A Glossary of Almost Forgotten Words and Phrases

[Glassman]

Whilst killing a chunk of spare time, I tackled a crossword and got stuck on a clue: state of deep thought (5,5). After a bit of head scratching I arrived at 'brown study'. I had to look it up to make sense of it. It got me thinking, and you could say I fell into my own brown study, what other not-used-much words or phrases do you know of?

Such as:

Navel-gazing: the activity of spending too much time considering your own thoughts, feelings, or problems.

Another rarely seen word is antimacassar: a small cloth placed over the backs or arms of chairs, or the head or cushions of a sofa, to prevent soiling.

[defblade]

Glassman said:

Another rarely seen word is antimacassar: a small cloth placed over the backs or arms of chairs, or the head or cushions of a sofa, to prevent soiling.

Now I'd use antimacassar quite happily, it's the right name for those things; however it's effectively an orphan word these days as the macassar oil they were there to defend against has long gone.

[55palfers]

Please and Thank You.

[wolfracesonic]

I know of anti macasser and its meaning, don’t use it a lot though, the word or the product.

Midden, that’s one I sometimes use, along with skivvy.

[Oberheim]

Horseplay and tomfoolery.

[lancslad58]

Wazzock