Can we inveigle you with a challenge? As we celebrate our 200th birthday, the Monitor has been digging up all sorts of history, trivia and arcane knowledge. One of our recent finds was a list of 19th century vocabulary words culled by Minnesota historian Eric Ferguson from an 1830 memoir and posted on his website, celticfringe.net. Monitor editor Felice Belman asked us to play grade school geeks for a day and write an essay using the timeworn words, and now we're asking you to do the same.

Take a look at our attempt to speak 19th century, then write your own essay (400 words max) using the list and send it to searle@cmonitor.com by Jan. 30. We'll pick a winner and award you with something spiffy.

The words we used are defined below, and a full list is posted on our website, concordmonitor.com. All words are taken from the 1830 memoirs of Revolutionary soldier Joseph Plumb Martin, titled Private Yankee Doodle by modern editors. Some you'll find familiar, if not part of your everyday speech. Others are more obscure, and a few you won't even find in modern dictionaries.

At any rate, we warrant you'll have fun.