Sozzled and kerfuffle among list of words which could die out within years, research finds
29 September 2020, 15:58 | Updated: 2 October 2020, 08:46
A new survey has revealed a list of 20 words which could go extinct in the next few years.
With the growing use of social media, there are hundreds of new words and phrases emerging every single day.
But now researchers have found that some of the old ones could be dying out.
In fact, researchers have discovered a long list of words which young people have never heard of before.
According to the data found by Perspectus Global, 40% of 18–30 year olds have never heard 'sozzled’ used to describe someone who is very drunk.
37% also had no idea that a man who behaves badly was once described as a ‘Cad’.
In the survey of 2,000 members of the public, many had never heard of the word ‘bonk’ was used to describe having sex, while 37% percent of under 30s weren’t aware ‘wally’ is sometimes used to describe a silly person.
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While most adults will have used the word 'boogie' in their time, 28% of youngsters asked didn’t know that it meant to dance.
Other outdated words include Tosh (23%), Henceforth (26%) and Lush (23%).
In the research, it was also found that a third of participants think many words aren’t relevant today
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Evie Porter, from Perspectus Global who commissioned the research said: “Our research shows that many words are simply losing favour, with millennials having no idea of their meaning.”
See the full list of 20 words which younger Brits have never heard of:
Sozzled (40%) – Very drunk
Cad (37%) – A man who is dishonest or treats other people badly
Bonk (37%) – Have sexual intercourse
Wally (36%) - A stupid person
Betrothed (29%) – Engaged to be married
Nincompoop (28%) – A stupid person
Boogie (28%) – Dance to pop music
Trollop (27%) – A woman who has many casual sexual encounters or relationships
Bounder (27%) – A dishonourable man
Balderdash (27%) – Senseless talk or writing; nonsense
Henceforth (26%) – From this or that time on
Yonks – (25%) – A very long time
Lush – (23%) – Very good or impressive
Tosh – (23%) – Rubbish; nonsense
Swot – (22%) – A person who studies hard
Brill – (21%) – Excellent; great
Kerfuffle – (20%) – A commotion or fuss
Randy – (19%) – Sexually aroused or excited
Disco – (17%) – A club or party at which people dance to music
Minted – (15%) – Having a lot of money; rich
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