Last week during lunch, my son used a word that escapes me at the moment, but was one which was in common use in another era. He used it correctly in the sentence, but I told him he should use ____instead.
When he asked why, I told him that language changes over time and words are sometimes dropped from conversation and others are invented. I gave the term, "Googled" as an example of one that is relatively new and told him a story about when I was in middle school and used the word "beholden" when speaking to my grandma about owing someone something. My grandma laughed at me and said she hadn't heard that word in ages.
I explained that while the word was correctly used, it wasn't the best choice in that instance.
As an aside, I recently stumbled across a wonderful pocket spelling dictionary in a used book store; copyright 1960. I couldn't help purchasing it just to enjoy all the wonderful words and marvel at how many you never see or hear.
