A thesaurus of forgotten words
The word you want is older than you think.
Type an everyday word and TextyBack fetches the obsolete, dialect and forgotten alternatives — with their stories, examples and sources.
Word of the day
18th century · adjective
“He arrived crapulous, wearing yesterday's shirt.”
18th century, from Latin crapula, 'intoxication'; entered Johnson's Dictionary in 1755.
Collections
Weather & sky
12 wordsFog, drizzle and sudden sunlight, in words the shipping forecast forgot.
Archaic insults
9 wordsSplendidly specific ways to be unkind, from the fifteenth century onwards.
Eating & drinking
3 wordsAppetite, greed, and the delicate art of watching other people's plates.
Drink & drunkenness
3 wordsFor the courage of the night before and the misery of the morning after.
Sorrow & feeling
10 wordsMelancholy, malaise and other moods that deserve better names.
Money & thrift
3 wordsCoin, greed and the small change of everyday life.
“Every word here is a small act of restoration.”
Entries are written from the Historical Thesaurus of English, the OED, Johnson's Dictionary, Grose's Vulgar Tongue and Wright's English Dialect Dictionary — and each one links straight back to its sources.