Forgotten English

Jeffrey Kacirk resurrects literary gems in Forgottten English, a rollicking guide to archaic words and their definitions, complemented by exquisite old-fashioned line drawings. Kacirk rediscovers dozens of old words ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime, providing an enchanting and occasionally hilarious glimpse into lost culture, traditions, and beliefs. Readers learn, for example, that the bee-master informed the family bees of an important household events; the ale-connor was paid to sit in a puddle of ale to judge its quality; in the ancient sport tup-running, participants tried to grab hold of a greased ram's tail; shaking hands to seal an engagement of marriage was called handfasting; sillyebubbe - made of wine and milk - was drunk to soothe a sour stomach; an eleventh-century prisoner who could recite in Latin the neck-verse - the first verse of the Bible's fifty-first psalm - would be released. Kacirk enhances each word with engaging literary excerpts showing its usage, drawn from sources such as Shakespeare, Dickens, Chaucer, Benjamin Franklin, Keats, John Donne, Herman Melville, Ben Jonson, and William Blake. The result is a facinating social history of centuries past, spanning Anglo-Saxon, English Restoration, and Elizabethan times, among others.