh, for Fox’s Glacier Mints’, guaranteed to cause a minor panic in any company.

I’ve always had table napkins. White linen ones.
However I will add that they only come out for guests (too much washing and ironing otherwise) - when it’s just me and dh it’s usually kitchen roll. 🙂

@welbeck. My grandchildren are always teasing me about”five and twenty to” which I use all the time - it just seems so natural to me.

NotSpaghetti

Daddima - napkin is hardly "upper class" - it's just a fabric version of a serviette, surely?
I use them every day.

Serviette is non-u (Nancy Mitford)

Flicks

welbeck

chuffed

Still on use north of the border.

We have a cubbyhole - we live on a hillside, so we have storage space under the conservatory! 😎
No-one goes to the ‘pictures’ anymore.
Isn’t ‘flashlight’ an American word?🤔
I still want to call the cupboard under our stairs the ‘pantry’ - it reminds me of the one my Grandparents had, which was actually used to store food.
Haversacks are now called rucksacks.
The ‘change of life’ is now the menopause.
Liberty bodice!😎 I used to wear one!

Daddima - napkin is hardly "upper class" - it's just a fabric version of a serviette, surely?
I use them every day.

Re cubbyhole. It set me wondering what ‘cubby’meant. It seems ‘cubby’ means a small space and is a shortened form of the word ‘cupboard’. Well, as my Mum said, ‘you learn something everyday’.

And kinky seems to have gone out of fashion.

Geegaws (love them)

Also tomorrow morning is the morn's morn, slippers are baffies and sandshoes will always be gutted!

A headteacher I worked for in the 1990s called knicker "underpinnings" which we then adopted and used in our family. My lovely Mum often referred to the boomI was reading as a "novelette" even when it was a weighty tome and she called any unnecessary items purchased "fripperies". I still use the word petticoat and my 25 year old refers to his "larder'" in his Victorian house.

chuffed

I loving this but I seem to use most of the obsolete words regularly.
If you come into my work I’m “tickety-bo, how are you ?”
Glaswegians love long chewy words so obstreperous is quite common about someone who might cause an altercation. But sandshoes are definitely “guttys” because of the rubber.

Twaddle - which my mum often used when she meant words that weren’t understood or made sense.

Fortnight seems to be disappearing from our language.
Sennight disappeared a long time ago.

I have always liked obstreperous.
When something is not quite true I tend to say “it is all a hum”