ETYMOLOGY
– from onycho- (relating to the nails) + –phagist (denoting people or animals who eat a particular food)
EXAMPLE
“…My eldest daughter had finished her Latin lessons, and my son had finished his Greek; and I was sitting at my desk, pen in hand and in mouth at the same time, (a substitute for biting the nails which I recommend to all onygophagists)…”
From: The Doctor &c.
By Robert Southey, 1834
“The Utility of Pockets. A Compliment Properly Received”
also Scottish and dialect form ROW-DE-DOW
ETYMOLOGY
– originally a variant of row dow dow ( a series of sounds as produced by beating a drum)
– later possibly influenced by rowdy dowdy (characterized by noisy roughness)
EXAMPLE
“…There has been a terrible rowdydow in the operatic green-room…”
From: Dashes at Life with a Free Pencil
By Nathaniel Parker Willis, 1845
ETYMOLOGY
– from pow, variant of poll (the top of the head) + fagged (extremely tired)
EXAMPLE
“…Ther’s some sort o’ rumption gooin on ‘ith country, no deawt, an’ wi’st be gettin lurked, or lawmt, or powfagged some road, so let’s turn back while us booan are whul…”
From: Tales and Sketches of Lancashire Life
By Benjamin Brierley, 1862
ETYMOLOGY
– from ppl. stem of late Latin inquilīnāre (to be a sojourner)
EXAMPLE
In the summer, they inquilinate in camps on the shore and islands, and live upon the fish from the lake.
ETYMOLOGY
– from ppl. stem of Latin obrogāre (partly to repeal a law by passing a new one),
from ob- (ob-) + rogāre (to ask, supplicate, propose a law, introduce a bill)
EXAMPLE
“…makes it a badge of royalty, that the Prince, without his subjects consent, may prohibite, abrogat, derogat, subrogat, and obrogate to the standing laws, wheir he sees it necessar, excepting the laws of God, of nature…”
From: Historical Notices of Scottish Affairs
By Lord John Lauder Fountainhall, 1848
ETYMOLOGY
– from Latin effōcāt- ppl. stem of effōcāre,
from ex (out) + faux (throat)
EXAMPLE
A post-mortem on the body revealed that the victim had been effocated.
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin minorātus, past participle of minorāre (to make less)
EXAMPLE
“…When forsoþ þe sanie þat first was indigeste goþ out digeste & minorate, i. lessed
[?c1425 Paris lesse; L. minorata], it is signe þat þe fistule is mortified…”
From: Guy de Chauliac’s Grande Chirurgie. a1425
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin tinctus (a dyeing) + mūtāntem (changing)
EXAMPLE
“…The chameleon is the best known of all the tinctumutants (tinctus, color, and mutare, to change), though many other animals possess this faculty in a very marked degree…”
From: The Popular Science Monthly
January, 1895
Animal Tinctumutants
By Dr. James Weir, Jr.
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin redamāre (to love in return),
from re(d)- re- + amāre (to love)
EXAMPLE
“…Where Christ is not exemplified, in three conformities: In his death, in his life, in his Redamation…”
From: Of the Heart and its right Soveraign;
and Rome no Mother Church of England:
or, an historical account of the title of our Brittish Church
By Thomas Jones, 1678
ETYMOLOGY
from medieval Latin faculentus, from facula, fax (torch)
EXAMPLE
“…Als it is red in storyis ancient,
Thocht it be not in ald nor new Testament.
How that Vergill that worthie wise doctour,
In latin toung was ane most faculent,
Nane mair pregnant, facund, nor eminent,
To writ, or dyit, he was of Clerkis flour…”
From: Ane Treatise callit the Court of VENVS,
deuidit into four Buikis,
Newlie Compylit be IOHNE ROLLAND in Dalkeith, 1575
Lexicophilia 