I’m guilty, it seems, of using “fossil words”. These are words deriving from older variations of the English language that have fallen out of common usage and have become largely obsolete, but which have nonetheless persisted in contemporary language. Fossil words occur in idioms or phrases where they have specific meanings, so their usage is restricted to that particular context. “Turpitude”, for instance, meaning depraved or wicked behaviour or character, is rarely employed in any other context than in the expression “moral turpitude”. “Turpitude” has essentially become fixed or fossilised alongside the term “moral”. Hence it’s a “fossil word”.

Other examples abound. “Fro” denotes a motion in the opposite or distancing direction; it’s never employed, except within the idiom “to and fro”. “Yore” signifies a distant past, and it is not used except within the expression “days of yore”. Other words like “hither” (for “here”), “amok” (describing violent, destructive, and unrestrained behaviour), “ado”, “eke”, “beck” and “knell” have become firmly embedded within various expressions, like “come hither”, “run amok”, “much ado”, “beck and call” and “death knell” and are used nowhere else. Other fossil words include “dint” (used only in “by dint of”), “fettle” (“in fine fettle”), “kith” (“kith and kin”) and “dudgeon”, which only occurs in “in high dudgeon”, meaning “very angry” or ‘irate”. Slightly more complicated, ”wreak” is seldom used independently and is mostly associated with the expression “wreak havoc”. In some medieval tales, individuals may occasionally “wreak vengeance”, yet the usage of “wreak” today is predominantly linked with “havoc”.

The noun “pale”, in its archaic sense, became ingrained in the English language during the 18th century through the expression “beyond the pale”. The “pale” referred to the area of British colonial settlement in Ireland and had no correlation with the more familiar adjective indicating a lack of colour. The uncolonised Irish “savages” lived “beyond the pale”, hence the expression, which over time, acquired a metaphorical meaning, signifying “the boundaries within which one enjoys privilege, protection or approval”. Consequently, being “beyond the pale” implies being outside these protective boundaries.

“Kidnap” initially described the act during the 1600s and 1700s of abducting underprivileged children from cities in Great Britain and transporting them to British colonies in North America and the Caribbean, where they were sold into servitude. At the time “napper” was slang for a “thief”. By the 20th century, “nap” declined in usage, persisting solely in the term “kidnap”. (The use of “nap” to describe a brief daytime sleep is unrelated.) “Bated” pertains to a decrease or weakening in strength. Therefore, “bated breath” refers to a subdued and less forceful breathing, typically observed when influenced by emotions like awe or terror. Aside from the expression “with bated breath” the word “bate” had faded from common use by the late 19th century.

The term “wend” traces its roots back to the 13th century and historically, just broadly signified “to go”. But in contemporary English, the term “wend” is only used in the phrase “wend one’s way” and would be archaic if used anywhere else. Similarly, the expression “widow’s weeds” once referred to a standardised outfit that widows were expected to wear in the 18th and 19th centuries, typically consisting of a black gown with wide white cuffs and, in public, a crepe veil, adhering to societal customs of that time. Historically, the word “weeds” was commonly used alongside specific descriptors to denote the distinctive attire associated with a particular profession or social status: thus examples include terms like “doctor’s weed”, “shepherd’s weeds”, and “monastic weeds”. In due course, the use of the term became limited to the attire known as widow’s weeds. The use of “weed” in the sense of “garment” anywhere else has been uncommon since the 19th century!

Some fossils, known as “born fossils”, were formed from other languages. For instance, the word “caboodle” isn’t even English except for its use in the expression “kit and caboodle”, meaning “everything available” or “entirety”. That in turn evolved from “kit and boodle”, itself a fixed phrase borrowed as a unit from Dutch kitte en boedel. So like other fossils, “fossil words” also require some digging up. Let’s not disinter them from their resting places any more!

wknd@khaleejtimes.com