bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.” This word, meaning “break,” is deader than doornail.7 You’ve never used it or heard anyone else use it, except perhaps while reading Proverbs. Bible readers can indeed look up these words, but if a dictionary bothers to list them, they will be called “obsolete.” Still, if that were the whole list of difficult words, it would seem reasonable to me—given all the things we’re losing as people stop reading