What exactly is a "petard"? | FOSSIL WORDS 

When my daughter was 3 we entered a store so I picked her up. After a few minutes of browsing she said "Daddy . . . put me down." I asked why. "So that I can run amok."

"Pigment of the imagination" became widespread in America because of a TV show hosted by Clerow 'Flip' Wilson, a brilliant African American comedian. He told a joke about mistaken identity and the punchline, since he was Black, was : "that wasn't me- it must have been a pigment of your imagination".

I’m from Manchester England, formerly part of Lancashire and can confirm that fettle is not a fossil word because it is still used in more than one expression. Although it can be used instead of the word make, it is more likely meant as repair or adjust. In foundries, removing the metal on a casting that has leaked from the edge of the mould is called fettling.

I'm 60, and have been an avid reader since I was seven years old, so I'm _heartily_ familiar with almost all the terms discussed here. One of my favourite fossil words is "ado" as in "much ado about nothing". Ado is from old Norse and meaning busy, implying frenetic activity. Modern dictionaries give the meaning of "ado" as trouble or difficulty, however this is the modern interpretation not the Norse meaning. The real definition of the phase should be "frantic activity for a pointless reason", not "trouble for no reason".

Akimbo is another word you don't hear that often anymore. It's standing with your hands on your hips, Elbows pointing outward. Now instead of saying "She stood proudly, Arms Akimbo" we just say she stood there with hands on hips. On odd newer words; In Anne Rice's book "The Witching Hour" she described her main character Rowan Mayfair as having a "Grosgrain Voice". I had never heard the term before, and did a little reading, grosgrain is a kind of heavy sewing ribbon made of wool or silk, or both [more modern grosgrain uses nylon]. If you LOOK as Grosgrain, especially the silk variety, it has a prominent tight weave, but it still very smooth Rough and smooth at the same time. If you run it through your fingers you get this lovely smooth deep sound. And so I formed a mental idea of what a grosgrain VOICE would sound like. I felt it would be either similar to the voice of Lauren Bacall, Or a younger Suzanne Pleshette. Now to confirm, I spoke to Ms. Rice through her website, and asked her, and she confirmed the voice timbre she was after was similar to Suzanne Pleshette.

Fun word fact I learned from a church sexton. To ring a bell is to swing the bell and to toll a bell is to swing the clapper. The former is done for all kinds of reasons, but tolling is for funerals or to announce a death in general. "For whom the bell tolls" sums it up quite well I think.

Batten is a narrow strip of wood used to close a gap. Board and batten is a style of exterior finish on a building. Also batten can be the relatively thin strips of wood attached to rafters to support tile or sheet roofing.

My favourite example is "neck of the woods". A neck used to be a measure of an area of woodland.

I have heard the term vicarious used my whole life, and I am in my late 70's.

Maybe I’m getting old but I still use a number of these words and phrases and I hope they never leave our everyday parlance.

Regarding "tarnation", there is an interesting anecdote about the HBO series "Deadwood" and their use of profanity (averaging 1.56 f-words per minute according to Wikipedia). This caused some controversy when it first aired because cursing during the old West cowboy days (late 1800s) was mostly blaspheming and not the George Carlin "7 words" that we think of today. The producers considered period-correct swearing for the show but it made all of the characters sound like Yosemite Sam. Therefore, the swearing in Deadwood is anachronistic but a deliberate artistic choice.

I would love to see an episode explaining why we have strict rules for adjective order. Why is “three big black dogs” correct, but “black big three dogs” just sounds weird? I don’t think we were ever taught the rules, but every native speaker seems to know them. And are there other grammatical rules like this, that we all just seem to know implicitly?

Vicarious is also a legal term used to describe trauma suffered by virtue of dealing with other people's trauma

For nearly eight decades, I have always spelled (and pronounced) that one word as, "lambaste." In fact, I'm surprised to see that you consider any of these words as old, odd, or strange because I find them all so very familiar. Like old friends. And I still use them regularly.

I once used the phrase 'one fell swoop' when talking to an acquaintance. He called me on it as if no one says that anymore. They actually do. Once you notice someone saying it, you hear it more and more.

When I was in Indonesia they told me that Amok was a Malay/Indonesian word and they were quite proud of the fact.

