96 Forgotten Words That Are Swiftly Exiting Modern English

Though missing a physical body, languages are living things that change and evolve throughout time. In fact, it's estimated that a new English word is created every 98 minutes — that's around 14 new words per day! Because humans have a much shorter lifespan than languages do, we might not feel the shift as consequential to our vocabulary. However, if we looked at old literary works, we would spot plenty of unfamiliar words that have fallen out of common usage. In fact, literary works now might be one of the few remaining sources to find beautiful forgotten words; not just Shakespearean words, but many old English words not used anymore.

Still, many other beautiful words other than literary words have fallen victim to the passage of time. Technologies have evolved and will continue to do so, requiring each new invention or phenomenon to be given a name. Hence, it's inevitable that so many more terms, some already rare words, will become forgotten. However, that's also a generational input: Archaic words are replaced with more contemporary options, and hard-to-spell words are replaced with others that trip off the tongue. Hence, the list of obscure English words will only keep expanding, which is, essentially, how things work in life and how they always did. Survival of the fittest, even in matters of linguistics! However, the process of these forgotten words going extinct can be slowed down.

To help with the latter, below, we've compiled the many obscure words or rare English words that need to be saved (a point for debate: do they really?) from falling into disuse. Do you still use any of these rare English words on a daily basis? Which 'forgotten' word would you like to be given a fresh lease on life? Let us know in the comments!