Vernacular is always changing. Every generation has its own slang words, from Xennials to Millennials and Gen Z.
In 2025, Dictionary.com deemed ’67’ as the word of the year. The Oxford University Press claimed the word of the year was ‘rage bait’. And Merriam-Webster claimed it was ‘slop’.
These trendy words are here today, and will likely be gone tomorrow. And language lovers on Reddit shared their favorite old-fashioned words that have gone nearly extinct in English today (and many they wish would make a comeback).
“Overmorrow. It means ‘the day after tomorrow’.” – TheGloveMan
“I remember the word ‘grody’ from the 90s. It meant gross or yucky.” – Glittering_Age_5591
“Comely (meaning beautiful) and homely (meaning ugly).” oddwithoutend, Suspicious_Art9118
“Rolodex. There was something great about those. My own was a desk model with a lockable closing cover. Something about the tangibleness, the physicality and the control. Having the different kinds of cards and card covers, hearing them click when you spun it. I was sad to let it go.” Matsunosuperfan, BASerx8
“Bitchin’ (meaning excellent).” – fox3actual
“Yellow pages.” – Matsunosuperfan
“Copacetic.” – Matsunosuperfan
“Lunting: walking while smoking a pipe.” – RainbowWarrior73
“Only a ‘square’ would remember things like that.” – EighthGreen
“‘Cattywampus’ also sometimes known as ‘catawampus’. A cool word that you don’t hear much anymore.” – Dead_Is_Better
“I use finagle and my high school students think I’m so weird. I’m 47. This word is normal.” – MLAheading
“Handsome (when describing a woman). One day when we were talking, my mother (born 1930s) referred to the late Queen Mary (as in the wife of King George V) as a ‘handsome woman.’ We tend to see photos of Queen Mary in her later years, but earlier photos show that she was quite beautiful. However, I believe my mother’s comment was about more than just her beauty, and included her overall effect. Queen Mary always seemed to be tall, composed and imposing.” Odd-Scheme6535, Popular-Solution7697
“Maybe not extinct but it’s meaning completely obliterated: nonplussed.” – LeFreeke
“Oblige. Rarely hear it except in old westerns.” – ReadySetGO0
“Druthers.” – Embarrassed_Wrap8421
“Bogart. Monopolizing something that’s meant to be shared.” – CoderJoe1
“Ne’er-do-well. From the early 20th century, basically some who never-does -well, implying a slacker or underachiever. Although people never said it even when I was growing up, I still think it’s a cool word.” – fabgwenn
“Niggardly. Meaning cheap or skimpy when it comes to giving. Someone said it during a press event once and some people thought it meant something racist. No one has ever used that word since.” – wawa2022
“Whippersnapper – a young and inexperienced person considered to be presumptuous or overconfident. I’ve heard people on TV say it, (maybe Dennis the Menace, or some other 50s show). I heard a 90 yo woman say it IRL and I laughed so hard.” – JazzFan1998
“Forsooth.” – fingermagnets459
“Xeroxing a document.” – C-ute-Thulu
“Blatherskite.” – Biff_Bufflington
“I don’t seem to hear penultimate much anymore.” – TakeMetoLallybroch
“I’m quite fond of the word slubberdegullion, meaning ‘dirty scoundrel’. I use it frequently when I talk to my senior, who is a rather clean upstanding citizen. We laugh and then he tells me to get back to work.” – r-pics-sux
“Frippery, at least in American English (think it’s used in France for thrift shops?)” – KobayashiWaifu












