5 Archaic Words We Should Bring Back

We asked people in positions of leadership which archaic word they would love to bring back into common use. Here is what 5 thought leaders have to say. Revive Eudemonia for Living Well Eudemonia is a Greek word meaning ‘the state of good spirit.’ This past year, I attended a health and wellness conference by […]

þ (thorn)

The letter ⟨þ⟩ (thorn) was still in use during the Early Modern English period but was increasingly limited to handwritten texts. In Early Modern English printing, ⟨þ⟩ was represented by the Latin ⟨Y⟩ (see Ye olde), which appeared similar to thorn in blackletter typeface ⟨𝖞⟩. Thorn had become nearly totally disused by the late Early […]

Olde

Archaic spelling of old. The e is silent. This spelling is usually used when something wants to appear quaint or old-fashioned.

Comment on Personal pronouns in Early Modern English by Matt

<p>Thou is a second-person singular pronoun. Thou thou is the nominative form. It becomes “you” in modern English. Whereas in, say, The King James version of the Bible, it is the you the speaker is addressing.</p> <p>For more on pronoun cases, see the <a href="https://using-archaic-words.isbrill.com/common/personal-pronouns-in-early-modern-english/" rel="ugc">Early Modern English Prououn Table</a>.</p>

Old English words we should bring back (according to RobWords)

bruit

Verb Archaic form: A report or rumour. Bruit comes from a French word meaning an unexpected or abnormal noise. [Dictorinary link] In modern medical use, bruit is a vascular murmur. In other words, an abnormal sound that is generated by the turbulent flow of blood in an artery due to either an area of partial […]

Comment on Personal pronouns in Early Modern English by Matt

During the Jacobean era (1603–1625) in 1611, The King James Version was published, largely based on Tyndale’s translation. It remained the standard Bible in the…

Shoppe

An archaic spelling of shop. It used to seem quant and old world. The extra p and the e are not pronounced.

U and V were the same thing

⟨u⟩ and ⟨v⟩ were not considered two distinct letters then but as still different forms of the same letter. Typographically, ⟨v⟩ was frequent at the start of a word and ⟨u⟩ elsewhere: hence vnmoued (for modern unmoved) and loue (for love). The modern convention of using ⟨u⟩ for the vowel sounds and ⟨v⟩ for the […]

Personal pronouns in Early Modern English

Early Modern English had some great words that are still fun to use today. Here is a table of the pronouns from that period and how, when, and where to correctly use them. Nominative Oblique Genitive Possessive 1st person singular I me my/mine mine plural we us our ours 2nd person singular informal thou thee […]