A Word or Two about Words

Today I received in the mail an article my mother sent me from (I think) The Macon Telegraph. It's titled "Useful, But Not Used" (by Cassandra Spratling of the Detroit Free Press), and it's about a collection of words that have fallen out of use over the years from the English language. Wayne State University, the article says, "has released its fourth annual list of 'remarkably useful words that deserve more chances to enrich our language." This year's list consists of the following words:

• Antediluvian: old fashioned or out of date, based on the Latin words for "before the flood." When I tested my high school senior, the one who took three years of Latin, on this word, he didn't know the meaning. My tuition dollars are hard at work, I see. 
• Erstwhile:  This word means former or bygone, but the article notes this word is rampantly misused. I wonder how it can be rampantly misused if it's hardly used at all. Maybe Wayne State will get back to me on that. 
• Execrable: This is one I have never used. It means atrocious or wretched. Makes sense. The sound of the word is pretty atrocious itself. 
• Frisson:  I had never heard of this word. It means a sudden, involuntary shiver, I guess the kind one experiences when a rabbit runs over his grave. I can see how this word has fallen out of use. Shiver seems to do the trick for most of us. 
• Penultimate: Here's the word I think should be labeled as rampantly misused. I hear sports announcers use the word often when they want to describe a sport or accomplishment that's the epitome of such sports or accomplishments. Actually, it means next to last. 
• Sisyphean:  My Latin student kind of knew this one. He remembered who Sisyphus was. So he gets half a point for that. But because of the mythological context, he guessed the word referred to someone who rolls a rock up a hill. Close. It means endless and futile, such as my attempts to get students to stop using the term back in the day or omigod.
• Supercilious:  My twelve year-old guessed this word meant silly. Nope. It means contemptuous, disdainful, or condescending. I think one would have to be a little supercilious to use the word supercilious, but maybe that's the kind of graduates Wayne State wants to have. 
• Transmogrify:  Everyone in my house defined this word correctly, thanks to years of enthusiasm for the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. Actually, my twelve year-old missed the definition by just a hair. He thought it meant for someone to turn into a tiger.
• Truckle: It rhymes with buckle, and it kind of means the same thing. To truckle means to kowtow or submit to obsequiously. Someone in the house thought it referred to a baby truck. 

This article was a fun vocabulary lesson, and now that I've refreshed my memory of a few words and learned a few others, maybe I'll actually try to use them in everyday conversation or when I write. And if my son ever decides to attend Wayne State, I'll encourage him to drop some of these little gems into his papers. As I read this list, though, I thought of other words I'd more readily like to see used more often:

• Reduce, alleviate, decrease, ease, or diminish:  I'd like to see any or all of these words in written form to replace the insipid popular use of the verb lessen. When did the adjective less decide to become a verb? There are already a number of more precise verbs hanging in the wings just ready to be used.
• Insipid:  I just like the way it sounds. And so many things in this world fit that descriptor. Like Justin Bieber songs. 
• Feet:  As in the measurement. Too often I hear people refer to how long or tall something is, and they use the singular, as in twenty foot. The plural form is getting a little lonely. 
• Granted:  Too often people, usually young ones, claim that someone has taken them for granite. It makes me think of someone being held ransom for a statue.
• Administer:  I think it sounds so much better than administrate, don't you?
• Thank you: That one can't get used enough. Just sayin'. 

I'm sure many other seldom used words could get added to the Wayne State list. Actually, if any devoted readers have words they'd like to add to the list, they can do so at the Word Warriors website:  http://www.wordwarriors.wayne.edu.