ETYMOLOGY
of unknown origin
EXAMPLE
“… When you have cast an eye upon this Letter which goeth stuff’d with all Proverbs, old Motts, and Adages, whereof some were used in the time of high bonnets, when men used to wipe their noses on their sleeves, for want of a napkin, you will judge perhaps, that the Author hath some strange freaks, or quinombroms in his noddle, that he hath quicksands, or Mercury, or rather one quarter of the Moon in his pericranium; But you Sir, that have a head so well timbred, will, I presume, passe another judgement. …”
From: Paroimiographia Proverbs, or, Old sayed savves & adages in English (or the Saxon toung), Italian, French, and Spanish
By James Howell, 1659
Lexicophilia 