Not obsolete as in old as in people, but obsolete as fallen into disuse.
[I checked the thesaurus and there are such lovely synonyms I can't resist repeating them: out of date, outdated, outmoded, old-fashioned; no longer in use, disused, fallen into disuse, superannuated, outworn,antiquated, antediluvian, anachronistic, discarded, discontinued, old, dated, antique, archaic, ancient, fossilised, extinct, defunct, dead, bygone, out of fashion, out, behind the times; French: démodé, passé, vieux jeu; informal: old hat, out of the ark, geriatric, prehistoric; Brit. informal: past its sell-by date. ANTONYMS: contemporary, current, modern, new, up to date.] ([ wrote fallen into disuse before I checked and was pleased to see I got it right.]
A number of years ago I was given a page-a-day dictionary/calendar and it triggered both research and poetry in me. Research: I had to check the accuracy of the definition and provenance of the words; Poetry: I began to write poems inspired by words that appealed to me. I had to stop because I kept buying more such calendars each year and I never threw them away because I needed them, and they took up too much space. I was still living in my cottage then.
I'll give you an example or two of words that nestled in my brain...
But that will be tomorrow by the time I check out past works and find what I want. And by then I'll be working on P, too.
Wait for it.
SNICKLE
Something in me likes s:
As in swarble and scunge
Scour and scrounge
Sloom spuddle and steehop
Snickle
is not a verb
Snickle is a snare
a thing that ensnares
traps and entraps
thralls and enthrals
holds grips arrests
makes subject –
which I am losing.
A noun, did I say that?
a thing, made of horsehair
but if hair of horse is not
at hand what then?
will human do?
Think of mermaid’s hair
ensnaring anemones
Rapunzel’s hair entwined
a ladder for her captor
(lover too another kind of captor)
bracelets of hair on bright bone
not fair!
Snickle
More sinister than meets the eye.
SNIRTLE
Not the sole creator of portmanteau
Lewis Carroll had precedent
Such words
Take snirtle
(not too far - I need it )
Snicker sneer
wth a little snort
simper titter
smirk and chortle (one of his)
none as strong
as snirtle
Onomatopoeic too:
snirtle!
Like Geraldine’s noises (remember:
tolerating telephone inanities)
old soul at home
not out of service
not yet
though snirtle is
out of service
Pity
The world could still use
a gentle
snirtle
now
and then
* * * * * * * * * * * *
I guess that's enough for now More anon?