When I'm stressed, I re-read Jane Austen. It's my tranquilizer: Pride, Prejudice, and Prozac. Lately, I've been stressed, and this time I plumped for Persuasion. The plot can no longer surprise but the narrative flow and the rhythm of the prose carry me soothingly along.
It's interesting. The words themselves are our own, and at the same time no longer ours. For instance, hither, thither, and whence. They are so useful, so concise, and so lost, yet not replaced. What have we got that substitutes for whence? For thither, or whither? With each re-reading, I feel their loss more acutely. Please, may we have them back?
Other vocabulary is lost by moving across space rather than time. Across the Atlantic, to be specific. I'm trying to drag these words with me. 'Loo' and 'queue' top the list, along with 'ring' as a synonym for 'call'. 'Swizz' and 'naff' are excellent descriptors. I'm doing my personal best to embed these terms in North American lingo. Mostly, people understand me, or at least are nice enough to pretend they do. I'm not sure, however, what reaction I'd get if I asked someone whither she went.
'Toilet', on the other hand, I'm happy to leave behind in Blighty. Give me 'washroom' any day.
