I was hoping this would come up. Or, not so much words falling out of fashion, but the rich patina of their original meaning being worn off.
I am frequently disappointed to re-look up words in modern dictionaries whose definitions I remember reading in my father's dictionary, only to find that the definition I remembered is no longer the given one.
A few examples.
"Malaise". I recall this meaning something like, "an uneasy, ill-defined feeling, especially due to incipient illness." Today most dictionaries define it as simply "a general feeling of discomfort, illness, or uneasiness whose exact cause is difficult to identify" with no mention of incipient illness, which is sad, I think, because it adds such a potent touch of hypochondria to the word.
The verb of "drab." I can recall this word's simple definition in my old dictionary, verbatim: "to consort with whores." My Oxford Concise doesn't give even list a verb form for "drab".
Then there's "conviviality" whose definition of "a lively atmosphere" I distinctly recall included a reference to "food and drink". The word "conviviality" was always accompanied for me by a sound of knives and forks clanking on plates and clanking glasses and laughter; always, but now the banquet hall is deserted, and the definition reads simply, "friendly, lively, and enjoyable."
And there are many, many more.
