It goes without saying that your Uncle Ezra has no to investigate the subject of the language that Americans speak.  Yet while I lack the academic credentials, as a wordsmith from my essay writing I have an abiding interest in words.  In this case, there are four words that have fallen into disuse that I wish to memorialize without any hope that they will again be in common discourse.
The first word is “yonder.”  My mother and father spoke perfect “country speak” which always included the word yonder.  Yonder could refer to heaven, up there in the clouds.  It could also refer to a far-off place.  But as time has moved on, we find the use of the word “yonder” diminished.  I am sort of attracted to the word “yonder” for sentimental reasons I suppose.  And from time to time as my contribution toward not letting that word die, I will try to work it into my essays.  I will do so in the hope that yonder will survive until I go up yonder in the clouds to enjoy my heavenly rest.
Now we come to another word that has fallen into disuse.  The word is “hush.”  My grandmother frequently included the word “hush” in her vocabulary.  More than anything else, it was used to quiet children who were crying.  It was also used to tell children to be quiet.  And then there is the other term called “hush money.”  When someone witnesses a crime and is bribed to stay quiet and to say nothing, that term is called “hush money.”   The word “hush” has largely disappeared in recent years.  Perhaps the best example comes from the 1935 opera by George Gershwin called “Porgy and Bess.”  One of the major songs from that show is called “Summertime.”  There are two lines which go as follows:
Oh, your daddy’s rich and your ma is good lookin’
So hush little baby, don’t you cry.
Since that show appeared, we find that the word “hush” has most often been used to describe “hush money.”  But if I had my way, and I don’t have my way much to speak of, the word “hush” would be a frequently used word.
 
Now, let us move on to a word that was used by my father.  He spoke purely “country speak” with some major mispronunciations.  He rarely if ever used curse words.  About the worst things he ever said had to do with the use of the word “bloody.”  If the tappets in his inline engine became noisy, as they frequently did, he would go on about those “bloody tappits.”
Aside from the fact that he bemoaned the tappets making a loud sound, he also used the word “bosh.”  The dictionary definition of bosh traces to Turkish roots some centuries ago.  Actually the definition, according to the dictionary, is as follows: foolish talk or activity : nonsense —often used interjectionally.
For all intents and purposes, my father would have been baffled by the origins of the word.  He merely used that word to describe something that was preposterous.  More than anything else, he would use that word to describe something that was patently awry and was not to be believed.  My earliest recollection of his use of the word “bosh” has to do with his description of what Herbert Hoover had to say following his election in 1928 about the economic conditions in this country.  When Hoover would make a speech telling us that it would be brighter tomorrow, my father, who was out of work for several years during the Depression, would say something like, “What Hoover says is all bosh.”  More than anything else, the modern equivalent would be rendered as “BS.”
 
The final word that has fallen into disuse is the word “purgative.”  “Purgative” has been replaced by the word “laxative” which has several variations.  I suppose that purgative brings forward memories of purgatory, which has fewer and fewer believers and adherents.  I know that “purgative” is not a pleasant word but what the hell, there are other unpleasant words in the language of the Anglo-Saxons.  But I suspect that the possibility of “purgative” making a comeback is somewhere between nil and zero.
There you have four words that have fallen into disuse.  There is “yonder,” and there is “hush,” and “bosh” and “purgative.”  Modern usage of the Anglo-Saxon language does not appear to contemplate their return.  But be that as it may, I still miss the word “yonder” and I still have some sentiment for the word “hush.”  I see no clear prospects for the word “bosh” to return to the language of the Anglo-Saxons.  But I will always remember that word as being associated with my father and if nothing else than for sentimental reasons, I tend to favor its return to our language.  And finally the word “purgative” has been adequately replaced by the word “laxative.”  With that, I would say that this visit to the language of the Anglo-Saxons is therefore completed.  And so I leave you with the thought that somewhere in the future I may again meet you up yonder in the skies.
 
E. E. CARR
April 20, 2011
Essay 544
~~
Kevin’s commentary: More on purgatives here. Other installments of Pop’s thoughts on the language of the Anglo Saxons here, here and here. I wonder how many of these there will end up being. I shudder to think what these lists of related articles are going to start looking like once I get back to, say, 2002 essays.
In any event, I feel like you still hear “yonder” in the South sometimes, and I’m frequently guilty of hushing my friends. Can’t say the same for bosh or bloody, which both sound British to me. Bloody is particularly odd, because I think of Brit-speak and country speak as opposites.