Archaic Words and Expressions?

[shadow]

I've been working on a homebrew world for some time and have finally decided to type it up. I decided to add some flavor text throughout the document to add a little "fluff". I want to give my world a mythical or legendary feel. As such, I decided to use a lot of archaic language in the flavor text to help achieve that feel. I'm just wondering if any of you (especially classics or liteature majors) could provide me with some archaic words and/or expressions. Thanks!

 

[Old Fezziwig]

How archaic are you looking for? I mean, are we talking Elizabethan English, Middle English, Old English? Let me know and I'll try and throw you at least some sources, but the big ones should be obvious — you want to check out Shakespeare for the Elizabethan, Chaucer for the Middle, and for the Old, I'd recommend actually staying away from Old English for the most part. Don't get me wrong, it's cool as hell, but it's not all that similar to Modern English. Markedly different words (a lot of them not recognizable), declensions, more tenses of verbs, subjunctive mood — it's damn near another language. For someone who's selfconsciously archaic, look at Spenser — despite the fact that his stuff looks like Middle English, he's a contemporary of Shakespeare.

Best,
tKL

 

[Skade]

In addition, I would suggest you personalize some of the phrases that you come across from your research. A few of them may reference past heros, events, or tragedies of your game world. Having a phrase like "Thanquar's Teeth" as a curse, referencing a particularly vile, and tyrannical dragon could be nice.

 

[shadow]

I suppose that I'm interested in Shakespearian and King James English. Although such language is considered Modern English (albeit Early Modern English), most of it would be at least somewhat recognizable to most of the people who would be reading the documents on my homebrew (it's said that gamers are more literate and better educated than the general poulace). Whereas, Middle English would be more closer to the language spoken in the real middle ages, I doubt most people would be able to recognize most of the words (not to mention differences in grammar.). And of course, Old English is out of the question since being spoken before the Norman conquest, it is a completely different language than Modern English.

 

[shadow]

Friendly *bump*

 

[Aitch Eye]

You might check to see if your local library has (or can get) The Word Museum or Forgotten English by Jeffrey Kacirk. The former might be better for your purposes, as it has lots of words but short definitions, while the latter has extended looks at a smaller number of words.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

I've been thinking about this, and, to be honest, your best bet might be to just grab a play or two by Shakespeare (preferably one with good notes) and to read through it, writing down anything that strikes your fancy. I'd throw some phrases down for you, but I'd have to do what I recommended above myself (I'm not a Renaissance person) and I just don't have the time for it right now (even if it looks to be a fun exercise). The other option is this — have you thrown a search like "Elizabethan English" + "glossary" into Google or something like that? You might turn up some wicked helpful stuff that way. Aitch Eye's got some good suggestions, too.

Best,
tKL

 

[David Argall]

too much of a good thing

Just remember to keep this to the flavor text. It's easy enough for players to get confused in any case, and words do change their meaning over time. "Ye Oldie Inn" may not cause any problems, but a lot of stuff can.

 

[Pbartender]

Do a web search for Ren Faire web sites. Most of them have primers on speaking/writing "Ye Olde" Elizabethan English.

Here's one example that even has a random insult list (which you can find as a Java Script program on other sites).