Linguists are attempting to resurrect 30 words that have long fallen out of fashion PALinguists are trying to resurrect 30 “lost” words such as snout-fair and bring them back into common usage. Researchers have drawn up the list in a bid to persuade people that the defunct words still have relevance in today’s world. Dominic Watt, senior linguistics lecturer at the University of York, spent three months searching through old books and dictionaries to create the list. Mr Watt told the BBC: “We’ve identified lost words that are both interesting and thought-provoking, in the hope of helping people re-engage with language of old.”Snout-fair means “having a fair countenance; fair-faced, comely, handsome”, while sillytonian refers to “a silly or gullible person, particularly one considered to belong to a notional sect of such people”. Dowsabel refers “generically to a sweetheart,…

Source: The Times September 15, 2017 11:03 UTC