Tim Bowen is a free-lance teacher trainer, materials writer and translator. His main interests in the field of language teaching and linguistics are etymology, philology and pronunciation. Email: timwbowen@gmail.com

 

Offing, dint, bated and wend. Yore, fettle and brunt. At first sight, these words probably look odd, or even made up. Even if some of them seem familiar, they have an old-fashioned feel to them. However, all of these apparently obscure words do exist and surprisingly can all be found in modern-day dictionaries, with the Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners being just one example.

What these words have in common is that they are all so-called fossil words, namely words that are broadly obsolete as individual lexical items but which still exist in modern usage as part of an idiom or collocation. Here we will look at ten examples of fossil words with the focus on how they originated and how they are used in current English.

The word brunt is an interesting example of a fossil word in that, of uncertain origin, it is first recorded in the 14^th century as meaning ‘a sharp blow’. In the 15^th century it took on the meaning of the heaviest or most serious part of something and typically followed the verb bear. In modern usage, to bear the brunt of something is to receive the worst part of something that has a negative effect, as in ‘Poorer countries will doubtless bear the brunt of the economic downturn caused by the pandemic’.

Ado is a variation of the word to-do, meaning a lot of excitement or anger about something, as in ‘There has been quite a to-do about the new regulations’. Ado initially had the same meaning (as evidenced by the title of the Shakespeare play Much Ado About Nothing) but now only exists in the phrases without further ado and without more ado. It is often used when introducing a performance or a presentation, as in ‘Without further ado, let me introduce our main speaker this evening’.

The word offing originally meant the part of the visible sea that was some distance from the shore. That meaning is no longer in use but the phrase in the offing survives. It was first used to mean in the distant future but by the early years of the 20^th century, the meaning had changed to in the very near future or even imminent, as in ‘Further cuts to public services are in the offing’.

Like brunt, the word dint also signified a blow or hit, particularly one inflicted by a sword or a similar weapon. In this sense it also gave rise to the word dent, meaning a depression caused by a blow. Dint itself then came to be used to mean the force of an attack or its impact and this, in turn, led to the phrase by dint of, an expression still used today, as in ‘She has got to where she is today by dint of hard work and determination’.

Lo and behold sounds particularly archaic but it serves a useful communicative function in modern English. The word lo itself began life in Old English as an interjection that was a shortened form of the word look. That particular use is long gone but the phrase lo and behold is still used as a means of introducing something surprising that you are about to tell someone, as in ‘You wait for a bus for half an hour and then, lo and behold, three of them turn up at the same time’.

If you have ever wondered why the past tense of go is went, the answer is that went is the past form of the verb wend, which comes from an old Germanic word meaning to turn. The meaning broadened out in Old English to mean ‘to go’. While the past form is of course still widely used, wend now only appears in the phrase to wend one’s way, as in ‘I was just wending my way home when I was stopped by the police’ or ‘It’s getting late. I think we’re going to wend our way back to the hotel’.

The verb bate was originally used to mean ‘to beat down’ or ‘to diminish’. As such, it is related to the verb abate, meaning ‘to gradually become less serious or extreme’, as in ‘After several hours the storm abated’. Bated itself is now used exclusively in the phrase with bated breath, meaning ‘in a state of nervous excitement before you find out what will happen’, as in ‘The students waited with bated breath to find out if they’d passed the exam’.

Fettle began life as a noun meaning ‘a strap’ and then morphed into a verb meaning ‘to prepare for battle’, presumably by fastening straps. In modern usage, it is only found in the phrase in fine fettle, although ‘good’ and ‘excellent’ are occasionally used instead of ‘fine’. If you are in fine fettle, you are fit and healthy and well-prepared for an upcoming task, as in ‘After their latest win, City are in fine fettle and have every chance of winning the league’.

Clement is a rather formal word for ‘mild’ and can be used as a collocation with ‘weather’ in that respect. Much more common, however, is the negative form inclement weather, meaning weather that is bad because it is wet, cold or windy. Both forms are related to the noun clemency, meaning ‘an act of mercy’, usually performed by a judge. Inclement does not collocate with any other words so qualifies as an example of a fossil word.

Finally, we come to the word yore, which has its origins in an old form of ‘year’. It is used, often ironically, to refer to a period of history from a very long time ago in the phrase in days of yore, as in ‘Well, in days of yore we didn’t have email, so people used to write letters’.

Ten words that do not exist in isolation but retain a lively communicative meaning in the idioms and collocations in which they can still be found.

 

Lesson idea

1. Give your  students the following list of words:

brunt

ado

offing

lo

dint

wend

fettle

inclement

yore

bated

 

2. Explain what is special about them.

3. Learners  research the words online and find examples of language chunks they appear in.

4. In pairs learners compare their findings.

5. In pairs they write a short text which contains as many of these chunks as possible.

Example

This is for Tim. You can see I have nothing to do in my life. I have decided to bear the brunt of this challenge of using the words Tim presented on Saturday and without further ado, let's see what's in the offing. Lo and behold through dint of determination, I am managing to wend my way through these words and I think this piece is in fine fettle to appear before you Tim. If you fail to be impressed, I fear I may be in for some inclement weather and as in days of yore, I may well be persecuted for my efforts but I await Tim's response with bated breath whooo

by Peter Dyer

6. The texts circulate and learners read them spotting the chunks.

 

References

A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, Skeat, W. Oxford University Press, 1978

Dictionary of Word Origins, Ayto, J. Bloomsbury, 1990

The Company Words Keep: Lexical Chunks in Language Learning, Davis, P and Kryszewska, H. Delta, 2012

Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners, Second Edition, Macmillan, 2007

 

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