Exploring the Beautiful Archaic Words in Winter’s Tale
Learn and add some fascinating archaic and obsolete words to your vocabulary
Winter’s Tale, a magic realism novel by Mark Helprin, was published in 1983. It is a fantastical tale set in a mythic version of New York City, spanning from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. It follows the life of Peter Lake, a burglar who falls in love with Beverly Penn, a dying heiress. Their romance unfolds against a backdrop of magic, time travel, and the struggle between good and evil, with themes of redemption and the transformative power of love. Mrs. Gamely is a significant character in the story, a wise and enigmatic woman who serves as a kind of oracle or guide. She provides Peter with insight and helps him navigate the challenges he faces, embodying the themes of hope and connection that resonate throughout the novel.
Beyond being an oracle, Mrs. Gamely possesses an exquisite, extensive vocabulary. Careful readers will delightfully stumble upon a treasure trove of archaic and obsolete words early in the book (page 203):
“Conversations like these, touching on every subject known to man, would often usurp a good part of the night. Mrs. Gamely had never learned to read or write, and used her daughter as a scribe, and as a researcher among encyclopedias, questioning her at length about everything she found. The old woman’s sense of organization was a miracle of randomness as illogical and rich as the branches of a blossoming fruit tree. She could easily discuss 150 subjects in an hour and a half, and Virginia would still finish awed and enlightened by what seemed to be a relentless and perfect plan.
Though Mrs. Gamely was by all measures prescientific and illiterate, she did know words. Where she got them was anyone’s guess, but she certainly had them. Virginia speculated that the people on the north side of the lake, steeped in variations of English both tender and precise, had made with their language a tool with which to garden a perfect landscape. Those who are isolated in small settlements may not know of the complexities common to great cities, but their hearts are rich, and so words are generated and retained. Mrs. Gamely’s vocabulary was enormous. She knew words no one had ever heard of, and she used words every day that had been mainly dead or sleeping for hundreds of years. Virginia checked them in the Oxford dictionary, and found that (almost without exception) Mrs. Gamely’s usage was flawlessly accurate. For instance, she spoke of certain kinds of dogs as Leviners. She called the areas near Quebec march-lands. She referred to diclesiums, liripoops, rapparees, dagswains, bronstrops, caroteels, opuntias and soughs. She might describe something as patibulary, fremescent, pharisaic, Roxburghe, or glockamoid, and words like mormal, jeropigia, endosmic, mage, palmerin, thos, vituline, Turonian, galingale, comprodor, nox, gaskin, secotine, ogdoad, and pintulary fled from her lips in Pierian saltarellos.”
There’s a lot to unpack in that second paragraph, filled with such beautiful archaic and obsolete words. In lexicography, the terms archaic word and obsolete word refer to different statuses of words in a language. An archaic word is one that is no longer in common use but may still be understood or recognized by speakers. These words often evoke a sense of history or tradition and may be found in literature, poetry, or formal contexts. Archaic words can sometimes retain a special place in the language, particularly in specific styles of writing or speech. Examples of archaic words include “thou” an old form of “you”; “thee” and old form of “thou”; and “forsooth,” an old-fashioned term meaning “indeed” or “in truth.”
An obsolete word, on the other hand, refers to a word that has fallen out of use entirely and is no longer recognized by the general population. These words are typically not understood by modern speakers and may not appear in contemporary writing or conversation. Examples of obsolete words include “mumpsimus” that means “a stubborn person who insists on making an error despite being corrected;” and “sith” a term that means “since” or “after.” A related term is fossil word: a word that is essentially obsolete but remains in current use due to its presence in a phrase or idiom. Examples include the word “ado” as in “without further ado” or the word “kith” as in “kith and kin.”
Here is a list of the words and definitions, obtained from the Oxford English Dictionary (1933 edition), from the quoted paragraph from Winter’s Tale:
Leviners: a hound, a mongrel.
march-land: land comprising the marshes of a country, a border territory.
diclesium: a dried fruit.
liripoop: the tail on the end of an academic gown.
rapparee: a bandit, a robber.
dagswain: a coarse bedspread made of rough material.
bronstrop: a madam.
caroteel: a measure of dried fruit in a basket.
opuntia: a prickly pear.
sough: a boggy or swampy place; a small pool.
patibulary: of or pertaining to the gallows; resembling the gallows.
fremescent: murmuring, growing noisy.
pharisaic: of or belonging to the Pharisees being strict in doctrine and ritual.
Roxburghe: a style of bookbinding with plain leather backs, gilt lettering, and paper sides.
glockamoid: shaped like an arrow point.
mormal: an inflamed sore on the leg
jeropigia: a mixture used to adulterate port wine.
endosmic: osmosing inwardly.
mage: a magician.
palmerin: a chivalric hero of sixteenth century Spanish romances.
thos: a dog-like beast of prey, usually a jackal.
vituline: pertaining to calves, veal.
Turonian: a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous period in the geological time scale.
galingale: an East Indian aromatic root with medicinal and aromatic uses.
comprodor: from Portuguese for the native head of household or business staff in China.
nox: night.
gaskin: a kind of breech or hose.
secotine: having a gap in a ring.
ogdoad: referring to a group of eight.
pintulary: related to penises, pins, or bolts.
Pierian: referring to poetry and learning.
saltarellos: a lively dance duet with much leaping and skipping.
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