Another great episode, thanks! Either I'm quite archaic, a profound word-geek, or just plain weird - but I frequently use numerous 'fossil' words in regular speech & writing (probably all 3 conditions, I conjecture!) In my understanding: * to be "froward" is to deviate from the norm or expectation; * "inclement" is NOT an 'unpaired negative'. Radio forecasts refer also to 'clement weather', & in conversation I've heard of agreeable situations/conditions being described as clement; * the 'ult-' in "ulterior" is less a contrasting alternative prefix for 'in-' or 'ex-', but more closely linked to the 'alt-' / 'alter-' in "alternative". So perhaps it's an old mispelling of "alterior", meaning the motive is from an 'alternative' origin.... an other/autre position that's less evident than simply inside or outside; * the 'bast' in Lambast IS from the same root as 'baste' in cooking, which traditionally is to repeatedly 'slap' on some other ingredient (oil, marinade, etc). Also, as Jess pointed out, "Lam" is related to 'beat', but more in the sense of 'walking the beat', or 'beating the boundaries of an area'. So 'Lam' has the sense of an extended walk/run. Hence Lambasting describes an extended slapping, usually with the tongue (ie: words) in the common context; * the "ka" in kaboodle is purely a stylistic addition for alliterative purposes; * another rebracketing similar to "nother' & "druthers" is "tother" or "t'other". I use this often instead of "the other"; * the slow, repeated bellringing during Queen Elizabeth II's long, stately funereal march was a modern example of the "death knell, tolling the dead"; * the "fig-" in figment shares the same root as in 'figurative' & 'figure'; * "in the offing" is related to "on the off chance"

Years ago I'd "eggcorned" the phrase "death knell" as "death nail" - thinking it was related with coffin nails

Someone may have mentioned this already, but 'tenterhooks' is another good fossil word, referring to the 'tenters' on which fabric was hung out to stretch and dry. If you look at old maps of London (and no doubt elsewhere), they're full of references to 'tenter grounds', where fabric was made.

The 'offing' is actually a maritime term which refers to the stretch of water between the harbour and the horizon. This is why it is used to mean the 'near future', because a boat seen in the 'offing' would be docking very soon.

Let us not forget the pre-World War I entertainer Le Pétomane (the 'fart maniac') who was apparently quite impressive and popular. He's also the reason the Governor in "Blazing Saddles" is named William J. Le Petomane.

"32 white horses on a red hill, first they champ, then they stamp, then they stand still"

Funnily, I associate "Amok" with a culture bound syndrome that causes sudden bursts of violent behavior... on Star Trek. The episode where we first learn about the Vulcan mating practice of Pon Farr (during which Spock is compelled to fight Kirk to the death) is called "Amok Time." Also, one of the best WB cartoons is "Duck Amuck," in which Daffy is put through a series of zany circumstances by an unseen animator...

"Shebang" on its own actually has a new usage in English! In computer science (specifically in Unix and derivatives), it refers to the characters "#!" which is used to tell the computer what language a script is written in. The shebang is put at the beginning of the script, and the script's interpreter is put after the shebang, so that the operating system can run the interpreter, and make that run the script. I would assume the etymology is mostly unrelated to "the whole shebang", since it seems to come from a portmanteau of either "hash" or "sharp" and "bang". Though it wouldn't surprise me if "shebang" became the most popular of several alternatives following that pattern because it was already an existing word, even if it was a born fossil.

As an Engineer the verb "to fettle" is to make small adjustments, take off the rough edges. A rough part will need fettling. Also, on Tyneside, "What fettle the day?" is still a common greeting.

In Scotland, the use of the word 'bide' is quite common. "Bide at peace" is used on a fidgeting child or for someone fretting over something. Meaning to remain still or calm yourself. "Whar dae ye bide?" - where is your home? The past tense of this becomes 'bid' or 'bided', depending on the region.

"Skeuomorphism" by Jess stepped it up a level.

A good one is to "Glean". This is the practice of picking up odd corn stalks after harvesting, but used today for gathering small bits of information among other things.

Regarding the first part of the word "lambast", we have in Danish and Norwegian the word "lam", which means "lame" in English. In old English they said "lama". We have constructions with the word "lam" such as "lamslått" which means "stunned". The last half of the word "slått" means "beaten". The meaning is figuratively stunned as if one is lame (paralyzed) as a result of being beaten up. In Old Norse the word "lam" meant crippled and also in Old German as "lahm" (as in modern German).

Librarian here with an example of technology skeuomorphizm. Every library has a laptop which is referred to as "the card catalog". I have no idea what else it could be called.

Tolkien used a lot of these. “faithful heart may have froward tongue” for example. I heard he often had to correct his editors.

