My favorite archaic English that I've learned while reading William Morris this past week:

[cimorene]

• unholpen i.e. not having been helped


• clomb obsolete past tense of climb


• frist, v., to defer or postpone. "Albeit fristed is not forgotten."


• swink swinks, swinking; past swank/swonk/swinkt/swinked; past participle swunk/swunken/swonken/swinkt/swinked. v. (archaic) to toil or work hard. From Middle English swinken, from Old English swincan (“to labour, work at, strive, struggle; be in trouble; languish"), from Proto-Germanic *swinkan (“to swing, bend"), from Proto-Indo-European *sweng-, *swenk- (“to bend, swing, swivel"). Cognate with Old Norse svinka (“to work"). Related to swing.

Comments

[krait]

I think that 'clomb' has hung on in certain small areas!

I recall a teacher of mine in college telling us a story about being baffled when asking a local student what he'd done over the weekend; the response sounded like, "Ah clumb far-tarr." With some circumlocution, this was discovered to mean 'I climbed the fire tower.'

The student's 'clumb' could easily be 'clomb' in slightly mutated form.

[cimorene]

This is amazing and I love it.

[krait]

I have remembered it all these years! :D