WORDFUL.

Wordful is a new language site from Australia whose creator says:

Words. How I love 'em. This is where I'll share my love for word histories, names and anything else wordy that pops into my head.

This is obviously a good premise for a website, and he's already turned up some wonderful stuff, like morkin:

I saw a dead possum on the road this morning. The poor morkin.

Morkin is an obsolete word meaning “A beast that has died of disease or by mischance.” ... What a great word!

(The etymology I have elided is a little off; the OED says: "Anglo-Norman mortekine, morticine and Middle French morticine carrion... < post-classical Latin morticinum carrion..., use as noun of neuter of classical Latin morticinus (of an animal) that has died a natural death, prob. < mort-, mors death...," with the ending perhaps influenced by words like firkin, napkin, &c.)

I can't resist adding the last item in the OED entry, the (obsolete and rare) compound morkin-gnoff 'a miser': 1602 W. Basse Sword & Buckler sig. Biij, A morkin-gnoffe that.. Sits carping how t'advance his shapelesse brood.

One interesting feature of the site is "Todays Website Name," which provides a word or phrase that might be suitable for someone's website; today's is subslice.

Welcome to Blogovia!

Update. It's August 2006, and the site has been dead for who knows how long. Sigh.

Posted by languagehat at September 18, 2004 11:55 AM