Welcome to the Antediluvian Word Preservation Society, where our goal is to protect, preserve, and promote old words that are in danger of becoming overlooked, outmoded, and obsolete. Stay a while, take a look around, and bask in the burnished sheen of these old and beautiful words.
Most recent word
hullaballoo (hul·uh·buh·LOO, noun)
A great noise or commotion; an uproar. (Example: “After hearing the hullaballoo that eight kids hopped up on sugar could make, Rupert decided to never again volunteer to help out at a Halloween party.”) This is a fun word to use in conversation, and it’s perfect if you need an unusual synonym for noise or commotion. It’s just obscure enough that it doesn’t get overused, but it’s not so obscure that most people won’t recognize it and chuckle to themselves. Hullabaloo began its life as the word halloo, meaning “to urge or incite with shouts.” Then, via the process of rhyming reduplication, the balloo part was added to form halloo-balloo, which eventually morphed in hullabaloo. Some synonyms that register about the same on the fun-meter are brouhaha, hubbub, and hurly-burly.
This week’s challenge
Your challenge this week is to use the word tomfollery — foolish or silly behavior — at least once in each of the following: in conversation, in an email message, in a text message, and in a business meeting (virtual or real-world). Good luck and let us know how you make out!