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cumberground
Apr. 29th, 2010 07:36 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
prettygoodword.livejournal.comcumberground (KUM-ber-grownd) - n., something or someone totally worthless.
With strong connotations of being in the way. This is, alas, obsolete, having been deemed self-defining by the sieve of common usage. It seems to have been a northern English dialect word that gained wider currency in the 17th and 18th centuries -- or at least, that's when most of the citations are from. That's cumber is in the sense of burden, as in encumber. Which may be why I like the sound of it so much.
Richard II was found guilty of having been deposed and so a cumberground who told sad stories about kings.
---L.
With strong connotations of being in the way. This is, alas, obsolete, having been deemed self-defining by the sieve of common usage. It seems to have been a northern English dialect word that gained wider currency in the 17th and 18th centuries -- or at least, that's when most of the citations are from. That's cumber is in the sense of burden, as in encumber. Which may be why I like the sound of it so much.
Richard II was found guilty of having been deposed and so a cumberground who told sad stories about kings.
---L.
