WORD OF THE DAY

The Word of the Day for April 7 is:=20

gadzookery =01=07 \gad-ZOO-kuh-ree\ =01=07 (noun)=20
: the use of archaisms (as in a historical novel)=20

Example sentence:
"Get rid of the gadzookery," Bruce's editor cautioned.
"Mirabella can perfectly well say 'please' instead of=20
'prithee.'"=20

Did you know?
"Gadzooks . . . you astonish me!" cries Mr. Lenville in=
=20
Charles
Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby. We won't accuse Dickens of
gadzookery ("the bane of historical fiction," as historic=
al=20
novelist
John Vernon called it in Newsday magazine), because we
assume people actually said "gadzooks" back in the 1830s.
That mild oath is an old-fashioned euphemism, so it is=20
thought,
for "God's hooks" (a reference, supposedly, to the nails =
of=20
the
Crucifixion). But it's a fine line today's historical=20
novelist must
toe, avoiding expressions like "zounds" and "pshaw" and=
=20
"tush"
("tushery" is a synonym of the newer "gadzookery," which=
=20
first
cropped up in the 1950s), as well as "gadzooks," while at=
=20
the
same time rejecting modern expressions such as "okay" and
"nice."