Lexico

Word of the Day: MOLLITUDE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin mollitudo, from mollis (soft) + -tudo (-tude)

EXAMPLE
“… Which, if you had otherwise expressed his sense rightlie, yet should you haue forborne to apply to yours for the observing of decorum, a thing that you commend so in Homer, and your selfe aime at: sith those maides and wooers, intended both by Homer and you, to be wantons, must vse lascivious danses; and the man (if you will needes haue such resemblances) bee compared rather to Mollitude, or Cowardnes, the woman to Incontinencie. …”

From: Th’overthrow of Stage-Playes, by the way of controversie betwixt D. Gager and D. Rainoldes
By John Rainolds, 1599

Word of the Day: CHILD-GREAT

ETYMOLOGY
from child + great (big)

EXAMPLE
“… Swines-Bread, sovsed, doth not onely speed
A tardy Labour; but (without great heed)
If ouer it a Child-great Woman stride,
Instant abortion often doth betide.
The burning Sun, the banefull Aconite,
The poysonie Serpents that vnpeople quite
Cyrenian Desarts, neuer Danger them
That wear about them th’ Artemisian Stem. …”

From: Du Bartas his Deuine Weekes and Workes
By Guillaume de Saluste Du Bartas
Translated by Joshua Sylvester, 1605

Word of the Day: HAIR-BUSH

ETYMOLOGY
from hair + bush

EXAMPLE
“… His crisp locks frizeling, his temples prittelye stroaking.
Heer with al in trembling with speede wee ruffled his hearebush,
With water attempting thee flame too mortifye sacred.
But father Anchises, mounting his sight to the skyward,
Both the hands vplifting, hertly thus his orison vttred. …”

From: Thee first foure bookes of Virgil his Aeneis
Translated intoo English heroical verse by Richard Stanyhurst, 1582

Word of the Day: SUPERNACULAR

ETYMOLOGY
from supernaculum (a drink to be consumed to the last drop; a wine of the highest quality; anything excellent of its kind) + -ar

EXAMPLE
“…The last deposit will be made at Josh Hudson’s, to- morrow evening, when some spirited betting is expected. Both men are well, and something supernacular is expected …”

From: The Morning Chronicle
October 30, 1828
The Ring. Dick Curtis and Edwards

Word of the Day: DISCREPATE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin discrepat-, past participial stem of discrepare (to differ in sound, to be out of tune, to be out of harmony or inconsistent with, to have differences or discrepancies, to lack agreement, to differ in opinion, to disagree,
from dis- + crepare (to make a noise, to creak)

EXAMPLE (for vb. 1.)
“… So that discrepating from his first propertie, vtterly corrupteth, decayeth, becommeth absumpt in the degree of death. …”

From: The Flower of Phisicke
By William Clever, 1590

Word of the Day: KELDER

ETYMOLOGY
from Dutch kelder a (cellar)

EXAMPLE
“… Angell of light, und darknesse too, I doubt,
Inspir’d within, and yet posses’d without.
Majestick twilight in the state of grace,
Yet with an excommunicated face.
Charles and his Mask are of a different mint,
A Psalme of mercy in a miscreant print.
The Sun wears Midnight, Day is beetle-brow’d,
And Lightning is in Keldar of a cloud. …”

From: The Character of a London-Diurnall with Severall Select Poems
By John Cleveland, 1647
“The Kings Disguise“

Word of the Day: NABALITIC

ETYMOLOGY
either from nabal (a churlish or miserly person) + -itic;
or from nabalite (a foolish person) + -ic

EXAMPLE
“… since they see no reason, why these, as Christs Agents, and Gods Embassadours, should not as well deserve, and enjoy a competent, and comely maintenance, as any publique Officers, either Civill, or Military: Who have more of power to exact, but not more of right, either humane or divine; nor yet more of merit, to require their payes, and fees; Yea, Ministers still dare to hope, that those in power have not any such Nabalitick and churlish humor, as to feast those that shear, and sometimes slay the sheep; while they starve the Shepheards: …”

From: Hieraspistes a Defence by way of Apology for the Ministry and Ministers of the Church of England
By John Gauden, 1653

Word of the Day: CONDOG

ETYMOLOGY
conjectured to be a whimsical imitation of concur (cur = dog);
but no evidence has been found of its actual origin

EXAMPLE
“… Alcum. So is it, and often doth it happen, that the iust proportion of the fire and all things concurre.

Rafe. Concurre, condogge. I will away.

Alcum. Then away. …”

From: Gallathea
By John Lyly, 1592

Word of the Day: PECKSNIFF

ETYMOLOGY
from the name of Mr. Pecksniff, a hypocritical character in Charles Dickens’s novel “The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit“

EXAMPLE
“… Should Welby Pugin ever favour us with a Supplement to his Contrasts, he will uo doubt bring forward as one most egregious instance of architectural bathos the unlucky structure commented upon in the preceding paragraph. He might also hold up for reprehension a good many Pecksniff specimens of Gothic and Tudor of very recent date – certainly more recent than would be imagined, for some of them seem to be almost twin-brothers to Strawberry Hill, or else to the front of Guildhall …”

From: The Civil Engineer and Architect’s Journal, Scientific and Railway Gazette
Volume 7, 1844

Word of the Day: DECUMANAL

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin decumanus (very large, immense; usually of waves) + -al

EXAMPLE
“… till in the closure of the luxuriant period, the decumanal wave of the oddest whimzy of al, enforced the charmed spirits of the auditory (for affording room to its apprehension) suddenly to burst forth into a laughter; which commonly lasted just so long, as he had leasure to withdraw behind the skreen, shift off with the help of a Page, the suite he had on, apparel himself with another, and return to the stage to act afresh; for by that time their transported, disparpled, and sublimated fancies, by the wonderfully operating engines of his solacious inventions, had from the hight to which the inward scrues, wheeles, and pullies of his wit had elevated them, descended by degrees into their wonted stations, he was ready for the personating of another carriage; …”

From: Εκσκυβαλαυρον [Ekskybalauron]: or, The Discovery of a Most Exquisite Jewel, More Precious Then Diamonds Inchased in Gold, the Like Whereof Was Never Seen in Any Age
By Thomas Urquhart, 1652