As a lot of this blog is about writing, I wanted to write a regular article on my favourite forgotten words. You know the type of thing, those poor lost words that sit at the back of our minds, gathering dust, having been discovered years ago in literary classics like Dickens, or Austen. They are the spices of the literary world, but I refuse to let them sit in a cupboard and be ignored until they go out of date! Let’s bring them back!

This month’s word is: SNIGGLE

Sniggle

Verb

1. to fish for eels by dangling or thrusting a baited hook into cavities

I was incredibly surprised to learn that a sniggle is a way to fish for eels or the hook used to catch eels and not, in fact, halfway between a snigger and a giggle. I think the latter is a much better use of the word because eels are just totally icky and nobody likes talking about them.

I’ve decided to ignore the whole eel thing and focus on the more common but non-dictionary usage of a giggle remix. As soon as I say the word it conjures up such a great sound in my mind. How about you? I’m determined now to get it into my next book, let me know if you get the chance to use it or even sniggle yourself today!