And Then A Thought...

I had one of they sudden thoughts yesterday, then a snooze, then the thought had gone and proved as hard to grasp again as a handful early morning mist but, eventually, grasp it I did.

So, at the risk of this getting a tad too much, my mind was still in forty seven thousand obsolete words mode when the good Captain Ranty appeared at the periphery of my mind and that lost thought was fully grasped again.

Imagine if the Captain was still with us, imagine the delight he’d have taken in composing his rebellious correspondence with government and others in officialdom using the obsolete mode of wording.

Yet better, imagine the poor bureaucrat in receipt of it, unable to comprehend said mail thus passing it down and along  to some twenty something clerk, demanding they sort it out ASAP thus washing their own hands of the matter. As the clerk would also be totally lost as to wot it was all about, the end result would probably have been the Captain receiving a reply along the lines of, ”We are considering the contents of you letter dated...” probably never to hear from or be troubled by them ever again.

Hay, we could all do it to answer any received  official mail of a demanding nature from say, the tax man or local government departments. Man, you could delay and clog-up ‘officialdom’ for weeks could you not? Even many months.

Yet another avenue to explore.  We really do need that reverse dictionary. Oh, the fun to be had if we had...

Quote;  Ambrose Bierce.

“OBSOLETE, adj. No longer used by the timid. Said chiefly of words. A word which some lexicographer has marked obsolete is ever thereafter an object of dread and loathing to the fool writer, but if it is a good word and has no exact modern equivalent equally good, it is good enough for the good writer. Indeed, a writer's attitude toward "obsolete" words is as true a measure of his literary ability as anything except the character of his work. A dictionary of obsolete and obsolescent words would not only be singularly rich in strong and sweet parts of speech; it would add large possessions to the vocabulary of every competent writer who might not happen to be a competent reader.”