2008 Woodie Awards
Doth it behoove you to read ye olde word wizard?
John Brownlee
Issue date: 11/7/02 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
de·vest (de-veu&st) transitive verb
de·vest·ed, de·vest·ing, de·vests
Archaism
1. To remove the clothing or covering of.
2. To deprive of a title, right, or item of property.
Ever hear one of those renaissance festival adverti-sements? The ads are all attempting to sound like an actual medieval fair, and most do a poor impression, misusing many of the old English phrases.
It's always something like "Egads! Come hither to Ye Olde Colorado Springs Renaissance fair, meet attractive maidens, visit Ye Olde modern day plumbing, pass by a man in the stocks! Spit on him, if it doth behoove you! Methinks the pushy vendors hawking false lances are demanding more than tis necessary."
Anyway, these ancient words like behoove, thus, and to a lesser extent, disco, are what we in the Modern Age like to call archaisms. Archaisms are words or forms of speech that are no longer in common use. The word archaism itself is derived, rather interestingly, from a form a Greek art that came before their best work (which occurred in the Classical period), and so seemed awkward and old-fashioned.
de·vest·ed, de·vest·ing, de·vests
Archaism
1. To remove the clothing or covering of.
2. To deprive of a title, right, or item of property.
Ever hear one of those renaissance festival adverti-sements? The ads are all attempting to sound like an actual medieval fair, and most do a poor impression, misusing many of the old English phrases.
It's always something like "Egads! Come hither to Ye Olde Colorado Springs Renaissance fair, meet attractive maidens, visit Ye Olde modern day plumbing, pass by a man in the stocks! Spit on him, if it doth behoove you! Methinks the pushy vendors hawking false lances are demanding more than tis necessary."
Anyway, these ancient words like behoove, thus, and to a lesser extent, disco, are what we in the Modern Age like to call archaisms. Archaisms are words or forms of speech that are no longer in common use. The word archaism itself is derived, rather interestingly, from a form a Greek art that came before their best work (which occurred in the Classical period), and so seemed awkward and old-fashioned.