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 They are the spices of the literary world, but I refuse to let them sit in a cupboard and be ignored until they go out of date!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: CODSWALLOP
Codswallop
Nonsense
I used this word last week in me new book and I wanted to share it with you. Some of you may be familiar with it already, some may not. It’s an old fashioned term for nonsense or rubbish and according to the Oxford Online Dictionary has its origins in the 1960s.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with fish and doesn’t appear to come from someone having once been beaten with a cod, or indeed, having hit someone else with a cod, which I think is a real shame. I’m quite tempted to email the Oxford English Dictionary and ask them if they’re sure this couldn’t be a possibility!
I hope you enjoyed this month’s forgotten word! Do you have any other words for nonsense, or another lost word you’d like to share? Let me know in the comments below!