I dont know what gets the blamepolitical correctness, pop culture, declining understanding of the subtleties of language, or just timebut I miss some words. I wish people used them more often.
Spatand the past of other verbs that end with -it. Instead of spat, I hear only spit used for any tense. He spat on me, lends an air of dignity that he spit on me lacks.
Spittleanother victim of the ubiquitous verb. Spittle is a noun. The umpire recognized the foreign substance as the pitchers spittle.
Lenda verb eaten by its noun cousin, loan. Lend me a dollar, says the intelligent young man.
GrandHolden Caulfield destroyed this fine, old word. We had a grand time at the party.
Shindigstill pops up now an then, but not enough. Too many parties; not enough shindigs.
Shenanigansonce used to describe inappropriate behavior; this excellent word exists only on the hunter green awnings of semi-Irish sports bars in every city in America. Lets take it down from the awning and into our conversations.
GalThe other night, I used the word gal in a sentence, and my wife asked, how old are you? Gal has a cool, Sinatra sound to it. I saw Joey out with some gal last night, piques interests much faster than I saw Joey with a girl or woman or chick or on a date or any other word youd care to substitute. Gal says as much about the speaker as it does the object. People who say gal drink scotch and smile a lot.
TomfooleryWhat a fine, fine word. Tomfoolery will get you hurt, while shenanigans will hurt others.