Many are literary words used in a peculiar sense, often in one that has otherwise been long obsolete; such as _able_, rich; _access_, an ague-fit; _according_, comparatively; _to act_, to show off, be ridiculous; _afraid_, conj., for fear that; _agreeable_, willing; _aim_, to intend; _aisle_, a central thoroughfare in a shop, etc.; _alley_, the aisle of a church; _allow_, to suppose; _anatomy_, a skeleton; _ancient_, an ensign, flag; _anguish_, inflammation; _annoyance_, damage; _anointed_, notoriously vicious; _apron_, the diaphragm of an animal; _apt_, sure; _arbitrary_, impatient of restraint; _archangel_, dead nettle; _argue_, to signify; _arrant_, downright; _auction_, an untidy place, a crowd; _avise_ (for _advise_), to inform.

It is needless to go through the rest of the alphabet.
Moreover, dialect-speakers are quite capable of devising new forms for themselves.

It is sufficient to instance _abundation_, abundance; _ablins_, possibly (made from _able_); _argle_, _argie-bargie_, _argle-bargle_, _argufy_, all varieties of the verb _to argue_; and so on.
The most interesting words are those that have survived from Middle English or from Tudor English times.

Examples are _aigre_, sour, tart, which is Shakespeare's _eagre_, _Hamlet_, I, v 69; _ambry_, _aumbry_, cupboard, spelt _almarie_ in _Piers the Plowman_, B XIV 246; _arain_, a spider, spelt _yreyn_ in Wyclif's translation of Psalm XC 10, which, after all, is less correct; _arles_, money paid on striking a bargain, a highly interesting word, spelt _erles_ in the former half of the thirteenth century; _arris_, the angular edge of a cut block of stone, etc., from the O.F._areste_, L._arista_, which has been revived by our Swiss mountain-climbers in the form _arete_; _a-sew_, dry, said of cows that give no milk (cf.

F._essuyer_, to dry); _assoilyie_, to absolve, acquit, and _assith_, to compensate, both used by Sir W.Scott; _astre_, _aistre_, a hearth, a Norman word found in 1292; _aunsel_, a steelyard, of which the etymology is given in the _E.D.D._; _aunter_, an adventure, from the A.F.