Why These Words?

Many of the words that I picked are now considered archaic, and I guess that's why I didn't know them. For instance, who uses the word Mortise? It basically means a slot that something else can be fit into. So why not just say that? Some of the other words had apostrophes in them, which made them very difficult to look up. "Ensteep’d" and "se'nnight" are contractions for "ensteeped" and "seven nights," and Shakespeare most likely did this for his iambic pentameter writing style. In this particular part of the reading, many words had to do with ships and water. Tempest, ensteep’d, and keel to name a few.