Who else has occasionally archaic or other weird language usage based on childhood reading material?

[Zagaroth]

I ask because of something that came up in today's chapter, namely an archaic usage of the word 'meet'

archaic & dialectal British
: precisely adapted to a particular situation, need, or circumstance : very proper

For context, the sentence is:

If she was going to gossip about Mordi, it seemed meet that his wives get to learn his 'secrets' too.

In this case, I'm keeping it because it feels in character for the woman thinking this to use archaic language occasionally. But I was not expecting to have it questioned both here and on RR.

 

[tiaf]

As a non-native en speaker I had no fucking clue that word existed. I don't really know archaic words, but I'm less surprised that people asked this word.

How do you pronounce it? Like the get together 'meet'? Which generation was it frequently used?

 

[Zagaroth]

The Merriam-Webster example is this:

… their ghosts … haunt the fires by which sit armed men, as is meet for the spirits of fearless warriors who died in battle.
—Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad died in 1924.

And yes, it's pronounced the same. It's listed as the third definition of the word 'meet'.

Definition of MEET

to come into the presence of for the first time : to be introduced to or become acquainted with; to come together with especially at a particular time or place; to see (someone) by chance… See the full definition

www.merriam-webster.com

 

[Empress_Omnii]

I think the problem would be this is a dialectic usage. Even more so when it's for a word that, in standard English, means something very different.

 

[TheBestofSome]

I was aware of that usage of the word, though I don't think I've seen it used outside of historical fiction (or more rarely, historical nonfiction). The language you use can drastically alter the feel of your story; this is one of the wonderful things about writing, but just make sure it's not being altered in a way you don't want. It's easy for even just a single word to pull a reader out of a story if it feels too out of place.

Also, when you do use a word that's fallen out of common usage, try to make sure your readers can infer its meaning through context clues if possible.

All that said, I do like a lot of terms that don't see much usage anymore; they often feel delightfully poetic to me.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

All the time.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

I use them sometimes, but I can't really think of examples without going through some things. I have readers sometimes say they never saw a word or rarely see it.

 

[Comatoast]

In my comedy story, I actually use vocabulary to make character points to the opposite effect.

It's a mixture between meta narrative and the MC's thoughts mixed together, Resulting in some points where the MC uses a "fancy" word (typically just a long one that has it's meaning stretched to apply so he can sound smart) and then pat himself on the back in the narrative.

 

[BearlyAlive]

Forsooth, I doth relish in the archaic letterings.

I almost majored in etymology before I dropped out of university due to personal reasons, so take that as you wish.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

@Simple_Russian_Boi Do you use them? I feel like our language doesn't really get rid of all the archaic words, or is it just me?

 

[SRB]

@Simple_Russian_Boi Do you use them? I feel like our language doesn't really get rid of all the archaic words, or is it just me?

Yeah I do. Can't tell how many times I used потешно in a casual conversation. It's far too fun to use.

 

[Dieter]

You can also use apt instead of meet. As for me, its just welkin and oft, instead of often.

 

[JayMark]

I make up words that don't exist. Like yesterday when I went to the dorpollo I spleeted my head against a porf.

 

[cabbag3]

@Simple_Russian_Boi Do you use them? I feel like our language doesn't really get rid of all the archaic words, or is it just me?

This reminds me of the writings/drawings of the kid, Onfim. I saw a reddit post about it and a commenter was surprised he could still read/understand most of it.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

I use weird language based on some of my favorite modern media. English is a living language, so we can shape it how we want.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I pretty much grew up with British authors (Tolkien, Lewis, Nesbitt - and after spending some time with native Yank authors like Heinlein, Niven, Baum, I got into Lovecraft who preferred the British spellings and claimed to still view the US as "the colonies" despite being a Rhode Island native), so still have some "Britishisms" like spelling gray "grey" or inserting some inappropriate "u"s, creep into my writing when I'm not paying attention and don't have a "U. S. English" spellchecker active.

Also, decades of Role-Playing games have forced me to keep some of the archaic words "alive" for various reasons.