ETYMOLOGY
from fire (n.) + flaught (a flash; a flash of lightning)
EXAMPLE (for n. 1.)
“… Bot lo, onon, a wonder thing to tell!
Ane huge bleys of flambys braid doun fell
Furth of the clowdis, at the left hand straucht,
In maner of a lychtnyng or fyre flaucht,
And dyd alicht rycht in the sammyn sted
Apon the crown of fair Lavinias hed; …”
From: The Æneid of Virgil
Translated by Gavin Douglas, a1522
ETYMOLOGY
of unknown origin
EXAMPLE (for n. 1.)
“… And I haue found it trew
Drinke now whyle it is new
And ye may it broke
It shall make you loke
yonger than ye be
yeres two or thre
For ye may proue it by me
Behold she sayd and se
How bright I am of ble
Ich am not cast away
That can my husband say
Whan we kys and play
In lust and in lykyng
He calleth me his whytyng
His mullyng and his nytyng
His nobbes and his conny
His swetyng and his honny
With bas my prety bonny
Thou art worth good and monny
This make I my falyre fonny
Tyll that he dreme and dronny
For after all our sport
Than wyll he rout and suort
Than swetely togither wely
As two pygges in a sty. …”
From: Here after foloweth certayne bokes
By John Skelton, 1545
The tunnyng of Elynour Rummynge
ETYMOLOGY
from Greek κακόδοξος (kakodoxos) (of the wrong opinion)
EXAMPLE
“… But that Cacodox Alastor has not only abandon’d the true Principles of Reason and Religion, as identify’d with those of the Protestant Reformation and Church of England, but also those of their fore-Fathers of High-Church …”
From: Athenæ Britannicæ: or, A Critical History of the Oxford and Cambridge writers and writings
By Myles Davies, 1716
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin edaci- (nominative edax), from edere (to eat) + -ous
EXAMPLE (for n. 1.)
“… Nor is this the sole circumstance that should, in mere justice, be
considered in connection with the rise of Christian monachism; for
before the mere facts can be understood, and certainly before the due
measure of blame can be assigned to the parties concerned, it is
indispensable that we divest ourselves of the prejudices, physical,
moral, and intellectual, which belong to our austere climate, high-toned
irritability, edacious appetites, and pampered constitutions; to our
rigid style of thinking, and to our commercial habits of feeling. …”
From: Natural History of Enthusiasm
By Isaac Taylor, 1829
ETYMOLOGY
from back (n.) or (adv.) + friend;
possibly originally a friend who ‘kept back,’ and did not come forward to assist, and so was no real friend
EXAMPLE (for n. 1.)
“… And as for my lorde chamberleyn, he is nott yit comen to town. When he comythe, than schall I woote whatt to doo. Syr John off Parre is yowre freende and myn, and I gaffe hym a fayre armyng sworde wyth-in thys iij dayes. I harde somwhatt by hym off a bakk freende off yowrys; ye schall knowe moore here-afftre. …”
From: Paston Letters and Papers of the Fifteenth Century
By Paston family, 1472
Published for the Early English Text Society – Edited by Norman Davis, Richard Beadle, and Colin Richmond. 2004
ETYMOLOGY
from en- + braid (to upbraid, to reproach);
possibly aphetic from abraid (to upbraid)
EXAMPLE
“… No besynes of famylyar thynges shal agayn your wyll departe you from suche plesaunt ydelnes, for I truste to oure goddes that my lytil feelde, of the which I am enbrayded by Corneli, shal suffise for our dayly lyvelode. …”
From: Gaius Flaminius refutes Publius Cornelius, his Rival for the Hand of Lucretia
In Tully of Old Age and Friendship
Translated by William Caxton, 1481
ETYMOLOGY
from by- + wipe (sarcastic reproof or rebuff)
EXAMPLE (for n. 1.)
“… Wherefore should ye begin with the devil’s name, descanting upon the number of your opponents? Wherefore that conceit of Legion with a by-wipe? Was it because you would have men take notice how you esteem them, whom through all your book so bountifully you call your brethren? We had not thought that Legion could have furnished the Remonstrant with so many brethren. …”
From: Animadversions upon the Remonstrants Defence Against Smectymnuus
By John Milton, 1641
ETYMOLOGY
from French medisance, from mesdisant present participle of mesdire (to speak evil), from mes- (mis-) + dire (to say)
EXAMPLE
“… Let every one then make this good use of the respect and difference which is given to their persons or conditions; the taking upon them to discredit this so pernitious fashion of receiving (as justifyable Presents from their observers) the desamation of their brother; for when this humour of Medisance springeth in the head of the company, it runnes fluently into the lesse noble parts; but when it riseth first but in the inferior and dependent persons, it requireth a force of wit and ingeniosity to raise and diffuse it upward, which capacity is not very familiar: …”
From: Miscellanea Spiritualia: or, Devout Essaies
By Walter Montagu, 1648
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin rorulentus (dewy); from ror-, ros (dew) + ‑ulentus (‑ulent)
EXAMPLE
“… Anaurus, no such River on Mount Ida, or within any part of the Trojan Territories,
Being only a Name given to any Current raised by Rain, and not sending up rorulent Steams or Vapors, as all or most Rivers do,
Yet apply’d as a Name to several Rivers, not properly, but to shew how they are qualifi’d like that unſteaming Current …“
From: The Tragedies of L. Annæus Seneca the Philosopher;
Translated by Sir Edward Sherburne, 1702
ETYMOLOGY
from obsolete French vainquissant, present participle of vainquir, a rare variant of vaincre (to conquer, overcome)
EXAMPLE
“… Full glad was Eromena to heare of such things, acknowledging her thankes to heaven for doing them in the favour of her girle. Congratulations she received not as a woman in child-bed, but as a Captaine vanquissant of a battel. Many times and often kissed shee her sweet babe, who without either crying or weeping, beheld stedfastly the faire light of the world; by no meanes possible would the sweet little one endure the swathing bands, but would with a lovely fiercenesse push them off her. …”
From: Eromena, or, Love and Revenge
Written originally in the Thoscan tongue, by Cavalier Giovanni Francesco Biondi
Translated by James Hayward, 1632
Lexicophilia 