Here are ten descriptors from the historical dictionary that you can dip into whenever you are looking for the mot juste for your state of mind (or, occasionally, your body: see ‘crapulent’ below).
When it comes to answering the question ‘How are you?’, the dictionary can run quite dry at times. Most of us resort to such tried and tested dismissals as ‘good’, ‘knackered’, or ‘not too bad’, however rough or giddy we’re feeling on the inside. Yet research suggests that having the right vocabulary to articulate exactly how we feel can significantly enhance our wellbeing. If that vocabulary includes some colourful adjectives from the past, it can be an excellent talking point too.
In that vein, here are ten descriptors from the historical dictionary that you can dip into whenever you are looking for the mot juste for your state of mind (or, occasionally, your body: see ‘crapulent’ below).
Wabbit
‘Wabbit’ has nothing to do with Elmer Fudd and his endless pursuit of Bugs Bunny. Instead, in 19th-century Scots, it meant to be feeble and without energy. If you are feeling a bit ‘meh’ on top, then you might also have been ‘frobly-mobly’: neither up nor down, and neither one thing nor the other. They are essentially the historical equivalent of the shrugging emoji.
Overmused
A few centuries ago, a ‘thinkache’ described a painful thought, although I like to think it could be extended in modern terms to the result of mind-numbing scrolling through our phone. If you really want to nail it though, go with ‘overmused’, which in medieval times was to be ‘wearied from excessive thinking’.
Ill-willy
On the happy days, when you feel benevolence and tolerance towards others, you are most definitely ‘good-willy’. On a bad day, however, this will inevitably turn to ‘ill-willy’ instead. If things go completely pear-shaped, and you feel positively murderous towards anyone who even looks at you, consider yourself ‘evil-willy’.
Betwattled
Of course, there are occasions when we don’t have a clue what’s going on in the first place. In the 17th century, to be bewildered (a word that literally means stuck ‘in the wild’), was also to be ‘betwattled’.
Contumacious
This four-hundred-year-old description can be reserved for the days when you feel like being a total ‘stiffrump’: i.e. obstinate to a T and haughty with it. ‘Contumacious’ means both stubborn and wilfully disobedient.
Read More: Susie Dent’s Top 10s: Ten words to make you sigh
Crapulent
This is one for the morning after the night before, succinctly defined in the dictionary as ‘suffering from excessive drinking and eating’. ‘Crapulent’ somehow says it all.
Forblissed
Before the descent into crapulence, you may of course have been ‘forblissed’, a joyful word from the Middle Ages when to ‘forbliss’ meant ‘to make very happy’.
Forwallowed
There are nights when we toss and turn without catching a wink of sleep. Those living in the 14th century had a single word for how you feel at the end of it, ‘forwallowed’. The question is, how did we ever let it go?
Idiorepulsed
If you are both forwallowed and forwaked (wearied from watching and waking), then best avoid the mirror, lest you find yourself idiorepulsed. To be ‘idiorepulsive’ is to be entirely ‘self-repelling’.
Frolic-hearted
Let’s finish on a lighter note. Usually (and unfairly) accompanied in the historical dictionary by the word ‘youth’, ‘frolic-hearted’ describes the simple desire to make merry and to gambol about with carefree abandon. If you find yourself feeling frobly-mobly as you read this, then surely this is the way to go.
