ETYMOLOGY
from Greek πορνo- (porno- comb. form) + ἐραστής (lover) + –ic
EXAMPLE
“…We hear nothing of those petit creve vices, those pornerastic habits in high places, those Diamond-necklace scandals, those unmentionable gambols of the Porphyro-geniti, which are too often thrust before our eyes in fiction, and indeed in fact…”
From: The Fortnightly Review
Edited by John Morley,
Vol. VII New Series, January to June, 1870
The Romance of the Peerage
ETYMOLOGY
from Scottish gundie (greedy, voracious) + guts
EXAMPLE
“…In short, these quarrels grew up to rooted aversions; they gave one another nick-names: she called him gundy-guts, and he called her lousy Peg, though the girl was a tight clever wench as any was, and through her pale looks you might discern spirit and vivacity, which made her not, indeed, a perfect beauty, but something that was agreeable…”
From: John Bull
By John Arbuthnot, 1712
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin impigr-
from im- + piger (slow, sluggish) + -ous
EXAMPLE
He was very impigrous in his work.
ETYMOLOGY
from un- (prefix) + buxom (adj.)
EXAMPLE
“…Betere þe were.
iboren þat he nere.
for betere is child vnbore. þane vnbuhsum.
þe mon þe spareþ yeorde. and yonge childe.
and let hit arixlye. þat he hit areche ne may…”
From: The Proverbs of Aelfred, a1250
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin nefandus (wicked, impious, abominable),
from ne- (not) + fandus (‘to be spoken’), gerundive of fārī (to speak) + -ous
EXAMPLE
“…and it was for such things that savourd of a forreign clyme, and of some soft Levantine spirit rather than of a Druinian; there was a complication of many nefandous crimes, Sodomy and rap met in him with other base libidinous acts, and those displayed and prov’d with hatefull and horrid circumstances…”
From: Δενδρολογια.
Dodona’s Grove, Or The Vocall Forest
By James Howell, 1649
ETYMOLOGY
from Old French surcuidant (present participle of surcuidier)
from popular Latin supercōgitāre ,
from super- (super- prefix) + cōgitāre (to think, to cogitate)
EXAMPLE
“…and yet they were but febly enformed in maister Porphiris problemes, and haue waded but weakly in his thre maner of clerkly workes, analeticall, topicall, and logycall: howbeit they were puffed so full of vaynglorious pompe and surcudant elacyon, that popholy and peuysshe presumpcion proyoked them to publysshe and to preche to people imprudet perilously…”
From: Honorificatissimo: Replycacion agaynst Yong Scolers
By John Skelton, 1528
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin vultuōsus (having an affected look),
from vultus (face, countenance)
EXAMPLE
The portrait portrayed a vultuosous 15-year-old bride marrying a much older man.
ETYMOLOGY
from noddy (a fool, a simpleton) + pate (the head)
EXAMPLE
“…Needy poor and noddy pate, never part …”
From: Lexicon Tetraglotton, an English-French-Italian-Spanish Dictionary
By James Howell, 1660
British or Old Cambrian Proverbs
ETYMOLOGY
for the verb: probably a nursery or jocular word, imitating the action of the lips in an infant’s kiss;
Old French has baer, beer (to open the mouth, to gape);
also, possibly a contracted form of basse (to kiss)
EXAMPLE (for verb)
“…Thanne wolde I seye, “Goode lief, taak keep
How meekly looketh Wilkyn, oure sheep!
Com neer, my spouse, let me ba thy cheke!
Ye sholde been al pacient and meeke…”
From: The Wife of Bath’s Prologue
By Geoffrey Chaucer, c1386
ETYMOLOGY
of unknown origin
EXAMPLE
“…OLIVER. I do, thou upstart callymoocher, I do. ‘Tis well known to thee I have been twice alecunner, thou mushrump that shot up in one night with lying with thy mistress….”
From: The Mayor of Quinborough: A Comedy
By Thomas Middleton, a1627
Lexicophilia 