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 They are the spices of the literary world, but I refuse to let them sit in a cupboard and be ignored until they go out of date!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: RANTIPOLE
Rantipole
noun
A wild, ill-behaved, boisterous, or disorderly man or woman; a roisterer, a rogue; a rake; a minx.
English regional (chiefly northern). A see-saw; (occasionally in plural) the game of swinging on a see-saw.
This is actually one of my favourite words I’ve discovered this year! I’m not saying I’m a rantipole all the time but, well, you know…gin! So sometimes when a tipple or two has been consumed, my rantipole side slips out! The last time was the day before publication of The Little Theatre on the Seafront (https://amzn.to/2NpUio9). We went to an awesome cocktail place. I drank far, far too many gin-based cocktails and was quite boisterous and very, very sick on the way home on the train (I did make it to the loo, I wasn’t that bad!) The next day I very much regretted my rantipole tendancies, but after some Iron Bru and beef Monster Munch I was fine!
I’ve never heard a northern person use it in reference to a see-saw, but I live way down south so if anyone else has, let me know in the comments below!
When was the last time you were a bit of a rantipole? Share your stories below, I promise I won’t judge!