Snollygoster. Mumpsimus. Biffin. Flype. Frutescent… There are some words that we have stopped using completely, so much so that they now sound almost invented. These words sit on the edges of the language, remembered by dictionaries more faithfully than by speakers.
A snollygoster was an unscrupulous or shrewd person, particularly a politician. A biffin was a deep-red cooking apple. To flype was to roll up your socks, stockings or leggings before putting them on. Frutescent described something shrub-like.
They are specific words, but most of us have little reason to use them today. Dictionaries do not really kill words. When a word falls out of everyday use, it may be marked archaic, obsolete or old-fashioned, or disappear from a shorter, abridged dictionary because it is no longer common enough to earn its place. Merriam-Webster has explained that its abridged dictionaries focus on words used frequently in everyday life, while its unabridged dictionary retains many less common terms.
Sometimes, a word makes a comeback. Snollygoster, for instance, was dropped from Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary in 2003 because of declining use, only to return in 2017 after writers and public figures helped revive it.
Evolving Lexicon
So what does this disappearance tell us about how we live? The English language is making room for the new. In its June 2026 update, the Oxford English Dictionary added more than 900 new words, phrases and senses, including ‘floordrobe’, ‘humblebrag’ and ‘life hack’. Language is alive because society is alive. But there is a big change worth noticing now.
We talk less. We can send a voice note, react to an Instagram story, forward a meme, join a video call or leave a comment without ever speaking to the person. Which also means that conversation is a skill. But technology has removed many situations in which we used to practise these skills. The neighbourhood shop has become an app.
The bank queue has become online banking. The office pantry has been replaced by a home kitchen. A cab arrives on a screen rather than after a conversation with a stranger about where you are going. It is true that convenience has eliminated thousands of tiny encounters.
Thus, research published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, based on 10,203 reports of social interactions from 385 young adults in Spain, found that text-based and social-media interactions were rated lower in quality than face-to-face interactions, while phone calls were rated positively.
Perhaps, this is a reason why silence has become a desirable experience. Hilton’s 2026 travel trends report calls one emerging trend “hushpitality”, the search for holidays and experiences that turn down the volume of everyday life. Hilton’s global research found that 56% of travellers listed “rest and recharge” as their top motivation for leisure travel, while 26% planned to travel alone.
Loneliness Surge
New research from the Institute for Public Policy Research found that one in 20 young people in England now report having no close friends, up from one in 100 in 2014. The proportion of 16- to 21-year-olds reporting at least three close friends has fallen substantially.
This alone does not prove that smartphones are the cause of loneliness. But it is the disruption of the pandemic, economic pressures, fewer communal spaces, remote work and study, changing leisure habits and the migration of social life online.
Silence, too, has become a form of luxury. Noise-cancelling headphones, earbuds and earplugs have become part of everyday life on public transport, flights, offices, concerts and at home. Allied Market Research estimated the global noise-cancelling headphones market is projected to reach $45.4 billion by 2031.