The Little Book of Lost Words
- Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World - $10.89
- Other-Wordly: words both strange and lovely from around the world - $12.29
- Epic English Words: Dictionary of Beauty, Interest, and Wonder - $9.95
- The Emotionary: A Dictionary of Words That Don't Exist for Feelings That Do - $9.99
- Dictionary of the Strange, Curious & Lovely - $9.95
I often find myself at a loss for words, or unable to find the word I'm looking for, so maybe this Little Book of Lost Words can help me out too. By "too," I mean, in addition to all of you dudes and ladies out there looking for a gift for Dad, who is going to go into full-on, 10/10 Dad-geek-out mode learning about Collywobbles, Snollygosters, and 86 Other Surprisingly Useful Terms Worth Resurrecting.
In The Little Book of Lost Words, author Joe Gillard digs up some dead yet delightful words from the past that describe issues, people, and ideas that are still pertinent today. For example, a "grimalkin" is: "A cat." Pertinent today! A "snollygoster" is: "A dishonest, corrupt, and unprincipled person, esp. a politician." So pertinent today! And - this one's for the Boomers! - a "dewdropper" is: "An unemployed young adult who sleeps through the day."
In addition to the definitions of the words in The Little Book of Lost Words giving them some usability credibility, the words themselves are all pretty fun to roll about the tongue and spit out the mouth, so I think Gillard has actually got a shot at resurrecting some of his 86-strong collection. I'd push for "snollygoster" in particular as we head towards the 2024 elections, which will almost certainly be full of snollygosters.
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