Am I the only one who, at the start of each episode, says a little prayer -- "Make him blush. Make him blush. Please make him blush"? :)

Fettle specifically refers to trimming a spout on a clay pitcher or tea pot so it pours well. There was a job of being a fettler at a ceramic workshop.

A Connecticut lam-baster here. (long a). Also, I've been under the impression that to "batten down the hatches" was a sailing term meaning to fasten the hatches in the deck because bad weather was in the offing and you didn't want to flood below decks.

Given the description of a petard given by Jess it sounds like it is what in modern times we'd call a shaped charge. Probably not identical but same general idea to solve the problem of focusing explosive output.

“On the lam” might be one of rare Celtic words that made it into English. “Lamma” being the verb to jump or bound.

Kit is often used today, though perhaps more in British English to mean gear or equipment. I had a new camera, and a British friend remarked "nice bit of kit, Brian."

Additionally, in Dutch spik en span means extremely clean after a good rubbing like for a car or a floor.

Shebang is actually used in computer jargon. It's a bit difficult to describe for a general audience, but on unix like operating systems you can have small text files that can be run as programs which are generally called shell scripts. And the shebang is a special header you put at the beginning of the text file to tell the computer what program it needs to use to interpret your program with. I think it is a corruption of "Hash bang", because the first two symbols in the header are #! which are in jargon sometimes called hash and bang.

I wouldn’t consider myself well-read, especially in this esteemed company, so I was surprised to realise that I have or regularly use about 80% of these words. A very entertaining episode. Many thanks.

In rural areas fences are traditionally made using battens between the posts to keep the wires correctly spaced.

As a German speaker it is often surprising how many very common German words crop up as English fossils. "Span" for wood chip is the normal German word to this day. And the whole complex of hale, whole, heal heil, heilen is fascinating. Holy goes into the same group.

Shrift must be related to “Shrove”, as in Shrove Tuesday or to be “shriven” both liturgical terms. This is the day before Ash Wednesday, and is a day for confession prior to the period of Lent. As a child I remember this term in my Lutheran church, perhaps at least Catholics are familiar with the term nowadays? Looking up Shrove Tuesday in wikipedia, I also realized (beside the point) that “Fat Tuesday” might come from the very practical practice of using up the lard (and sugar, butter, etc) so they wouldn’t go bad over the Lenten fast… and thus various traditions such as making pancakes arose. I also noticed “Shrovetide” which liturgically groups the three or four days preceding Lent (all “Shrove” days)… still all fossils but i thought the links were interesting

Dewsbrarian here! Dewsbury is a medium sized town the UK that has the "Devils Knell", which is when the bellringers of Dewsbury Minster ring one bell ring for each year on Christmas Eve. I remember when I regularly used to go out for a few drinks on Christmas Eve I'd hear it often. It comes from when a local dignitary accidentally killed a kinsman, and in penance set up the "Devils Knell", the ringing of the bell every Christmas Eve. So.... we have another connection to knell!

Loved this... watched it all the way. Batten, however, is s technical nautical term referring to an old-fashioned locking system on a sailing ship or boat: a bar used to keep a hatch (door) closed in heavy seas. So, figuratively, "Batten down the hatches" means to prepare for a storm. It is in a sense a fossil, since modern boats don't use battens anymore... but if you happen to be on an old sailboat or sailing ship that hasn't been updated, you might literally receive a command to "batten down the hatches".... When I was a child in the 1960's, we went sailing once with a family friend had purchased an old, 42' wooden sailboat (built in the 1920s perhaps?), and it had a hatch with battens....

"Knell" immediately brought to mind [for me] a line from Macbeth: "hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven or to hell" - my freshman English teacher would be pleased, no doubt, that I still remember that over 50 years later LOL I remembered Bilbo's riddle before Jess bought it up 😊 One or two to add: "hew* and cry - and IMHO the "quick" and the dead, where quick means alive, rather than speedy (also in quicksilver and quicksand)

Fettle is a living word to me and is used in various forms. Fettling is undertaking minor repairs, fettled means is something that has been repaired. Only yesterday I was fettling my mountain bike, replacing the brake fluid and brake pads. Since it's been fettled, it's now fit to ride. I come from northern England and this probably represents some localised usage.

'Champ' is used in Scotland for mashing, especially for mash potatoes and turnip. In fact, a serving of mashed turnip can be called 'champ'....I think also used in Scouse and Geordie(?)

