986: shambles Aug 21, 2017

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There are lots of reasons why a word will disappear, but most commonly it is the case that a language will lose a word if there is a new, more popular word that replaces it, or if there is no need to use it. Every language will have examples of the latter, such as 'squiriferous' which meant "having the qualities of a squire" in English a few centuries ago, but due to a lack of squires nowadays, it is not used. The word 'shambles' is still used, mostly in the phrase "in shambles" or "in a shambles" to mean things are disorderly, but it had first meant 'butcher's' or 'meat-market'; I'm sure if you can imagine a medieval meat-market you can understand the logical jump to the modern sense. Nonetheless, the original meaning of the word was replaced eventually by the more popular 'butcher's' and only survives in place-names, such as Shambles, in York, one of the most famous streets in Britain.

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