Sunday, September 4, 2022

Yclept [alternate; archaic]

Yclept: A railroad by the name of.


Usage: His beautiful woodland layout, yclept Havelock & Hastings RR, was displayed at the fall model railroad show.


Source: New discoveries being considered for the dictionary have to be reviewed for spelling or typographic mistakes; however, such errors are not always the cause of “new” finds. For example, omnivagant was suggested by a prominent editor to be simply a typographic error, but that proved not to be the case. 


Yclept, as used in this sentence found in the September 1961 article called, Toronto, Lake Shore & St. Lawrence in Railroad Model Craftsman by The Layout Doctor, Bill Schopp,


In a ten by twelve foot room, one side open, on a solid plywood tabletop already in place, a model HO railroad with room for running plenty of trains over alternate routes, plus terminal operation: such was the prescription which lead to my designing the Toronto, Lake Shore, & St. Lawrence R.R. (which was almost yclept Toronto, North Shore, & Atlantic).


is the correct spelling and usage of the now archaic term.


from The Dictionary of Non-Existent Model Railroad Terms, 2nd ed., 1999.

2 comments:

  1. Havelock & Hastings...now that's got a lovely ring to it. Could be a picturesque setting for a quintessential British shortline terminus layout or southern shortline deep in the pine forests of the Carolinas. Or Canada. I guess that'd work too.

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    Replies
    1. There's a Havelock and Hastings right here, which is where I stole the names from :-)

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