A couple of naval terms from Nelson's day are worth a mention. Meals on those ships were served on wooden square platter, hence the term "three square meals a day". The platter had a wooden strip slightly inboard of the edge to hold the food in. The serving was not to reach the strip or 'fiddle', otherwise the server or you were 'on the fiddle'.

In Nordic languages, the original word for a woodchip is now spelt "spån" and is used in a phrase about a person figuratively falling apart, as well as various wood things like chipboard . But it is also used for other materials, such is iron .

Another example of skeuomorphism (it would be useful to show the word on the screen when it was mentioned) is when an image of a floppy disk 💾 is used as an icon for saving files when nowadays we no longer use floppy disks to save files and many people probably don't even know what floppy disks were 🙂

In my canadian french upbringing, "Fusil à pétard" is "Cap gun". I'm glad the word is also used in France, but the people in Paris could not understand my accent.

I’ve just realised that I’m a little bit obsessed with Rob and Jess. Love this podcast series, and the interaction between the two of them.

"Knell" was used by Gilbert in Ruddigore (the ghost song "When the night wind howls") and in Mikado (Katisha "I claim my perjured lover, Nanki-Poo")

I hope Rob watches "The Big Lebowski"! There's also Ecclesiastes 1:4 - "Men go and come, but earth abides."

Every time I hear the phrase Hoist by one's own petard I wondered what it meant, but it never occurred to me to look it up for some reason. Now I know and am currently progressing down an Internet rabbit hole of petards and the history of breaching buildings. Thanks for another great video

"Amok Time" is the title of a classic Star Trek episode, where it refers to the Vulcans' rutting period (which, fortunately for them, happens only every seven years or so).

batten as a term for a thin (1" x 2") strip of wood for building is very much still in use in building in UK

Regarding "shebang." Charles P. Pierce, a political blogger who is a columnist at Esquire magazine, has Irish heritage and frequently uses Irish-american slang terms in his writing. One such term he uses frequently is "shebeen" which is a term he uses to refer to his blog. This seems to come from common blogger practice as referring to blogs as places for people to hang out. Pierce, for example often refers to regular readers of his blog/column as denizens of his shebeen. Until reading Pierce's blog, I hadn't heard of shebeen, but assumed it was related to the more familiar term, shebang.

A special British tank used on D-Day, the Churchill AVRE (Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers), was armed with a petard spigot mortar. This was a large low velocity projector that hurled explosive charges (these petards were nicknamed "flying dustbins") to demolish fortifications. It in several variants proved quite effective. The word "petard" was explicitly used to describe this weapon. A spigot mortar, by the way, is a device where the projectile fits over the barrel rather than inside it, so this thing had to be reloaded from outside. This enabled the charge to be larger than the diameter of the barrel.

As other folk have already commented, bide is very common in Scotland to mean both live and stay/remain. In North East Scotland, I would say I bide, I bade, I've bidden for I live, I lived, I have lived. You can also use it for example in 'Bide far ye are' to mean 'stay where you are', or 'don't move'. It's also used in the term 'Bidie-in' meaning a live-in lover! In Scots we might say jingbang rather than shebang as in 'the hell jingbang'. I'd pronounce whole as hell rather than hale as Rob mentioned in relation to the hale in 'hale and hearty' deriving from the Scots for whole. Interesting that span could mean new. In Scots we have the phrase 'spleet-new' meaning brand new. I wonder if spleet has similar origins?

Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling, from glen to glen and 'round the countryside. The summer's gone, and all the roses falling. It's you, it's you must go and I must bide.

I recall that some sixty years ago, the giddy feeling some people experience around celebrities was called "vicarious vertigo."

In Wodehouse, (a consummate wordsmith) Jeeves is asked about the weather and informs Wooster that the day is most clement.

What a delight! I have followed RobWords for some time but this is my first time listening to both of you. I have some bits to add. You mentioned abate. I wonder if this is an example of a lost negative. The children's novels written by Anthony Buckerage feature the starring character of Jennings, a boy of around 11 years old being educated at a boarding school called Linbury Court. In their schoolboy slang they used the word "bate" to describe someone (usually a teacher) that became angry where they used the term "in a fearful bate" to describe this. That certainly implies the opposite of abate. In English, although less in Scottish usage, we have the fossil word "without". It features in the Easter hymn "There is a green hill far away" where the words continue ... "without a city wall." Generations have sung this without understanding. This does not mean it lacks a city wall but that it lies beyond it. It occasionally still arises in church names along the likes of St Paul's without and was cunning used by St Peter's brewery to describe their non-alcoholic beer. However, in Scotland they still have the term outwith that retains the sense of being outside and can be used as, "Those matters lie outwith the scope of this meeting." Iwous (ME - assuredly) I look forward to further postings in the offing anon (as in Shakespeare's use in Henry IV part 1 uttered by the tavern servant.

