ETYMOLOGY
from Latin oberration- oberratio (action of wandering around or about),
from Latin oberrat- past participial stem of oberrare (to wander about) + -io (ion)
EXAMPLE
Jasmine is a travel writer and describes her oberrations in her soon to be published book.
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin adlevare, allevare (to lift up, raise, relieve, lighten),
from ad– + levare (to raise )
EXAMPLE
“… there was a plat devised by me and penned by Mr. Southwell, for the winter garrison in such season as th’ enemy could not keep the field, to th’ intent his Majesty’s charges might be aleived, and the victual spared until the year should open: at which time it was thought his Majesty would resolve with what numbers his pieces might be defended. …”
From: The Works of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
And of Sir Thomas Wyatt, The Elder
Edited by George Frederick Nott, 1815
Letter XXVI. The Earl of Surrey to Mr. Secretary Paget, 15 March, 1544
ETYMOLOGY
apparently shortened from baty bummill (a lazy or feckless person; an idler), perhaps by association with bum (the buttocks)
EXAMPLE
“… For cozy skoug and rest;
Sae did that Abbey people a’
Effrey’t flee to the Frater-ha’,
Canon, and monk, and dean, and prior,
And batie-bum, and beggin’ freir,
A congregation wode wi’ fear,
Though fat, in dulesome dreiry cheir: …”
From: Papistry Storm’d
Or, The Dingin’ Down O’ The Cathedral
By William Tennant, 1827
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin circumforaneus (from circum + forum (market)) + -ous
EXAMPLE
“… Water is good for any thing: It will part dogs, it will make Pottage, and howsoe’r and wheresoe’r the Barber found out this recipe for a dead sleep, it was no dry device, Veritatem è puteo hauriunt tantam, the truth of it is, the very Probatum for a Lethargy, and drawn out of a deep well cures a deep sleep. The Moon was alwaies beholding to the Pleiades, for waking of Endymion. I doe believe the Barber learned it of a Mountebanck, and ’twas first taught him to awaken drunken customers, who fell asleep in trimming-while, and with the sprinkling of this Frigida, were restor’d to their senses againe, and paid for the nap, as well as the snip. But the circumforaneous Emperick rais’d his Fame, in using this admirable Element upon any other disease. …”
From: Pleasant Notes upon Don Quixot
By Edmund Gayton, 1654
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin lepidus (pleasant; charming; witty)
EXAMPLE
“… In his daily walks into the fields, nothing pleased him so much as the chat of some well-informed fellow of the college, who would join him in quoting ‘sweet extemporaries’ from Gelius or Macrobius, or ‘in guessing at the lepid derivation’ of English words. To those who were of his own standing, it is to be feared that his conceit and pedantry proved in many cases offensive. …”
From: Simonds D’Ewes in John Howard Marsden’s College Life in the Time of James the First, 1851
Chapter IV: D’ewes’s Diligence in Study, and His Strict Observance of the Duties of Religion, c1619
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin contradictorius (contradictory) + -ous
EXAMPLE (for adj. 1.)
“… after the grete clerk Plinius, libro quinto, capitulo decimo octavo, what distaunce is betwene cenit of oure hedde and a poynte contradictorious to hit in heuyn, soe moche distaunce is from the este in to the weste;…”
From: Polychronicon
By Ranulf Higden
Translated by John Trevisa, a1475
ETYMOLOGY
of origin uncertain
EXAMPLE (for n.1.)
“… And as for Ser John Hevenyngham, Ser John Wyndefeld, and othere wurchepfull men ben mad but here doggeboltes, the which I suppose wull turne hem to diswurchep here-after…”
From: Paston Letters and Papers of the fifteenth century
Edited by Norman Davis, Richard Beadle, and Colin Richmond, 2004
Letter from Margaret Paston to John Paston, 1465
ETYMOLOGY
of uncertain origin;
possibly from quiz (n.) + -by
EXAMPLE
“… Alibi. What wou’d I do then?
Air. Aye, Sir, what wou’d you do then?
Soph. Cou’dn’t he push a little feeble old quisby like you down into a chair?
Alibi, How, pray?
Soph. Shew him how, Robin?
Air. Why there – (puts him into a chair) Just that way
Alibi. Well, now Old Quisby’s down in the chair – what wou’d he do then?…”
From: The Toy
By John O’Keeffe, 1789
ETYMOLOGY
from miso- (hatred or dislike of), + Greek γελαστός (laughable) + -ic;
apparently after agelastic (never laughing, hating laughter)
EXAMPLE
“… We have in this world men whom Rabelais would call agelasts; that is to say, non-laughers; men who are in that respect as dead bodies, which if you prick them do not bleed. The old grey boulder-stone that has finished its peregrination from the rock to the valley, is as easily to be set rolling up again as these men laughing. No collision of circumstances in our mortal career strikes a light for them. It is but one step from being agelastic to misogelastic, and the μῖσογέλως, the laughter-hating, soon learns to dignify his dislike as an objection in morality. …”
From: New Quarterly Magazine, Vol. 8, 1877
On the Idea of Comedy, and of the Uses of the Comic Spirit
By George Meredith
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin laetificat-, participial stem of laetificare (to make glad),
from laetificus (gladdening), from laetus (joyful)
EXAMPLE
“… There is nothing that doeth comfort the heart so much beside God, as honest myrth and good companie. And wine moderately taken, doeth letificate and doeth comforte the hearte, and good bread doeth confyrme and doeth stablyshe a mannes heart. …”
From: The Breuiary of Helthe
By Andrew Boorde, 1547
Lexicophilia 