Philosophers believe that their cause is apodeictic (unquestionably true by virtue of association), geologists will fight until their hair goes prematurely griseous (streaked with grey), and fantasy gaming enthusiasts are reaching for their lucky periapts (charms).

The threat that little-used words will be expunged from the next edition of Collins’s largest dictionary has roused Times readers from diverse fields to make a case for terms that they regard as vital to their vocabulary.

A poll conducted by Timesonline to discover which of the endangered words had popular support attracted 11,225 votes as perfume specialists and people with fond memories of reading Lorna Doone expressed surprise that one of their favourite words, fubsy, had fallen out of general use.

The most popular among the 24 words was embrangle, meaning to embroil or entangle, which garnered 1,434 votes. Its nearest rival was fubsy, meaning short and stout, which gathered 1,031.

Words that will apparently be consigned to obscurity without a fuss include fatidical, a poor Latinate cousin for the Greek-rooted word prophetic, despite an undertaking by Philip Howard, the writer of the Modern Manners column for The Times, to reintroduce it.

Roborant (something that fortifies) and nitid (bright or glistening) lacked lustre, languishing at the foot of the table with less than 5 per cent of the vote between them.

Adrian Chiles, the television presenter who champions embrangle, said that the word was attractive because its meaning was obvious. “It’s almost onomatopoeic,” he said. “It sounds a bit like mangle, too, which is good.” Some voters were annoyed that words integral to their trade were being dismissed, although the endangered words will be retained in the dictionary’s online edition.

David Pybus, a perfumier, said that taking away agrestic, meaning rural or uncouth, would be like removing yellow from a painter’s palette. “The world of perfumery does not have its own vocabulary. In describing aroma families we use around 20 distinctive terms, one of which is agrestic, meaning of the countryside and giving to our aromatic minds a sense of hay, meadows, fields, earth after rainfall, mushrooms, and the like.” Robert Seddon, a postgraduate student at Durham University, said that compossible (possible in coexistence with something else) and apodeictic were useful concepts to philosophy lecturers.

HarperCollins, which is owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Times, will monitor newspapers, broadcasts and online media until February to see if words achieve popularity beyond articles discussing their imminent demise.

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