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Haggard Hawks

@haggardhawks.bsky.social
2.8K followers 1 following 41 posts

The bird with the words. // Obscure words, etymology & language facts // New book A WINTER DICTIONARY, a collection of obscure words for the festive season, is OUT NOW! // New look website haggardhawks.com launching soon...

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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
“I didn’t go, not after what he said” is an example of RESUMPTIVE NEGATION—the use of one negative statement immediately after another to emphasise the negation of the whole. The second clause here could just be “after what he said”, but the extra ‘not’ works to reinforce the first.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
Word of the Day: FATILOQUY (n.) speaking of the future
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
A COCK-OF-THE-COMPANY is a man who associates with unpleasant people just so he can act as their leader. (A Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1811)
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
Etymologically, the word FANCY is just a contraction of the older word FANTASY. The two had developed their separate meanings by the late 1500s, and have remained distinct words ever since.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
Coined in the late 1990s, CYBERPESSIMISM is the belief that the internet has, or will eventually have, a more negative influence on human society than a positive one.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
Word of the Day: FAUXSTALGIA (n.) nostalgia for something that never existed, or an experience one never actually had [21stC]
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
🧵 33. A word coined by Antarctic research scientists in the 1990s, GREENOUT is a feeling of relief or gladness felt on seeing the first fresh green growth of the springtime.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
🧵 32. A word borrowed into English from Manx—the Celtic origin language of the Isle of Man—the QUAALTAGH is the first person you encounter on New Year’s Day.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 31/12/2024
🧵 31. An ÉTRENNE is a gift given at New Year.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
🧵 30. According to a 17th century proverb, a COCKSTRIDE—literally, one step of a cockerel—is the amount by which the days seem to lengthen after the New Year.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
🧵 29. A BAUSON is a badger—or figuratively, someone who has recently gained weight, like a badger fattening itself before winter.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 28/12/2024
🧵 28. THERMOPOSIA is the consumption of hot drinks.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 27/12/2024
🧵 27. A SUNNYBANK is a cosy wintertime fire. A SONROCK is a cosy fireside chair. A HOWFF is a cosy and familiar haunt or regular meeting place.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 27/12/2024
🧵 26. In 19th century English, an OLD-DAY was the day after a party or celebration on which nothing constructive was done or achieved.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 27/12/2024
🧵 25. APOLAUSTICISM is a total devotion to enjoying yourself.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
🧵 24. A running together of ‘Yule’s jade’—meaning a festive fool or butt of the joke—a YULESHARD is someone who leaves work unfinished on the night of Christmas Eve.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
🧵 23. To be WINTER-PROUD is to be precociously or confidently prepared ahead of time.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
🧵 22. Derived from a Latin word for feasting, ABLIGURITION is excessive spending on food and drink.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
🧵 21. To CAUDLE is to perform housework in a disorganised or slapdash manner.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
🧵 20. According to an 1850 dictionary of The Dialect of South Lancashire, to POWL is to leave work early to go to the pub.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
🧵 19. Derived from an older verb meaning ‘to make ready’, to BOUN is to decorate your home with evergreen branches.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
🧵 18. Named after Austrian architect Victor Gruen, the GRUEN EFFECT is the tendency of shoppers to become disoriented in shopping malls—making them more susceptible to forgetting what they went in for, and more receptive to special deals and promotions.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
🧵 17. FEETINGS are animals’ or fellow walkers’ footprints left in snow.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
🧵 16. Often found alongside streams or over puddles in wintertime, CAT-ICE is a floating layer or overhang of ice, from beneath which water has receded or drained away—the implication being that only something as light-footed as a cat could walk on it without breaking it.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
🧵 15. Derived from PEEL-THE-BONES—a 19th century word for especially cold weather—to PEEL is to travel or go outdoors in wintertime wearing unsuitable or insufficient clothing.
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Reposted by Haggard Hawks
Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
❄️ So... Let’s kick things off here with an advent calendar of entries from the latest Haggard Hawks book, A WINTER DICTIONARY—a collection of obscure words for the festive season 👉 amazon.co.uk/Winter-Dicti... 🧵 We’ll be sharing a new word every day throughout December!
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
🧵 14. A SPICULA is a single needle-like growth of frost or ice.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
🧵 13. An ANTIFOGMATIC is a drink taken to combat the effects of cold weather.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
🧵 12. Ground that is CHIBBLY is crisp and crackly with frost.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
🧵 11. A DROW is a thick, cold mist—almost thick enough to feel like drizzle. According to one Scots definition of 1825, unlike other mists a drow “wets an Englishman to the skin.”
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
🧵 10. Especially fine, clear weather in wintertime is known as OPEN-WEATHER. The term originally described stormless conditions at sea that would allow ships easy entry into port.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
🧵 9. Something that is RORULENT is covered in dew.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
🧵 8. A term dating from the mid 1800s, HUNCH-WEATHER is weather so bad it makes people walk with hunched shoulders.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
🧵 7. A MIRKABROD is a thin, patchy hillside mist. Derived from Old Norse, it literally means a ‘fragment of darkness.’
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
🧵 6. A FOXING-DAY is a day on which the weather turns out better than it appeared it would.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
🧵 5. WEDEROGNOMONIA is the apparent ability of some people to use bodily aches and pains to forecast bad weather.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
🧵 4. Coined in 1648, the delicate pattern formed by a thin layer of ice on a frozen surface in wintertime is called FROSTWORK.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
🧵 3. A BLEWSE is a hazy, bluish winter morning’s mist.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
🧵 2. A leaf that is MARCESCENT withers in the autumn, but remains attached to its tree throughout the winter.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
🧵 1. The balls of snow that collect in animals’ fur or on people’s clothing are called GOMBLES.
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
❄️ So... Let’s kick things off here with an advent calendar of entries from the latest Haggard Hawks book, A WINTER DICTIONARY—a collection of obscure words for the festive season 👉 amazon.co.uk/Winter-Dicti... 🧵 We’ll be sharing a new word every day throughout December!
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Haggard Hawks @haggardhawks.bsky.social · 03/07/2023
A HOUSE-HANDSEL is a gift given to someone when they move into a new home.
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