Underused but delightful, descriptive words

Does anyone have a 'drawing room' nowadays? Originally a 'withdrawing room' to which the ladies retired after dinner to leave the gentlemen to enjoy their cigars and port. My granny had a drawing room which we were seldom allowed to enter. Only the minister was entertained there when he chose to call. We were relegated to the 'parlour' where we listened to the 'wireless', now almost universally called 'the radio'.

We had a cubby hole. Now it’s just called under the stairs

Lovely to see "furtle" and "fankle" mentioned here; both bring back memories of my late sister who used both. She said they became part of her vocabulary during the time when she lived in north east Scotland.
One of my favourite words is "reciprocity". I rarely have need to use it but I love the way it rolls around the mouth!

Allsorts

Did anyone else have a cubby hole?

We had a glory hole, but it's meaning has changed since then!

slattern is the only word here that I don't think I've ever used - other than the bacon words (Roded, rhoded? and flitch) bacon...

Many of them I do still use. I was looking at an old chair yesterday with a view to recovering it and discussed antimacassers with my husband.

My daughter just built an extension and went to great lengths to try to include a pantry - though I know people who in my youth referred to ours as a larder. I think a larder is the colder one actually with a more stable temperature so really she should have built one of those I think.

We had a pantry in the house my parents built in 1950 which I grew up in. I have had them in three of our homes and in one farmhouse - which even had a "pump room" with a working pump. I don't think I've used the phrase "it's in the pump room" or similar since we moved out in 1977/78

We had an under stairs. But my gran’s under stairs was called ‘the cwtch’.

Still have Allsorts, it's full of important stuff(junk)!

Did anyone else have a cubby hole?

The weather lately,I need my mackintosh and my headscarf,my nylons were soaked and my girdle was uncomfortable as I was pushing my perambulator.

Whimsical.

At a French speaking group I was trying to describe what the word meant and the native French speakers couldn't find a word in their language that translated, and they remained baffled.

I like capricious too, and funnily enough capricieux is how my French dictionary translates whimsical. They're not quite the same though. Pedant, moi? 😁

Lovely thread, thanks!

Flit.

Another word for ‘moving house’, don’t hear it much now.

“The neighbours are flitting tomorrow”.

And of course, a ‘moonlight flit’ was a quick getaway, probably owing rent.

petticoat
casement
candlewick
globes! (lightbulbs)
eiderdown
counterpane
stretch covers
antimacassers
percolator
spills

I have used six of these this week, SORES.
Re windborn - I have always assumed it was windborn*e* as in borne by the wind.

Also, coincidentally. today my daughter picked up her bolster (also from Dunelm) which she chose a few years ago (along with a fancy cover).

Witzend

Flappergirl you see plenty of brawn in France, either fresh or in jars. It’s called ‘fromage de tete’ (‘cheese’ of head). I’ve often brought some back for a dd who loves it.

I remember seeing halves of pigs’ heads in butchers’ shops windows back in the Dark Ages.
I dare say that nowadays all that goes into dog food.

Hi Witzend. Glad to hear I'm not the only one who loves brawn! I also like chitterlings, liver, kidneys and proper faggots with the cawl (sp?) casing. I was brought up on "peasant food" but so many people in the UK find it disgusting. The continentals still value it though.

My parents used to enjoy a sprot, I think it came from Gloucestershire, going out with no particular purpose.
I do enjoy a jaunt.

Walking out.

Chemise
Corset
Pensive
Lolling
Courting

Glorianny discombobulated is one of my favourites, along with the expletive "Oh Dam and fishladder" which I took from a directional sign in Pitlochry when we used to drive through there a lot before the A9 bypassed it.
Marydoll I had a friend whose house was called Serendipity. It was a happy find apparently.
What an interesting thread.

Halfslip.

Yes, fossilised fishhooks def Jennings and Darbishire, as were frantic hooha and four miles a fortnight.

But has this thread gone astray somehow. Most of us use most of these words, or did in our youth (e.,g petticoat)

Oh Gin Fossilised Fish-Hook brings back memories of me sitting by our huge radio listening to Jennings.

Slummock.

"Stop slummocking on my sofa.
If you're tired, go to bed!'.

Thanks ‘Wheniwasyourage’ you are right. I was an avid reader of Jennings books as a child., I still have a hardback copy in my bookcase. I will continue uttering Fossilised Fish-hooks!

Some of these now rarely used words are a delight to the tongue. Modern speech and literature contain a greatly diminished vocabulary. I rarely read Dickens these days but did for a book group choice recently and some of our younger members found they were flummoxed ( another rarely used one!) having to look up many words unfamiliar to them. I suppose there are as many new additions to the Oxford Dictionary as our language evolves and changes.

Oh goodness. I grew up in a house with a pantry and scullery ( no fridge). Father wore a bow tie, galoshes in the wet weather. I had an eiderdown on the bed and a bolster,very lumpy .
The word I do dislike is egregious which I think some journalists have only just come across. Often found twice in the same paper.

In the dim and distant past I would often be seen Haring down road, late for school.
Now I'm more of a potterer

I often find myself in a fankle...