eftsoonery

English

Etymology

From eftsoon (or eftsoons) + -ery. Eftsoon, an archaic term meaning "once again" or "soon after", is itself an example of eftsoonery.

Noun

eftsoonery (countable and uncountable, plural eftsooneries)

1. (informal, rare) The use of extremely obscure and archaic language.
   • 1933 October 21, Robert Kilburn Root, “Chaucer Modernized”, in Henry Seidel Canby, editor, The Saturday Review of Literature, volume X, number 14, New York, N.Y.: Saturday Review Associates, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 204:

     To the comic and the colloquial of Chaucer's art Mr. Krapp does full justice. Having undertaken to modernize Chaucer, he avoids the affectation of archaic words; he has no "eftsoonery." Some of his phrases are very modern indeed.

   • 1962, Robert M[artin] Adams, Surface and Symbol: The Consistency of James Joyce's Ulysses, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, page 201:

     Finally, Dr. O'Hare, formerly the tender interest of Nurse Callan, is said (p. 379) to have "died in Mona island through bellycrab three year agone come Childermas." The passage is so full of eftsooneries that "bellycrab" could easily pass as a picturesque antiquarian detail; but an early version of the passage has Dr. O'Hare suffering, more prosaically but realistically, from stomach cancer in Scotland (U. of Buffalo MSS, "Oxen of the Sun"); "bellycrab" is of course a fantastic but literal translation of "stomach cancer."

   • 1975, “VANSITTART, PETER”, in John Wakeman, editor, World Authors 1950–1970: A Companion Volume to Twentieth Century Authors, New York, N.Y.: The H. W. Wilson Company, →ISBN, page 1477:

     Thus The Tournament was called "lapidary" in its style (though plain in its dialogue and free of "eftsoonery"), a kaleidoscope rather than a chronicle.

   • 1980 Winter, Robert Adams Day, “How Stephen Wrote His Vampire Poem”, in James Joyce Quarterly, volume 17, number 2, Tulsa, O.K.: University of Tulsa, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, page 184:

     Eglinton remarks, "The peatsmoke is going to his head," and Stephen apparently sums up his own feelings about the "cultic twalette," English Gaelophiles, and [Douglas] Hyde's eftsooneries and versification […]