Author: Lexico

Word of the Day: NIBSOME

ETYMOLOGY
from nib (a person of superior social standing or wealth; a gentleman [slang]) + – some

EXAMPLE
“…I ne’er was a nose, for the reg’lars came 
  Whenever a pannie was done:— 
Oh! who would chirp to dishonour his name,
And betrays his pals in a nibsome game 
  To the traps?—Not I for one! 
Let nobs in the fur trade hold their jaw
  And let the jug be free:— 
Let Davy’s dust and a well-faked claw 
For fancy coves be the only law, 
And a double-tongued squib to keep in awe 
  The chaps that flout at me!…”

From: The House Breaker’s Song
By G. W. M. Reynolds in Pickwick Abroad, 1839

Word of the Day: AGNATICAL

ETYMOLOGY
from agnaticus (agnatic – related through the male line) [from Latin agnatus (a relation by the father’s side) + -ic] + ‑al

EXAMPLE
“… There are but two waies by which hereditary or successive Monarchies do descend; the one is Lineal descent, the other Lineal, Agnatical, Cognatical or Collateral; or as we say, the one descends to the heire general, the other to the heire male. This latter by vertue of a Salique law takes place only in France; we will therefore see what may be said and objected against the former, and how the latter hath been observed in France, and of what Authority it is…”

From: Justice vindicated from the false fucus put upon it,
by Thomas White gent. Mr. Thomas Hobbs, and Hugo Grotius:
As also elements of power & subjection; wherein is demonstrated the cause of all humane Christian, and legal society
‘Of Inheritance and Succession’
By Roger Coke, 1660

Word of the Day: QUAGSWAG

ETYMOLOGY
from quag (of something soft or flabby: to quake) + swag (to move unsteadily, to sway)

EXAMPLE
“…Therefore Iohn Calfe her Cosen gervais once removed with a log from the woodstack, very seriously advised her not to put her selfe into the hazard of quagswagging in the Lee, to be scowred with a buck of linnen clothes, till first she had kindled the paper: this counsel she laid hold on, because he desired her to take nothing, and throw out, for Non de ponte vadit, qui cum sapientia cadit*: matters thus standing, seeing the Masters of the chamber of Accompts, or members of that Committee, did not fully agree amongst themselves in casting up the number of the Almanie whistles, whereof were framed those spectacles for Princes, which have been lately printed at Antwerp…”

*Non de ponte vadit, qui cum sapientia cadit = He who falls with wisdom does not go off the bridge

From: The second book of the works of Mr. Francis Rabelais, Doctor in Physick,
containing five books of the lives, heroick deeds, and sayings of Gargantua, and his sonne Pantagruel.
By François Rabelais
Translation by Thomas Urquhart, 1653

Word of the Day: IMPLUVIOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from im- + pluvious (characterized by rain, rainy) [from French pluvieux, or from Latin pluviosus (rain)]

EXAMPLE
“…Though (by the way) how that Expression should countenance an Impluvious state before the Flood, as the Latin Theory would make it, is not so clear and easie to be understood. For, if we consider, there was no Water upon that Earth, but what fell in Rain…”

From: Geologia: Or, A Discourse Concerning the Earth before the Deluge
By Erasmus Warren, 1690

Word of the Day: ADMINUTIVE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin adminut-, past participial stem of adminuere (to lessen, to diminish),
from ad- (to) + minuere (to lessen)

EXAMPLE
“…Bellarmine bewails the business, that ever since we began to count and call the Pope Antichrist, his kingdom hath greatly decreased. And Cotton the Jesuite confesses, that the authority of the Pope is incomparably less then it was; and that now the Christian Church is but adminutive …”

From: A Commentary or Exposition Upon all the Books of the New Testament.
By John Trapp, 1656
‘A Commentary Upon the Revelation’

Word of the Day: REFRACTARIOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin refractarius (obstinate, stubborn) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“…Thirdly, if we do well obserue the preposterous & disastrous studies of many schismaticall and refractarious spirits, their heate, their violence, description and vncharitablenes, how vnnaturally they do reiect & reuile their Mother, how passionately they doe blaspheme the Church, which God hath planted with his owne hand, and with what morosity they haue ab-alienated themselues from their Bretheren; they can by no pretext acquit themselues of great vndutifulnes vnto God, being so turbulent in his House, so disobedient to their Mother, & so farre exorbitant in all their courses; not much vnlike to mothes, that fret the cloth, wherein they breed; to water-boughes, which hurt the tree,…”

From: The Picture of a True Protestant:
or, Gods house and husbandry wherein is declared the duty and dignitie of all Gods children, both minister and people.
By Thomas Tuke, 1609

Word of the Day: PEEPY

ETYMOLOGY
from peep + -y

EXAMPLE (for adj. 1)
“…An individual of the latter kind is distinguished in his earliest petticoats – even before he has well left the nursery. He is then a poor, peepy wretch, with blear eyes, and one everlasting dingy night-cap. constantly sitting by the fire, to the great annoyance of the nurse, who frequently declares him to be more of an infant than even his younger brother the baby…”

From: Chambers Edinburgh Journal
Conducted by William Chambers, and Robert Chambers,
Volume I No. 49, Saturday, January 5, 1833,
‘The Domestic Man’

Word of the Day: EFFEROUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin efferus [from ex– out + ferus (fierce)] + -ous

EXAMPLE
“…But whatsoeuer be done with the foxes, yet from the teeth of that efferous beast, from the tuske of the wild bore, from the sucking and drawing of Romish horse-leaches, from the bloud-thirsty dropsie of Antichrist and his adherents, from the cursed Assasinates of Iesuites and their darke disciples, from the peremptory knife of Popish, worse then paganish, pruners, ô thou that art the root & generation of Dauid preserue our root and all his generation, together with his most glorious stemme…”

From: Vitis Palatina
A sermon appointed to be preached at VVhitehall vpon the Tuesday after the mariage of the Ladie Elizabeth her Grace.
By Bishop John King, 1614

Word of the Day: COMPUNCTIOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from stem of compunction (pricking of the conscience, remorse) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“…The Rauen himselfe is hoarse,
That croakes the fatall entrance of Duncan
Vnder my Battlements. Come you Spirits,
That tend on mortall thoughts, vnsex me here,
And fill me from the Crowne to the Toe, top-full
Of direst Crueltie: make thick my blood,
Stop vp th’ accesse, and passage to Remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of Nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keepe peace betweene
Th’ effect, and hit. Come to my Womans Brests,
And take my Milke for Gall, you murth’ring Ministers,
Where-euer, in your sightlesse substances,
You wait on Natures Mischiefe. Come thick Night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoake of Hell,
That my keene Knife see not the Wound it makes,
Nor Heauen peepe through the Blanket of the darke,
To cry, hold, hold….”

From: Macbeth
By William Shakespeare, a1616