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# Lichfield residents urged to redefine forgotten historic words
- URL: https://lichfieldlive.co.uk/lichfield-residents-urged-to-redefine-forgotten-historic-words/
- Published: 2009-09-21T07:00:17.000Z
- Updated: 2009-09-16T20:55:55.000Z
- Author: Lichfield Live
- Tags: Heritage, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-07-22 21:52, News

![dictionary](https://lichfieldlive.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/dictionary.jpg "dictionary")

Weird and wonderful words of yesteryear are being investigated once more in Lichfield.

Words such as stingo, fopdoodle and maffle were part of Samuel Johnson’s dictionary but have since fallen out of use.

And now Lichfield District Council’s tourism team, along with The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum, are asking visitors to [www.lichfield2009.com](http://www.lichfield2009.com/?ref=lichfieldlive.co.uk) to come up with definitions for:

- stingo
- fopdoodle
- maffle
- skimbleskamble
- twangling
- fancymonger
- bellygod
- badger-legged
- blobber
- kissingcrust

Elizabeth Thatcher, Tourism Manager for Lichfield District Council, said:

> “These are fantastic words but their real meanings are not immediately obvious, so we thought it would be a fun way to celebrate Dr Johnson’s birthday, by asking everyone to put their thinking caps on and create their own definitions.  
>  
> “To add your own definition, visit [www.lichfield2009.com/words](http://www.lichfield2009.com/words?ref=lichfieldlive.co.uk) and click on the ‘define’ button next to the word you want to redefine. Or, if you need some inspiration and want to see what other people have suggested, just click on the ‘see definitions’ button.”

The best new definitions, along with Johnson’s actual definitions, will be displayed on a series of special edition postcards that will be on sale in Lichfield in 2010.