ETYMOLOGY
some editors suggest “elf-skin” is a misprint for “eel-skin”
EXAMPLE
“… Zbloud you starueling, you elfskin, you dried neatstongue, you buls-pizzel, you stockefish: O for breath to vtter what is like thee, you tailers yard, you sheath, you bowcase, you vile standing tuck. …”
From: William Shakespeare, The Complete Works
Edited by Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor, 1986
The history of Henrie the Fourth. 1604
ETYMOLOGY
from un- + resty (restless, fidgety)
EXAMPLE
“… But for as muche as I mot nedes lyke.
Al þat yow lyst I dar not pleyne more.
But humbely with sorwful sykes syke.
Yow wryte ich myne vnresty sorwes sore.
Fro day to day desyryng euere more.
To knowen fully yf it youre wil [it] were.
How ye han ferd and don whyl ye be þere. …”
From: A parallel-text print of Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde from the Campsall ms. of Mr. Bacon Frank, a1413
Edited by Frederick James Furnivall
Published for the Chaucer Society, 1881
ETYMOLOGY
of uncertain derivation; the suffix as in bast-ard, etc
EXAMPLE (for n.)
“… one daye as in a mornyng that he came out of the hous of a comyn woman He mette wyth a lewde haskarde, whyche for to doo the sayd synne of lechery went to the hous there as the holy man fro…”
From: Vitas Patrum
Translated by William Caxton, 1495
ETYMOLOGY
from allo- (comb. form) + ‑nymous, perhaps after French allonyme (see allonym n.).
EXAMPLE
“… With regard to their authors, books are
(1.) Allonymous; those published under the real name of some author of reputation, to whom consequently works are attributed which he never composed. – Such was the Book on Antiquities published by Annius of Viterbo, at Rome, in 1498, in folio; and again in 1542, in octavo. In this compilation, Annius has been charged with fabricating works falsely attributed to Xenophon, Philo, and other antient authors. …”
From: An Introduction to the Study of Bibliography: to which is Prefixed a Memoir on the Public Libraries of the Antients
By Thomas Hartwell Horne, 1814
PRONUNCIATION
al-ON-uh-muhss
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin solivagus, from solus + vagari (to wander)
EXAMPLE
“… Other creatures live free and independent upon one another, except the young ones of some Creatures, while they can seek their Food and Preservation; and are either Solivagous and Hurtful, as Foxes, Wolves and Tigers, &c. or live promiscuously in Herds and Flocks, and are innocent Creatures as Sheep, Goats, &c. whereas Men live in Dependency one upon another, so as no Man can subsist of himself; …”
From: A Detection Of The Court and State Of England During The Four Last Reigns
and the Inter-Regnum.
By Roger Coke, 1697
The Reign of King Charles II. A. D. 1661
ETYMOLOGY
from lady + -kin
EXAMPLE
“… .In the time of Ieremie the land mourned for oathes, in our time it is to be wondred, that the land sinkes not to hell under the burden of this sinne: there is hardly one of an hundred that makes conscience of all oathes: they haue pettie oathes (as they account them) and coyne strange Gods to sweare by, the Masse, Ladikin, or Lakin, and much like grosse profanenesse they continually use without feare or wit: yet is cursing as ordinary as swearing, and drunkrnnesse comes not behind any of them, how generall it is, and how it hath, and doth infect, witnesse the ruine of many families, the pining and leane cheekes of many wiues and children, and the loathsome stinke of it in every corner. ..”
From: The Way to Blessednes a Treatise or Commentary, on the First Psalme
By Phineas Fletcher, 1632
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin credulus (ready to believe or trust) + -ist
EXAMPLE
“… the couetous Bashaw of Aleppo, the gouernor of those parts, are contented to beare with things euen contrary to the lawes of their Alcheron, impugning altogether the Godhead and incarnation of Christ: as the Iews against his pouerty and humiliation: & for great sums of mony, & annuall entrado, suffer stil diuers friers & religious persons to entertain pil∣grims, trauellers, ignorant deuotists, superstitious papists, and simple credulists, with impudent, lying, & deceitfull relicks …”
From: The Secretaries Studie Containing New Familiar Epistles
By Thomas Gainsford, 1616
ETYMOLOGY
probably from flummery (nonsense, humbug, empty trifling)
EXAMPLE (for n. 1.)
“… When Mr. Middleton was spoken to on the subject of sending Julia to Frankfort, he at first refused outright. ” No,” said he, ” indeed she shan’t go ! What does she want of any more flummerdiddle notions ? What she does know is a damage to her ! “
“But do you not wish to give your daughters every possible advantage ? ” said Mr. Wilmot. …”
From: Tempest and Sunshine; or, Life in Kentucky
By Mary Jane Holmes, 1854
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin pharmacopola, (from Greek ϕαρµακοπώλης (pharmakopoles) (dealer in drugs)) + -ist
EXAMPLE
“… That Science then, which enables men to look thorow the shop of medicine, the topick tabernacle of naturall powers, and teaches to unlock bodies that are shut, and to draw forth their hidden vertues, is not peculiar to the family of Pharmacopolists, nor truly is the Pharmaceutick part a hand-maid to it (as is the talk of ignorants) but is a powerfull Tecmarsis of naturall history.…”
From: Matæotechnia Medicinæ Praxeōs, The vanity of the craft of physick, or, A new dispensatory wherein is dissected the errors, ignorance, impostures and supinities of the schools in their main pillars of purges, blood-letting, fontanels or issues, and diet, &c., and the particular medicines of the shops
By Noah Biggs, 1651
ETYMOLOGY
from chuckle + pate (the head)
EXAMPLE
“…At the end, says the chief, in dispersing the poison.
“Come, come, subscribe, ’tis to carry the cause on,
Down with your cash, all I ask is a penny;”
And the pence were put down by the chucklepate many.
We genii, you know, in a moment detected
The laugh-in-the-sleeve of the rogues who collected,
And followed unseen, ’till we saw them all seated,
Full of hopes of the spoil, but these hopes were soon cheated,
For among them swooped, and away in a minute. …”
From: Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
Volume III. April – September, 1820
The Building of the Palace of the Lamp.
Lexicophilia 