Are you flumoxed by mammoxed? I love the sound of it, but had nooooooo idea what it meant. Americanisms, Old and New by John Stephen Farmer, to the rescue!
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Mammoxed—A doubtful word, current in the South and West. It seems to bear a meaning of serious personal injury, and may, perhaps, be compared with "flummuxed" in the sense of great mental perturbation.
A doubtful word??
Hmmm.
Time to dig a little more (lest I lead you all astray!). I found the term again in Volume 9 of The American Educational Monthly (which certainly sounds like a credible journal) from 1872. This is what I found (and here's the link):
Sounds like a useful word for a crime fiction novel set in the American West of the 19th century, don't you think? :-)
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| Looks like someone is in danger of being mammoxed! (from Wikimedia - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wild_West_Show_p%C3%A5_High_Chaparral.jpg) |
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2 comments:
Good thing dictionary used in sentence as I couldnt come up with that on my own.
Me too, Liz! :-) It's a great word, but obviously fallen out of use....
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