Author: Lexico

Word of the Day: HICKSCORNER

ETYMOLOGY
see definition above

EXAMPLE
“… but Plato moe tymes than one auised hym, with sacrifice to purchace the fauour of the Graces, that is, so to applye hymself, yt his saiynges and dooynges might haue more grace and bee better accepted & taken of the worlde. zeno beeyng outright alltogether a Stoique vsed to call Socrates the scoffer, or the Hicke scorner of the citee of Athenes: because of his merie conceiptes and tauntyng, that he neuer ceassed to vse: but yet is there no manne, but he will saie that Socrates was a more godly feloe then either of those twoo whiche I named last afore. …”

From: Apophthegmes that is to saie, prompte, quicke, wittie and sentencious saiynges, of certain emperours, kynges, capitaines, philosophiers and oratours,
By Desiderius Erasmus
Translated by Nicholas Udall. 1542

Word of the Day: OBLIGATORIOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin obligatorius (imposing obligation) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“… quharethrow he culd nocht contract, trespas, or do ony sic deid as were obligatorious, quherbj he mycht be oblist to pvnisment of his persoune, likeas he mycht nocht oblise him in his gudis …”

From: Ancient Criminal Trials in Scotland
Compiled from the original records and manuscripts
By Robert Pitcairn, 1833
Slaughter committed by an alleged Madman or Furious person – A.D. 1554

Word of the Day: SLAWSY-GAWSY

ETYMOLOGY
of uncertain origin;
possibly from slaw, Scots variant of slow

EXAMPLE
“… Quod scho, “My clype, my unspaynit gyane,
With moderis mylk yit in your mychane,
My belly huddrun, my swete hurle bawsy,
My huny gukkis, my slawsy gawsy,
Your musing waild perse and harte of stane,
Tak gud confort, my grit heidit slawsy,
Fow leis me that graceless gane. …”

From: The Poems of William Dunbar 
Edited by Priscilla Bawcutt, 1998 (Association for Scottish Literary Studies nos. 27 and 28)
Composed a1513

Word of the Day: MOLIMINOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin molimin- molimen (effort); (from moliri (to make an effort, undertake, attempt)) + -ous

EXAMPLE (for adj. 1.)
“… In all great distresses the body of the people was ever constrained to rise, and by the force of a Major party to put an end to all intestine strifes, and make a redresse of all publique grievances, but many times calamities grew to a strange height, before so combersome a body could be raised; and when it was raised, the motions of it were so distracted and irregular, that after much spoile and effution of bloud, sometimes onely one Tyranny was exchanged for another: till some way was invented to regulate the motions of the peoples moliminous body, I think arbitrary rule was most safe for the world, but now since most Countries have found out an Art and peaceable Order for Publique Assemblies, whereby the people may assume its owne power to do itselfe right without disturbance to it selfe, or injury to Princes, he is very unjust that will oppose this Art and order. …”

From: Observations upon some of His Majesties late answers and expresses
By Henry Parker, 1642

PRONUNCIATION
moh-LIM-uh-nuhss

Word of the Day: SHAY-BRAINED

ETYMOLOGY
of unknown origin;
possibly a variant or alteration of shanny-brained;
from shanny (bashful, shy) + brained

EXAMPLE
“… But while I take this shay-brain’d course,
And like a fool run to and fro,
Master, perhaps, may sell the horse!
Therefore this instant home I’ll go. …”

From: Wild Flowers; or, Pastoral and Local Poetry
By Robert Bloomfield, 1806

Word of the Day: LUSKISH

ETYMOLOGY
obsolete lusk (an idle or lazy fellow, a sluggard) + -ish

EXAMPLE
“… And as it fareth in the traunces and slepes that folke fall in by the bely – so fareth it lykewyse in the traunces and slepes that folke fall in by those partes that are benethe the bely. For whan the rage is thereof (as Tyndall sayeth) ouer passed, and that they haue in theyr traunce and theyr slepe played out all theyr luskysshe lustes … than they awake. …”

From: The Second Parte of the Confutacion of Tyndals answere in whyche is also confuted the chyrche that Tyndale deuyseth
By Thomas More, 1533

Word of the Day: LOSENGE

ETYMOLOGY
from Old French losenger = Provencal lauzengar, Spanish lisonjar, Portuguese lisonjear, Italian lusingare; 
from Old French losenge, losange (flattery) = Provencal lauzenga, lauzenja, Spanish, 
Portuguese lisonja;
apparently adopted by the other Romance languages, from Provencal lauzenga = Old French loenge (French louange) (praise)
from medieval Latin laudemia, a derivative Latin laud-em (praise)

EXAMPLE
“… Thanne began Glaucus to call her and losenge her. …”

From: The Metamorphoses of Ovid 
Translated by William Caxton, 1480

Word of the Day: CAPERATE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin caperat- participial stem of caperare (to frown)

EXAMPLE (for vb. 2.)
“… the first is called a Limmon which is turbinated with an oblong effigies, is colorated herbaceously, and turgid with a more acid acerb and frigid succe, corticated with a thinner pill, and not so amare as an Orenge: the second is the more vulgar Citron, very like the former, but its colour is more luteous, its pill more crasse, rugous and caperated, and it selfe more crasse, odorate, medicative and convenient for antidotes: the third is greatest called Pom-Citron, orbiculated like a melon, with a thick carnous pill, somtimes aequalling a mans nayle in crassitude, with a concolorated superficies, which we call Poncerium, Citroniatum, Assyrian Apple, and Adams Apple, all which names seem to be deflected from the Tree, and as they are alike in Idea, so also in facultyes. …”

From: A Medicinal Dispensatory, containing the whole body of physick discovering the natures, properties, and vertues of vegetables, minerals, & animals
By Jean de Renou
Translated by Richard Tomlinson, 1657
“Of Limmons, Citrons.“

Word of the Day: PLANILOQUENT

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin planiloquus (plain-speaking) (from planus [plain] + -loquus (from loqui [to speak])) + -ent

EXAMPLE
“… Dear Editor: Please continue your piperitious, planiloquent polemics against those omphaloskeptical, onychophagic, uxoravalent, philalethic, laodicean, opisthoporeiac, equivorous, kakorrhaphiophobiac, megalomaniacal, porlockian, contortuplicate, acritochromatic, and tragomaschaliac pseudoacademicians.
Cordially
Dr. Panos D. Bardis
Editor, Social Sciences …”

From: Maledicta (International Journal of Verbal Aggression, Volume 1 Number 2)
In Defense of Anticacademoidism
Edited by Reinhold Aman, 1978