A Word to the Wise
A word to describe something that smells like your grandmother’s attic: fusty
Fusty – probably from the Old French fusté (“tasting of the wine cask”) – usually means damp and dusty, having a stale odor. As used by Wilkie Collins in My Miscellanies: “The cab is fusty, the driver is sulky, the morning is foggy. A dry dog-kennel would be a pleasant refuge by comparison with the miserable vehicle in which I am now jolting my way over the cruel London stones.”
It can also mean old-fashioned in attitude or style. Example: “When accomplished, glamorous American actress Meghan Markle married Prince Harry in 2018, she was hailed as a breath of fresh air for Britain’s fusty royal family. That honeymoon didn’t last.” (Washington Times, Jan. 2020)
* A word with cringe-inducing origins: kibosh
To “put the kibosh on” something is to squelch it, decisively put an end to it. Etymologists have suggested several sources for the word, all of them creepy: (1) From the Arabic kurbash, a whip used for punishment. (2) From the Middle English cabosh, to behead a deer. (3) From the Hebrew for subdue or bring into bondage. (4) From the Irish caidhp bháis or “death cap,” the hood put on someone before they were hanged.
* A word I’ll try to use next time I’m talking about psychedelics: kenshō
A Japanese term from the Zen tradition, usually translated as “seeing one’s (true) nature.” Kenshō is an initial insight or awakening, to be followed by further training to deepen the insight and learn to express it in daily life.