Old Fashioned Words

A friend of mine is an actor. His parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary a couple years ago. I wanted to call him a practicing thespian whose parents are longime monogamists but I didn't. I wish I had!

Notions (sewing) : a variety of small objects or accessories. Notions can include items that are sewn or otherwise attached to a finished article, such as buttons, snaps, and collar stays, but the term also includes small tools used in sewing, such as thread, pins, marking pens, and seam rippers.

There used to be an Australian slang word: lair. It was used to describe someone very flashy and even verging on hooliganism, you don't hear it much anymore. It seems to have been replaced by things like hoon and bogan. Phrases also fall out of fashion, a commentator on our football was often fond of describing a stylish player or piece of play as being 'as flash as a rat with a gold tooth', which I absolutely loved for the sheer imagery contained in it. He's long since retired and no one uses that one anymore.

I've always wanted to call someone a 'poodle faker' - but I've never managed to work it into everyday conversation. I have, however, used 'slubberdegullion'.

Seegee-my late Mother in law used to use the term "lairy" meaning the same as you used. She came from a Nottingham mining village. I'd never heard it before. Another unusual word she used was "thrutch(y)(ing)" which meant fidget.
Nobody ever uses ginnal now meaning an alleyway or the back passage between tenements that "the night soil" collector drove his horse and cart up. Night-soil is of course completely defunct-apparently if no mains sewage the lavatory was at the end of the back yard and the "night-soil" was shovelled out very early in the morning.
As to words that have changed their meaning-gay- completely different meaning now; camp-two totally different meanings; and the name of my late great grandmother-Fanny-a perfectly normal everyday abbreviation for Frances before WW2 in the UK.

I just wrote a story in which I used the word 'cad'... I guess I could have used 'scoundrel' instead but it seems just as old-fashioned. I think they are both fine words though.

It's really fascinating the way language is always evolving. I remember my grandfather used "starving" to mean suffering from cold, not hunger. To suffer from hunger was to "clem". As a child I was often baffled by lines from old hymns, eg "till all thy creatures own thy sway"

Buxom is a good word that is obsolescent. I am not buxom btw ;)

Miscreant and malefactor are good words. Being ancient myself, I do like stories set in the past when corporal punishment was commonplace. For me to get the right atmosphere it is important to avoid words and phrases from later times. Modes of address and general conversation were more formal than is usual today.

Oh no, Rachel. I like buxom. I think I've used it in stories.