ETYMOLOGY
aphetic form of Old French enfaunt, enfant (infant);
The shortened form has not been found in French, but Italian has the corresponding fante (boy, servant, foot-soldier), whence German fant
EXAMPLE
“… The eiȝt day the fawnt shal be circumcidid. …”
From: Bible (Wycliffite, early version) Leviticus 12:3
ETYMOLOGY
from philo–, combining form (loving, having an affection for) + Latin feles (cat) + -ist
EXAMPLE
“… An extract from the Register of Cat’s Eden has got abroad, whereby it appears that the Laureate, Dr. Southey, who is known to be a philofelist, and confers honours upon his Cats according to their services, has raised one to the highest rank in peerage, promoting him through all its degrees by the following titles, His Serene Highness the Arch-Duke Rumpelstilzchen, Marquis Macbum, Earl Tomlemagne, Baron Raticide, Waowlher and Skaratchi. …”
From: The Doctor, &c.
By Robert Southey, 1847
ETYMOLOGY
from seven + the plural of night
EXAMPLE
“… Among other, none was either more grateful to the beholders, or more noble in it selfe, then iusts, both with sword & launce, mainteined for a seuen-night together: wherein that Nation doth so excel, both for comelines and hablenes, that from neighbour-countries they ordinarilye come, some to striue, some to learne, some to behold. …”
From: The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia
By Sir Philip Sidney, 1590
ETYMOLOGY
formed on French habiller (to dress), or English habiliment (array, attire, dress), after adjectives etymologically formed in -atory
EXAMPLE
“… The nether garments of this petit-maitre consisted of a pair of blue tight pantaloons, profusely braided, and terminating in Hessian boots, adorned with brass spurs of the most burnished resplendency; a black velvet waistcoat, studded with gold stars, was backed by a green frock coat, covered, notwithstanding the heat of the weather, with fur, and frogged and cordonné with the most lordly indifference, both as to taste and expense: a small French hat, which might not have been much too large for my lord of ——, was set jauntily in the centre of a system of long black curls, which my eye, long accustomed to penetrate the arcana of habilatory art, discovered at once to be a wig. A fierce black mustachio, very much curled, wandered lovingly from the upper lip towards the eyes, which had an unfortunate prepossession for eccentricity in their direction. …”
From: Pelham: Or, The Adventures of a Gentleman
By Edward George E.L. Bulwer- Lytton, 1828
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin colloqui + –acious, after loquacious
EXAMPLE
“… What importance can be attached to the ipse divits of soliloquising Philosophy, when compared to the issue of those phrenological bumps which are developed by a numerous society of colloquacious philosophers knocking their heads together? What is the Novum Organum of Lord Bacon, when compared with the volume of Reports just published by the C.N. K.C.? Is it not as the great clumsy castings of the Southwark lron Bridge, compared with the ferruginous refinements of the smithery, in which the bellows, the hammer, and the file, co-operate; …”
From: Fraser’s Magazine for Town and Country
Vol, XVI. July to December 1837
Blue Friar Pleasantries
No. XV. Report of a Visit to the Consolidated National Knowledge Company
ETYMOLOGY
from gin (skill, ingenuity, obs.) + -ous
EXAMPLE
” …and man’s flesh is so savoury and so pleasant that when they have taken to man’s flesh they will never eat the flesh of other beasts, though they should die of hunger. For many men have seen them leave the sheep they have taken and eat the shepherd. It is a wonderfully wily and gynnous; beast, and more false than any other beast to take all advantage, for he will never fly but a little save when he has need, for he will always abide in his strength, and he hath good breath, for every day it is needful to him, for every man that seeth him chaseth him away and crieth after him …
From: The Master of Game
By Edward, second duke of York, a1425
(The oldest English book on hunting)
Edited by Wm. A. and F. Baillie-Grohman, 1909
ETYMOLOGY
formed on exquisititious (adj.), from Latin exquisit- participial stem of exquirere (to search out)
EXAMPLE
“… It is enough that the Priests and learned Men explain the difficult Passages of it to the People, and write Commentaries for the Use of the more curious and exquisitive. The Persians, on the contrary, think it no Disparagement to the Arabick, or Profanation of the Sense, to translate this cursed Book into their own Language; and Copies are frequent among them. …”
From: The Philosophical Transactions and Collections
to the End of the Year MDCC (1700)
By John Lowthorp, 1731
Chapter II, Chronology, History, Antiquities
ETYMOLOGY
from Italian malevolo, from Latin malevolus (enemy, foe, ill-wisher)
EXAMPLE
“… We had many pamphlets commended daily unto us, The integrity of a parliament; how that it could have no sinister end: as if a multitude could be void of knaves to contrive, and of fools to concur in mischief. Many plots were discovered daily against our religion and our laws, in which ye Machiavels of Westminster, ye Malevolos might have claimed the chiefest livery, as Beelzebub’s nearest attendants in that kind: but they must be fathered still upon our old justicers; and indeed they can do little, that cannot bely an enemy. …”
From: The British Bellman
Printed in the Year Of the Saints Fear. 1648
ETYMOLOGY
from quick (endowed with life, animate [because it shakes or moves]) + mire
EXAMPLE
“… An euyll wyfe hathe nought ado to departe from her houſe leest that she go not in to the quycke myre but and she be commaunded a thynge she wyll do clene the contrary. Certaynly it is a vylaynous reproche unto a woman whan she wyll not obeye unto her huſbande. Wyues and maydens loke that ye lyue honestly and kepe chaſtyte / to the ende that ye wynnę and purchace good fame and good renowne. …”
From: The Shyppe of Fooles
By Sebastian Brant
Translated by Henry Watson, 1509
ETYMOLOGY
from Middle French abrevier, from Latin abbreviare (to abbreviate, to shorten)
EXAMPLE
“… Fyrst, diuide the denominator by hys numerator, and if anye number doe remaine, let your diuisor be diuided by the same number, and so you must continue vntyll you haue so diuided yt there may nothing remaine, then is it to be vnderstande, that your last diuisor (wherat you did ende, and that 0. did remaine after your last diuision) is the greatest number, by the which you must abreuiat, as you did in the laste example, but in case that your last diuisor be 1. it is a token that the same number can not be abreuied. Example, of 54/11 diuide 81. (which is the denominator) by 54. which is his numerator, and there resteth 27. then diuide 54. by 27. and there remaineth nothing, wherefore your last diuisor 27. is the number, by the which you must abreuiat 54/81 as in the last example is specifyed. …”
From: The Welspring of Sciences, which teacheth the perfecte worke and practise of arithmeticke both in vvhole numbers & fractions
By Humfrey Baker, 1564
The thirde Chapter treateth of abbreuiation of one great broken number into a lesser broken
Lexicophilia 