Gallimaufry: A Hodgepodge of our Vanishing Vocabulary

When did you last hear someone refer to the wireless? What was the original paraphernalia? Would you wear a billycock?

Language is always changing, and in Gallimaufry: A Hodge-Podge of Words Vanishing from Our Vocabulary Michael Quinion has gathered together some fascinating examples of words and meanings which have vanished from our language. Sometimes a word is lost when the thing it describes becomes obsolete, sometimes it survives in a figurative sense while the original meaning is lost, and sometimes it simply gives way to a more popular alternative. The story of these and many other words opens a window into the lives of past speakers of the English language.