Boedel is indeed a quite common Dutch word (a variant being inboedel) with lots of composite words like boedelscheiding and boedelbak (a cart or trailer used when moving house to transport stuff). I was not really familiar with the term fossil word and I was surprised to find that I knew about a quarter of the examples in English you presented here, but never realised these words were only used in one set phrase. Like death knell or lo and behold. In Dutch the word amok also exists (sample: een amokloper - an amok runner - is somebody who causes trouble) but this is not really surprising given our ‘Indian’ (Dutch for what is now called Indonesian) past!

I was excited to learn that I was familiar with the relationship between vicar and vicarious when Rob wasn't. 😂

There is a construction term, “board and batten”, where wide boards would be held to their joists by narrower “battens”, which would allow the boards to shift without losing the weatherproofing properties. Cargo hatches would be covered by fitted hatch covers, and in rough weather, strapped down with metal batten-straps either bolted to or locked on hasps. Thus, encountering rough weather, a Commander might call out, “All hands, batten down the hatches”, to secure the holds from getting wet, and from the hatches from blowing off in the wind.

Many years ago I visited a museum in Malaysia and they had an 'amok-catcher' on display - basically a long wooden pole with two metal prongs to hold down anyone who had 'run amok'.

Shebang is of Irish origin. I suspect it may be a modification of 'shebeen', which if memory serves, refers to a small, usually illegal, pub or drinking parlour... or possibly, by derivation, also any small house or hut.

Here in Australia we have a kitchen company called Kitchen Kaboodle.

I've never heard Jess's pronunciation for "inclement," which shy rhymed with "increment." I've ALWAYS heard it as Rob said in, "in-CLEM-ment." In the US, we've heard a lot about forms of clemency that a president can grant. "Clement" is also found in my favorite prayer -- as in the one I find most poetically beautiful. "Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy on us, and after this exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Oh CLEMENT, oh loving, oh sweet Virgin Mary."

A ‘vicar’ is someone who takes the place of a ‘rector’, who was the person with the ‘right’ to the ‘living’ or parish

I’m on a plane. Stumbled across this video and found it fascinating. Thanks for making air travel interesting.

I have heard the word "fettle" used in India to describe the area where castings are cleaned in a foundry. We would call it the "cleaning room" in the US. Our Indian foundry called it the fettling room.

"Ships’ hatches, more formally called hatchways, were commonplace on sailing ships and were normally either open or covered with a wooden grating to allow for ventilation of the lower decks. When bad weather was imminent, the hatches were covered with tarpaulin and the covering was edged with wooden strips, known as battens, to prevent it from blowing off."

Jess’ reciting the “white horses on a hill” riddle jolted me back to the 2nd grade. Our teacher read us a similar version: “Thirty-two white horses on a red hill. When one moves, they all move. Or all stand still.” Our young minds mulled it, but the teacher had to explain it was horses. Thanks for a nice trip back!

I'm surprised Rob hadn't heard to *bide one's time*. I thought that was common in UK.

Re: to and fro. I’m fascinated by the explanation given! I, of late, had been thinking of it in its similarity to the Norwegian “fra” which just means from.

"Kith and kin" is the OG "friends and family". Which I've long wondered if kith is related to kitchen - while it's more generally used in reference to where food is prepared, there's also the social connotation that someone has to be of certain familiarity to be allowed into the literal hearth of one's home. "Beck" has always struck me being more deferential - more like an invitation vs "call" being more of an order. Given how integral class and social standing have been throughout history (just look at peer and peerage), beck/beckon feels like it ignores the usual 'song and dance' between ranks. Possibly even carrying the connotation that "beck" is related to "beg" as in making a request of someone who is of a higher social order. "Batten" is more common in certain circles, meaning fiberous material used to fill gaps - perhaps the best known modern use of the term is the preformed insulation material called batts. All doors (particularly those on ships) tend to warp from repeated exposure to sun and rain, developing gaps which allow wind and water to seep past; to "batten" a door or hatch is to literally stuff the gaps with wool, hemp, or whatever similar material is available in order to keep water out. It's still used in camping and survivalist contexts to describe the act of cramming moss inbetween the branches/logs used to form the walls and roof of a shelter. "Lo" doesn't seem to be related to look apart from the latter's occasional usage to mean 'pay attention'. It's essentially the same as "hear ye" in a request for people to listen - similar to how "behold" means to see or witness. Literally the archaic version of "listen and watch".

