The Words That Disappeared
10th June 2026
Languages are living things.
They expand, contract, borrow, invent and, occasionally, forget.
Every year new words emerge to describe technologies and behaviours that previous generations could never have imagined. At the same time, older words quietly disappear from everyday conversation.
Some deserve to.
Others perhaps deserve a second chance.
Overmorrow
English speakers have a perfectly good phrase for the day after tomorrow.
But we once had a perfectly good word.
Overmorrow.
Elegant, economical and immediately understood, it slowly disappeared from common use, leaving us with a three-word substitute.
Its loss is a reminder that languages do not always become more efficient.
Sometimes they simply change direction.
Apricity
There is a particular pleasure in standing in weak winter sunshine and feeling unexpected warmth on your face.
Centuries ago, English recognised that experience with a single word:
Apricity.
Today we need an entire sentence to explain it.
The experience has not disappeared.
Only the vocabulary has.
Ultracrepidarian
Perhaps the most entertaining forgotten word of all.
An ultracrepidarian is someone who offers confident opinions on subjects they know little about.
The word dates back hundreds of years but feels remarkably modern.
Indeed, some might argue it has never been more relevant.
Why Words Matter
When a language loses a word, it does not lose the experience itself.
People still long, hesitate, observe winter sunlight and speculate beyond their expertise.
But language influences attention.
Words encourage us to notice.
They give shape to ideas that might otherwise remain vague or unnamed.
Every vocabulary reflects the priorities of the society that created it.
Language as Cultural Memory
One of the joys of working across languages is discovering how differently cultures choose to preserve experience.
Some create entirely new words.
Others retain ancient ones long after their original context has faded.
Together, they form a kind of cultural archive.
At Foreign Tongues, we see language not simply as a tool for communication, but as a record of how societies understand the world.
And sometimes, hidden among forgotten words, are ideas still waiting to be rediscovered.
