10 almost-extinct words you should start using right away
Embrangle
Definition: To embroil, confuse, or entangle.
Usage: Mother’s plants dangled, I got embrangled, and now I have two sprained ankles.
Snollygoster
Definition: A shrewd, selfish person, especially a politician.
Usage: Next January, the local council voters might elect a snollygoster as a Mayor.
Fubsy
Definition: Chubby or squat.
Usage: Despite my new year’s health resolutions, holiday leftovers kept me fubsy well into March.
Recrement
Definition: waste matter; scum.
Usage: Sanitation workers were understandably cross when my medieval role-play group started dumping their recrement directly into the street.
Skirr
Definition: A whirring sound, as of the wings of birds in flight.
Usage: We heard a mighty skirr overhead when the pigeons left their roost, followed by a plop, followed by an expletive.
Frutescent
Definition: Resembling or assuming the form of a shrub.
Usage: A few weeks without a haircut and my poodle looks positively frutescent.
Muliebrity
Definition: The condition of being a woman; femininity.
Usage: Frank was banned from the sorority due to his remarkable lack of muliebrity.
Agrestic
Definition: Rural; rustic.
Usage: My grandfather had a very agrestic upbringing; his schoolteacher was a horse.
Exuviate
Definition: To shed; cast off.
Usage: It becomes harder to exuviate a bad reputation after you’ve exuviated your pants in public.
Skedaddle
Definition: To leave a place suddenly.
Usage: “Paris is so over,” the hipster bemoaned. “Let’s skedaddle to Amsterdam.”
Image credits: Getty Images
This article originally appeared in Reader's Digest.