Bide is the regular south western British term for stay or wait. Thomas Hardy "bide where you be".

Wonderful words yet again. I like to use the phrase Odds Bodkins when mildly surprised in polite circles.

Ah, my favourite show with the gentlemenly Rob and the gorgeous Jess. Just love this 'cast.

67 year old Canadian here, and I've always said lambast/lambaste with a long 'a', like "lamb-based". I don't recall ever hearing it with a short 'a' "bast" growing up.

My favorite one is the word "bode." It was originally an Old English word for "proclaim" or "announce," with a secondary meaning of "prophesy" or "foretell." Eventually the secondary meaning became primary, and then the word was fossilized in the twin phrases "to bode well" and "to bode ill" (it's also found in the word "forebode" and its derivatives). However, in the Gospel of Mark, were the modern English has John the Baptist "preaching in the wilderness," the Old English text of the Wessex Gospels has him doing the much cooler and more metal activity, "boding on the waste."

I am an archer. The old word to stop an archery shoot is shout FAST, short for standfast, stop. The archers would releasing their strings to shoot, called to loose or loosing. Could "to play fast and loose" come from this? I once shouted fast at a shoot, when a dog decided to pee on the first target. Unfortunately other clubs did not use this word, and I had to use stop as well.

Talking about “the whole shebang” made me think of these other fine ways to say “the whole thing”: The whole nine yards The whole enchilada The whole shooting match The whole ball of wax The whole kit and kaboddle (To go) whole hog You might be about to do something one day about the origin of our many crazy English idioms. Tammy Trocki

Instead of "semi-fossilized" words, perhaps coelacanth words: once thought to be extinct, but still around albeit encountered very rarely.

The alliteration in "kit and kaboodle" immediately caught my ear because it (artificially) gives the phrase a very poetic ring while also coinciding very closely to the phrase "goods and chattels" in structure and semantics, which in itself connects to a very old common Indo-European pattern for a totality of wealth that - as a poetic figure of such age - of course has some religious significance as well. Examples of related expressions from this complex as given by Calvert Watkins in his excellent 'How to Kill a Dragon - Aspects of Indo-European Poetics' on pages 15 and 51 include: Greek "κειμήλιά τε πρόβασίν τε", Latin "pecudesque virosque" and Vedic Sanskrit "dvipáde ca cátuṣpade ca". And to this list I'd add my own example of "Maus und Mann" from German, which in addition to the alliteration implicitly evokes the very salient ending rhyme "Haus-Maus" (although it is closer in meaning to the "kith and kin" expression Jess brings up later on)

I didn’t know the iPod was the origin word of podcast. I’m happy to subscribe to this channel!❤

Fossil Words like AMOK, EKE, LAM & VIM are staples in American Crossword Puzzles. Words like that sometimes help glue crossword puzzles together. Those type of "gluey" words are also considered "CROSSWORDESE" to a Cruciverbalist!

I don't remember where I heard Robin Williams say this but instead of "bated breath" he would say, "I wait with worm on tongue."

Shrift is the noun version of the verb shrive. How about an episode on words whose meanings have been hijacked?

I used to work as a lawyer in Hong Kong. We often used quite a few of the fossil words you mentioned. ulterior motive, vicariously, to and from, hoist with one's own petardwere were often heard and used.

My dad was in the RAF during the war and a favourite one of his that he used often was: 'If that's going to be your altitude, I have no symphony with you.'

Kit and kaboodle: Boodle is likely closely related to the English “booty” or German “Beute”.

How about the word "cool"? Until Tarantino and others started using it back around his early career, it had totally fallen out of being "cool." But you'd have to had lived through the 60s and 70s to appreciate this. Kind of a flash-fossilization that bounced back strong.

We pronounce shebeen as sheBEEN in South Africa.

Thank you so much for explaining Fossil words. While refining her English, my Italian wife would ask me to explain words in some idioms and so many times I found myself admitting that I really didn't know what the word meant outside the saying. Understanding the concept of fossil words would have helped me focus on the phrase rather than trying to break it all down. Cheers!

I absolutely love your videos! How lucky we are to live in a time in which we can enjoy them! ❤