Page 2 | I just used the word 'hence' in an email

GoodGirlFaith · 2026-09-10T14:21:55+00:00

AIBU to want to punch the air? Pray tell me your favourite olden day words.

Floatlikeafeather2 · 20/09/2026 12:39

MyThreeWords · 20/09/2026 11:57

I'd really like to use the not-really-a-word 'feck' for someone who is the opposite of feckless. E.g., She has plenty of feck, that one: She saved all her working life so that she could retire at 50.

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So would I! It was a word in use until relatively recently, apparently, which, in word terms, is probably until early 20th century. Or rather "feckful" was, meaning the same as "effectual", "effective" or even "powerful", as the word feck is a corruption of the word effect. Sorry if I'm preaching to the converted. I'm going to try it out on my husband. We use feckless a lot.
Father Jack has a lot to answer for!

MyThreeWords · 20/09/2026 11:57

Floatlikeafeather2 · 20/09/2026 10:03

Feckless is a word that goes well with all those.

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I'd really like to use the not-really-a-word 'feck' for someone who is the opposite of feckless. E.g., She has plenty of feck, that one: She saved all her working life so that she could retire at 50.

Toomanyskittles · 20/09/2026 10:33

Streelish is a word I often heard growing up to mean a messy, untidy person, eg Tie up your hair, it’s very streelish looking.
I never hear it now.

I didn’t realise until I looked it up just now that it has an Irish derivation. Apparently the root word ‘indicates some kind of thread- or rope-like object hanging loose, as well as the action of hanging loose or dangling’. Makes sense now, especially as I’m Irish too 😁

Floatlikeafeather2 · 20/09/2026 10:03

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 19/09/2026 18:40

I like rapscallion, ragamuffin, flibbertigibbet, floozie, and slattern/slatternly - very appropriate words IMO for the issue raised in a recent thread about pyjamas in shops/hotel breakfast rooms. And I’d add people who drop their kids to school in pyjamas.

Feckless is a word that goes well with all those.

CaptainMyCaptain · 19/09/2026 20:43

I used to read my class Mr Buzz the Bee Man by Janet and Allen Ahlberg. It contained the word Scallywags. They used to beg me to read 'Scallywags' every day. It's a great word.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 19/09/2026 18:40

I like rapscallion, ragamuffin, flibbertigibbet, floozie, and slattern/slatternly - very appropriate words IMO for the issue raised in a recent thread about pyjamas in shops/hotel breakfast rooms. And I’d add people who drop their kids to school in pyjamas.

AlwaysExtraHot · 19/09/2026 14:57

eggandonion · 19/09/2026 09:32

I have always had elevenses and afternoon tea. Sadly not the kind with layers of delicious items.
Paddington has elevenses.

Elevenses for me is usually some crisps and a Pret Choc bar or a couple of dark chocolate digestives 😄 Not very classy, but sustaining.

thestudio · 19/09/2026 09:47

Viz. !
thus [comma, then thing]
thence (ditto)
ditto
whereafter
wherein
But viz. is my absolute favourite
I am not Rees-Mogg I promise

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 19/09/2026 09:36

SerendipityCat · 10/09/2026 16:36

One of my old bosses used to talk about the “embuggerment factor” for what we would nowadays call a challenge. I prefer his term, to be honest.

My long-gone DF used to say that! He was often inventive with words, but I particularly remember his imaginative curses when e.g. he couldn’t find something in the cupboard under the stairs. ‘Crap and corruption! Shit and seduction!’ are just two I recall.

eggandonion · 19/09/2026 09:32

I have always had elevenses and afternoon tea. Sadly not the kind with layers of delicious items.
Paddington has elevenses.

AlwaysExtraHot · 19/09/2026 09:19

powershowerforanhour · 18/09/2026 22:33

I usually have a tea break mid way through the morning with cake or biscuits, but I think I'm going to start calling it elevenses like my granny did.

I say elevenses. I’ve been accused of it being ‘a bit posh’ but I don’t see why.

powershowerforanhour · 18/09/2026 22:33

I usually have a tea break mid way through the morning with cake or biscuits, but I think I'm going to start calling it elevenses like my granny did.

eggandonion · 18/09/2026 20:35

O levels themselves are a blast from the past. I was out with dh and his old school friend recently and we had a nice chat about O levels. I have a grade A in O level maths.
I like a basic whom in casual conversation.

CaptainMyCaptain · 18/09/2026 11:07

JudgeJ · 17/09/2026 20:12

I wonder if you used log tables too!!

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I used a slide rule and log tables but immediately forgot everything to do with them after passing my Maths O Level in 1971.

SoManySliders · 18/09/2026 10:54

CrazyMidget · 18/09/2026 03:00

Isn’t it “apropos of”?

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Quite!

quantumbutterfly · 18/09/2026 09:40

CrazyMidget · 18/09/2026 03:01

Excellent!

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My dad was generally quite dapper.

quantumbutterfly · 18/09/2026 09:39

PyongyangKipperbang · 18/09/2026 02:46

The clerk stared at Drumknott and looked askance at Moist, as Lord Vetinari himself stood up in surprise leaving Moist impaled between two askances

My favourite quote from Raising Steam.

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Love a bit of Terry.
Small Gods, Making Money...insightful.

Love his female characters too.

MyThreeWords · 18/09/2026 07:35

Oh. I'm disappointed. It's meaning is so angular but it sounds so curvy.

I love the fact that perpendicularity and right angles have a word so intimately close to orthodoxy, though. Makes me think of a very upright, thin, righteous Puritan.

MyThreeWords · 18/09/2026 07:32

Def going to google orthogonal now so that I can squeeze it in to convo. Partly because I'm sure it has some really funky metaphorical potential, but also because it feels so lovely in my mouth, like eating chocolate.

powershowerforanhour · 18/09/2026 07:22

"but I use “orthogonal” quite a lot metaphorically, as in “These issues are orthogonal”."

I get to use orthogonal in work in its literal sense. Lucky me.

Malaise
Carnaptious
Benevolent

BrickMaker · 18/09/2026 05:51

I like to use the term 'one' as in 'one does not go to Noosa in Winter, does one', albeit facetiously to poke fun at people who do go to Noosa. I also quite like shall

Festivfrenzy · 18/09/2026 05:19

Well1mBack · 10/09/2026 20:31

I enjoy scrolling through Pedants' Corner, it calms me. There are so many friends of mine who just butcher grammar and vocabulary that I cringe reading our group chat. I then feel like a big pedant (they would laugh at me if I pointed any mistakes out) so I skip over to Pedants' Corner to find like-minded souls.

Anyway, one of my favourites has already been mentioned; outwith. It might be more of a Scottish used word though. I also love "inconceivable". Mainly due to being reminded of the Princess Bride.

Or kindred souls

WhatNextImScared · 18/09/2026 03:55

But that really was an entry for pedants’ corner

WhatNextImScared · 18/09/2026 03:54

JellyMouldJnr · 10/09/2026 15:28

Unbeknownst is my favourite.

The st ending is always unnecessary.

While, not whilst
Unbeknown
Among
Amid

CrazyMidget · 18/09/2026 03:07

HoppityBun · 10/09/2026 15:33

No, because the corner doesn’t belong to the Pedants. It’s where the pedants are. Genitive vs possessive.

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The Corner does belong to the pedants, though. They created it. Others are welcome to use it, but it’s theirs, in my view. I think it’s a possessive.