Young Writers Society

Hey people, I am writing a historical novel and I need to enhance my style/vocabulary. I would be grateful to you if you listed here all or a part of the archaic words/expressions you know.

What time period are you talking about? You could always read Shakespeare. Also, you might want to avoid too many old words. Whenever I try to write with them I find it cramps my prose--I usually don't add anything until later on.

To expand on what Lupis said: Only put the archaic words in dialogue, not the prose itself. In the prose it gets very frustrating to read because of how difficult it is to understand. And even in dialogue, only use it sparingly for the same reason. There's a line to be drawn between historical accuracy and readability.

19th century is the period.

Of course, I'm not trying to use only archaic words, I just need one or two from time to time.

I could read Shakespeare in English, but I'd need a dictionary with me all the time. I'm not an English native speaker.

Oh, ok then. For the 1800s, Shakespeare would be too old. Generally, it was probably pretty similar--perhaps a bit more formal, and definitely there are modern words that hadn't been invented.

During the eighteen hundreds, there was also a definite movement towards "refining" speech--for the first time people were making concerted efforts towards standardising spelling and the like, and there was a difference between so-called "low-brow" English or "cant" and "civilized" discourse. The first dictionary was published as well, and the industrial revolution occured, all with a huge impact. Depending on the social class of your characters, the words they're using will be very different. Also the location--I'm assuming you're talking about Britain, but the colonies had very different language patterns.

As for specific words only used back then, I can't think of very many. All in all, I think what you're going for has more to do with the way people are speaking than the words they are using. This is going to be harder than just inserting a few old words. Plus, I'll echo what Rosey said--worry more about historical details than the words.

One last thing: you may find that reading some of Jane Austen's works (if you haven't already) will give you a better idea of what usage was like back then, and some period/society details as well.

Good luck!

Lupis