Author: Lexico

Word of the Day: EXITIABLE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin exitiabilis (causing or bringing death or destruction, fatal, deadly),
from exitium (a going out, destruction) + -abilis (-able) 

EXAMPLE
“… But this is very necessarye to be knowen, after what sorte he handled themperoure, when he toke thaigle by the throte? In the time of Iohan the .xii. and Otto the firste there was stablyshed a greuouse intollerable, hurtefull and exitiable othe to all thempire, to be sworne of all emperours in this maner. …”

From: The Beginning and Endynge of all Popery, or Popishe Lyngedome
By Walter Lynne, 1548

Word of the Day: BROW-SICK

ETYMOLOGY
from brow + sick

EXAMPLE
“… Besides though, I confess, Parnassus hardly,
Yet Helicon this Summer-time is dry:
Our wits were at an ebbe or very low,
And, to say troth, I think they cannot flow.
But yet a gracious influence from you
May alter Nature in our  Brow–sick crew.
Have patience then, we pray, and sit a while;
And, if a laugh be too much, lend a smile. …”

From: The Last Remains of Sr John Suckling
A Prologue of the Author’s to a Masque at Witten, 1659

Word of the Day: FUSTY-RUSTY

ETYMOLOGY
from fusty (adj.)

EXAMPLE
“…There is a fashion in these things, which the Doctor seems to have forgot. But what shall we say of his fusty-rusty remarks upon Henry and Emma? I agree with him, that morally considered both the knight and his lady, are bad characters, and that each exhibits an example which ought not to be followed. …”

From: The Life and Posthumous Writings of William Cowper
By William Hayley, Volume III, 1804
Letter XLVII. To the Rev. William Unwin, January, 5, 1782

Word of the Day: DRUMBELO

also DROMMELL, DROMOS (plural), DRUMBLE (Eng. dial.), DRUMMIL (Eng. dial.)

ETYMOLOGY
possibly from dialect drumble (to talk meaninglessly or monotonously, to blather or ramble)

EXAMPLE
“… This before remēbred ſupplicatiō was attentiuely noted & much feared, amongſt ye curſed companie of drouſie dreaming Dromos, I mean Baals Baldons yt mungrel Maſſalians & cruel churchrobbers whome it touched moſt in effect, in ſo muche that the groſſe Goſpeller, Ethnike Epicures, beaſtly bellygods, wicked worldlyngs and ſpirituall ſhauelyngs, were fallen in a pelting chafe, the bloudy Biſhoppes broyled, the cullionly Cardinalles coured, the proude Priours frouned, the fat Abbots ſwet, the pore Friers curſed, the white Chanons chafed, the poore Nunnes puled like Puttockes, in concluſion, all the ſectarie Sathaniſts were ſore diſpleaſed …”

From: Polybius
The Hystories of the most Famous and Worthy Cronographer Polybius discoursing of the Warres betwixt the Romanes and Carthaginenses
Translated by C. Watson, 1568

Word of the Day: VIGILATE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin vigilat-, ppl. stem of vigilare (to remain awake)

EXAMPLE
“… Mountain Hawkweed with long slender stalks and small flowers. The flowers are in their expanded or vigilating state from five or six in the morning till about ten. …”

From: Philosophical Transactions
Volume L. Part II. For the Year 1758
Printed 1759
“Some Observations upon the Sleep of Plants”

Word of the Day: CUFFER

ETYMOLOGY
for. n. 1. & n. 2. from cuff (to strike with the fist or open hand, to buffet) + -er
for n. 4. from cuff (to discuss, to talk over) + -er

EXAMPLE (for n. 1.)
“… LET US LEARN THE LAWS OF FASTING, that we run not uncertainly, nor beat the air, nor be as such cuffers who fight as it were with their shadow. Fasting is a medicine; but physick, although it be never so good, that is prescribed, oftimes becomes unprofitable, by reason of the imprudence of him that useth it. …”

From: The Paschal or Lent-Fast, Apostolical & Perpetual at first deliver’d in a sermon preached before His Majesty in Lent and since enlarged
By Peter Gunning, 1662

Word of the Day: MULLIGRUBS

also MA-LE-GRUBBLES, MOULDY-GRUBS, MULLEYGRUBS, 
MULLIEGRUMS, MULLIGRUMPHS (Sc.), MULLYGRUBS

ETYMOLOGY
alteration (probably influenced by grub) of earlier mulliegrums, perhaps alteration (perhaps influenced by obsolete English mully (dusty, mouldy), from English mull + -y) of megrims (low spirits) 

EXAMPLE (for n. 1.)
“… Hee was as good as his word, and had no sooner spoke the worde, but he did as he spoke. with a heauy heart to the pallace the yeoman of the mouth departed, and rehearsed this second il successe, wherwith Peters successour was so in his mulliegrums that he had thought to haue buffeted him, & cursed him with bell, book, & cndle ; but he ruled his reaso[n], & bad him, thgh it cost a million, to let him haue that third that rested behind, and hie him expeditely thither, lest some other snatched it vp, and as fast from thence againe, for hee swore by his triple crowne, no crumme of refection woulde he gnaw vpon, till he had sweetened his lippes with it. …”

From: Lenten Stuffe
By Thomas Nashe, 1599
“The Praise of the Red Herring”

Word of the Day: PUDIBUND

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin pudibundus (easily ashamed, bashful, modest, also shameful),
from pudere (to make or be ashamed) + -bundus 

EXAMPLE (for adj. 1)
“… If any man do vse to drynke water with wyne, let it be purely strayned, & than seth it and after it be cold let hī put it to his wyne, but better it is to drīke with wyne stylled waters, specyally ye water of strawberes or the water of buglos or the water of endyue, or the water of cycory, or ye water of southystel, & dandelyon. And yf any man be cobred with the stone or doth burne in the pudybunde places, vse to drynke with whyte wyne the water of hawes, & the water of mylke, voke for thys mater in a boke of my makynge named the breuyary of health …”

From: A Compendyous Regyment or a Dyetary of Healthe Made in Mountpyllyer,
By Andrewe Boorde, 1542

PRONUNCIATION
PYOO-duh-bund

Word of the Day: GOTCH-GUTTED

ETYMOLOGY
from English dialect gotch (a big-bellied earthenware pot or jug) + bellied

EXAMPLE
“… Then did ye see e’r an old Bald-pated, Beetle-Brow’d, Gotch-Gutted, Squint-Ey’d, Sowr-Fac’d Ra­scal, the very Canker-Worm of Heaven and Earth, and Store-House o’ Mischief, Roguery, and Villany, leading o’ two good likely Girls? …”

From: Plautus’s Comedies, 
By Titus Maccius Plautus
Translated by Laurence Echard, 1694