Lexico

Word of the Day: OFFENCIOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from offence (an illegal act) + -ious

EXAMPLE
“…Retes
Tis Ramus, the Kings professor of Logick.

Guise,
Stab him.

Ramus.
O good my Lord, wherein hath Ramus been so offencious.

Guise.
Marry sir, in hauing a smack in all,
And yet didst neuer sound any thing to the depth.
Was it not thou that scoftes the Organon,
And said it was a heape of vanities?
He that will be a flat decotamest,
And seen in nothing but Epetomies:
Is in your iudgment thought a learned man….”

From: The Massacre at Paris:
With the Death of the Duke of Guise
By Christopher Marlowe, a1593

Word of the Day: REBELLANT

ETYMOLOGY
from Old French rebellant, pr. pple. of rebeller (to rebel),
(used as adj. and n. in 14th–16th c.)

EXAMPLE 1 (for adj.)
“…That other infortuny is exterialle, that man scholde haue his inferior rebellante to hym, in that he was inobediente to God his maker…”

From: The Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland During the Middle Ages,
Edited by Churchill Babington, 1869
Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden Monachi Cestrensis (Harley MS. 2261)
By Ranulf Higden

EXAMPLE 2 (for n.)
“…With Tantalus hild starued Ghosts, whose pleasure was their paine,
Whose euer Hords had neuer vse, and gettings had no gaine.
To Besides assisted Soules of Vnthrifts, whose supplies
Did passe from them as Sea through Cieues, whose wastes no wealthes suffise.
Vnto Ixeon stood their Sprights that had their lusts for law,
Rebellants to a common good, and sinning without awe.
To Titius lastly ioyned Ghosts, whose hearts did emptie hate
As Todes their poyson, growing when it seemeth to abate.…”

From: Albions England; or, historicall map of the same island
By William Warner,

Word of the Day: EXFLUNCTICATE

ETYMOLOGY
quasi-Latin elaboration of flunk (to fail)

EXAMPLE
“…Though at my old Kenawa home,
They named me there afore I come,
For short, and caze it was my natur,
‘Half hoss and half an alligator’;
But that is nuther here nor there;
But I’m resolved, and now declare,
I’ll go along with you and fight,
As long as I can see the light;
If not, may I be regulated, —
Tee-totally exfluncticated…”

From: The Forest Rangers:
A Poetic Tale of the Western Wilderness in 1794
By Andrew Coffinberry, 1842

Word of the Day: KITCHENIST

ETYMOLOGY
from kitchen (n.) + -ist

EXAMPLE
“…If, notwithstanding All that hath bin said,
TOBACCONISTS will still hold on their Trade,
And by their Practice still hold vp their Name,
Though Iewes, though Diuels, better suite the same;
I’le say no more but only This, of This:
Henceforth, let none whose meaner Lot it is
To liue in Smoak; Lime-burners, Alchymists,
Brick-makers, Brewers, Colliers, Kitchenists;
Let Salamanders, Swallowes, Bacon-stitches,
Red-Sprats, red-Herings, and like Chimnie-wretches,
Think no Disparagement, nor hold them base:
TOBACCONISTS their Companie will grace,
And teach them make a Vertue of Necessitie…”

From: Tobacco Battered; & the pipes shattered
By Josuah Sylvester, 1617

Word of the Day: HIRQUITALLIENCY

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin hirquitallire (of infants: to acquire a strong voice) [from hircus (he-goat)] + -ency

EXAMPLE
“…Here it was that passion was active, and action passive, they both being overcome by other, and each the conquerour. To speak of her hirquitalliency at the elevation of the pole of his microcosme, or of his luxuriousness to erect a gnomon on her horizontal dyal, will perhaps be held by some to be expressions full of obscoeness, and offensive to the purity of chaste ears; yet seeing she was to be his wife, and that she could not be such without consummation of marriage, which signifieth the same thing in effect, it may be thought, as definitiones logicae verificantur in rebus, if the exerced act be lawful, that the diction which suppones it, can be of no greater transgression, unless you would call it a solaecisme, or that vice in grammar which imports the copulating of the masculine with the feminine gender…”

From: Εκσκυβαλαυρον (Ekskybalauron – The Jewel )
By Sir Thomas Urquhart, 1652

Word of the Day: LACHRYMATE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin lacrimat-, past participial stem of lacrimare (to weep), from lacrima (tear)

EXAMPLE
“…Whose cruell tortures did infest her heart:
For ev’ry one did taxe this Virgins Fate,
And her sad sorrowes caus’d them Lachrymate:
Since in her passions she was so extreame,
For to her griefe she limited no meane;
Which so surprest her, that she seem’d ro bee
The very abstract of calamity…”

From: A small treatise betwixt Arnalte and Lucenda
entituled The Evill-Intreated Lover, or The Mmelancholy Knight
By San Pedro de Diego
Translation by L. Lawrence, 1639

PRONUNCIATION
LACK-ruh-mayt

Word of the Day: MIMPETTY MIMP

ETYMOLOGY
from mimp (prim, precise, affected; also, n. a prim or affectedly modest woman)

EXAMPLE
“…It is not many people indeed I should praise so warmly; but as to all squeamish prudery in not speaking what one thinks, I’ve no notion of it, though I am so teased and so lectured by the old folks that I sit mimpetty mimp before them merely for peace sake; but I don’t see why one may not admire an handsome man as well as an handsome stature, or an handsome animal, or any thing else that is beautiful…”

From: The Young Philosopher:
A Novel in Four Volumes
By Charlotte Smith, 1798

Word of the Day: RASCABILIAN

ETYMOLOGY
derived from rascabilia (rascals collectively)

EXAMPLE
“…Then next, I bequeath to the whole societie of these my carousing companions, as followeth: Namely, drinke, more drinke, a little more drinke, yet more drinke, then a little modicum of Bakers bread: then drinke againe, then more drinke, then yet a little more drinke, and so forth. Item, I appoint Arthur ale-man, the sole and onely Executor of this my last Testament, making Huf-cap the Hunts-man, and Small-braines the Shoomaker, my ioynt superuisers; allowing to euery of them, a full pipe of Tobacco for his paines taken that way. Witnesse hereunto, the whole Rascabilian rabblement of this our damnable Crew…”

From: Tobacco Tortured,
or, The filthie fume of tobacco refined shewing all sorts of subiects, that the inward taking of tobacco fumes, is very pernicious vnto their bodies.
By John Deacon, 1616

Word of the Day: INQUIROUS

ETYMOLOGY
from inquire + -ous

EXAMPLE
“…In our sixe dayes toile, traversing this Countrey, wee had many troubles and snarlings from these Savages; who somtimes over-laboured us with Bastinados, and were still inquirous, what I was, and whither I went; yea and enough for the Dragoman to save my life and liberty…”

From: The totall discourse, of the rare adventures, and painefull peregrinations of long nineteene yeares trauayles from Scotland, to the most famous kingdomes in Europe, Asia, and Affrica,
By William Lithgow, 1632

Word of the Day: FORCELY

ETYMOLOGY
from force (n.) + -ly

EXAMPLE (for adv.)
“…Luke we the fische that swimmis in the se,
Luke we in eirth all kynd of bestyall,
The foulis fair sa forcelie thay fle,
Scheddand the air with pennis grit and small;
Syne luke to man that he maid last of all
Lyke to his image and his similitude;
Be thir we knaw that God is fair and gude.…”

From: The morall fabillis of Esope the Phrygian
Translation by Robert Henryson
The Preiching of the Swallow. a1500