selcouth

[prettygoodword]

selcouth (SEL-kooth) - adj., strange, unusual, rare, unfamiliar; marvelous, wondrous.


Has something of a Scottish feeling for me, but that may be because I first met it in Walter Scott's novels -- dictionaries don't note any regional usage. This is an old one: in Middle English, it was spelled selcouth, and in Old English selcūþ or seldcūþ, from seld, rarely + cūþ, known (the root of uncouth).

---L.

Comments

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

It lasts in Scots English longer than in the dominant London dialects. ...Actually, I think that's how it worked, anyway. The problem with using Walter Scott as an example is that he read a great deal of Middle English!

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

Not to mention heaps of several Northern dialects.

---L.