once-common words people don’t use anymore

I have a friend who works at a ticket vendor that gives customers a week to request a refund for a cancelled concert, or they will get store credit by default. She’s had a handful of customers who missed the deadline arguing that the email is worded “customers should contact us within 7 days”, not that they must, so the deadline isn’t binding.

I wrote "alas" the other day in a social media post and someone was like "do you use 'alas' in everyday conversation?"

Uh, yes, I do. Verily. Forsooth.

Zounds!

I think 'alas' is used quite a lot. Maybe even too much!

Alack!

Alackaday

nave

sacristy

narthex

choke (as in an engine)

my dad's riding lawnmower used to have a choke

maybe that's just me though, maybe chokes still exist and people still use them

Lascivious

choked by lascivious lawnmower

anyway, I like the word “lascivious” a lot, it’s very good at what it does. wasn’t aware it led a moribund existence.

integrity

quinsy

Penultimate

In the 80s it seemed like every eastern guru in American media was called a swami. Haven't heard that term used since.

good one

My motorbikes have chokes, I use that all the time.

My late father used to say that someone acted 'niggardly' (cheap, tightwad) and I remember feeling uncomfortable even though it's (probably?) an innocent if obsolete word

hale fellow

what vim!

People don't use 'penultimate' anymore? What? I've got to admit some of the words being suggested here are making me if I don't move in completely different circles.

... make me wonder.... ffs.

I agree with Tom D: the concept of words that people no longer use is definitely valid, but I'm surprised by many entries here.

'Lascivious' is another example, I use it whenever appropriate. It's in probably the most famous B&S song. I don't see it as archaic at all.

“vim” is frequently used in Ghanaian Pidgin English. was hearing it a lot in the songs I was listening to, thinking it was a local slang word, and only found out much later that it was actually a word in standard English

Vim is yet another word that I would still use now.

those are fair comments. i still stand by 'swami' being an excellent example of a once common word that is not only not used any more but that i think people would actively search for an alternative for if they were, say, editing a book that contained it.

i think mostly the flavour of thing i'm looking for in this thread is words that refer to habits that are no longer maintained by many (i.e. religious ritual) or words referring to the natural world, or outdated remedies/techniques - that were once incredibly common.

i.e. mercurochrome.

or 'rill'.

Not exactly common perhaps but this footnote in 'The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' tickled me:

Budzak, Crim Tartary, Circassia, and Mingrelia, are the modern appellations of those savage countries.

That's the other thing, a lot of these words were never in common usage.

Suet, creosote and chillblains, I'll give you!

... a line from a very weird love song.

girl I’m gonna make you suet

Tracer: thus vespers, evensong, Whitsuntide, etc?

lol (xp)

"camera tricks"

great ones!

The wireless.

People don't use 'penultimate' anymore?

I use it almost daily lol.

I know a lot of people who use it incorrectly to mean "the best", which is kind of hilarious ("it's really really ultimate!")

Ecological

Not wanting to be the wet blanket, but the many of the words cited here were never particularly common.

wireless

that's a good one!

https://www.sababacuisine.com/uploads/1/3/2/8/132807060/s607480734560611379_p98_i1_w409.jpeg

gnarly

cowabunga

"wireless" is surely at least seen in print/on the screen constantly right? even if ppl just say "wifi." "the wireless adapter..." "select the wireless network..." "wireless data transfer requires that both devices are set to...."

I don't seem to see 'dyspeptic' anymore. I remember first coming across it in some 1960s-era profile of Andrew Loog Oldham "...and swears like a dyspeptic drill sergeant".

I think Tom D. was specifically referring to the (mainly British?) usage of “wireless” as a noun meaning radio set or receiver.

I was.

makes sense!

has "fortune-teller" disappeared from common usage? just had a thought about how common it used to be in song lyrics.