The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten

Jeffrey Kacirk dedicates "The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Ever Forgotten" to Lewis Carroll because of the delectable verbiage introduced in "Jabberwocky." This seems right, as Kacirk's choice of words here are as fun, unique and rarely use Carroll's.

This is not an etymological study, but an comfortable overview of antiquated words.

He start off with 'abbey-lubber,' which is a pretentious loiterer in a religious house. I am unsure how I'll tastefully work this into a sentence next Sunday at church, but I am glad to have such a word in my quiver should the occasion arise.

Don't dismay if, while reading this, you feel you are seeing words new to you. Most of these words haven't escaped rare book rooms in 200 years. For example, we prefer, 'librarian' over 'bibliothecary' and children tend to choose 'sleepy' instead of 'Billy-wink.'

As Kacirk defines words, he slips in a number of woodcut illustrations, adding to the appeal. They are always somehow correlated with a word on that page.

Grab a glass of something cold, and thoughtfully stroke your 'ziff' (beard) while reading this in a 'zypthesary' (brewhouse). It may be 'faffle' (work occupied requiring much labor with non-commensurate results), but maybe not.

I enjoyed "The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Ever Forgotten" by Jeffrey Kacirk.

Anthony Trendl

This book is most enjoyable and informative. If you are interested in archaic words it is ideal. I found it when I was researching words for a 'Call My Bluff' game, but even when that was complete I returned to the book again and again as it fascinated me and roused my imagination.