This is a new feature I’m starting.  Every Saturday, I will post an unusual or archaic word along with its definition and what I think of it.

FROWSY is a word I remember hearing a lot more when I was a child.   It’s a real word, not a slang word, but I think it’s fallen out of fashion because I really never hear it any more.  It’s a fantastic word though, and sounds exactly like what it describes, so it needs to come back.

The chart of its popularity over time does show that “frowsy” is a lot less used than it used to be, but even in the ’60s it wasn’t much used.   It seems to have been at its most popular early in the 20th century–the 1920s an 1930s.    Lately it’s shown a slight uptick.   Maybe other people are discovering what a great word it is.