Author: Lexico

Word of the Day: CHARGEFUL

ETYMOLOGY
from charge (n.) + -ful

EXAMPLE (for adj. 1.)
“… For so it is that whan the Kyng coude nat fynde with the seid Lowes bi alle the forseid costeley and chargefull ambassades but fraude, deceipte, and illusion, his Highnesse, of a grete prudence and foresight, purchased alliaunces and amyties with two the myghtyest princes of Fraunce, the Dukes of Burgoigne and Britaigne, …”

From: Literae Cantuarienses: The Letter Books of the Monastery of Christ Church, Canterbury, 1474
Edited by Joseph Brigstocke Sheppard, 1887

Word of the Day: CITTERN-HEAD

ETYMOLOGY
so called because the cittern (musical instrument) usually had a grotesque head carved at the extremity of the finger-board

EXAMPLE
“… Pedan.
I will not be put out of countenance.
Bero.
Because thou hast no face.
Pedan.
What is this?
Boyet.
A Cytterne head.
Duma.
The head of a Bodkin.
Bero.
A deaths face in a Ring.
Long.
The face of an olde Roman coyne, scarce seene.
Boyet.
The pummel of Caesars Fauchion.
Duma.
The carud-bone face on a Flaske.
Bero.
Saint Georges halfe cheeke in a Brooch. …”

From: A Pleasant Conceited Comedie called, Loues Labors Lost
By William Shakespeare, 1598

Word of the Day: TAWDRUM

ETYMOLOGY
from tawdry, with Latin ending -um 

EXAMPLE
“… Young Woman, young Woman, this is no time to think of Trifles, and gew gaws; the best dress is that of Repentance, let your Conscience be clean and neat within, and no matter for Lace and Tawdrums; dress up your Soul I say. …”

From: The Revenge, or, A Match in Newgate a Comedy
Usually attributed to writer, Aphra Behn, 1680

Word of the Day: FASHIONAL

ETYMOLOGY
from fashion (n.) + -al

EXAMPLE
“… I ought you a letter in verse before by mine owne promise, & now that you thinke you have hedged in that debt by a greater by your letter in verse I thinke it now most seasonable and fashionall for mee to break. At least, to write presently were to accuse my selfe of not having read yours so often as such a letter deserves from you to mee. …”

From: Poems
By John Donne, 1633
‘Letters‘, a1607

Word of the Day: NEVER-SWEAT

ETYMOLOGY
from never + sweat

EXAMPLE
“… This would be received with peals of laughter, and followed by a general repetition of the same cry. Next, a hundred and fifty cat-calls of the shrillest possible description would almost split the ears. These would be succeeded by cries of ” Strike up, you catgut scrapers,” ” Go on with your barrow,” ” Flare up, my never-sweats,” and a variety of other street sayings. Indeed, the uproar which went on before the meeting began will be best understood if we compare it to the scene presented by a public menagerie at feeding time. …”

From: London Labour and the London Poor;
A cyclopaedia of the condition and earnings of those that will work, those that cannot work, and those that will not work,
By Henry Mayhew, 1851

Word of the Day: BUM-BAGS

ETYMOLOGY
from bum + bags (trousers, sl.)

EXAMPLE
“… Hodgson in a bit of pink!
Shade of Stultz, shade of Brummell,
Who of such a sight could think,
Having seen him in the pommel?

Hodgson in white leathers, tights,
Braces, bumbags, brogues, or breeches
Made to fit like very Flight’s,
Till the pressure starts the stitches. …”

From: The Annals of the Warwickshire Hunt, 1896
Costume of the New Master of the Quorn (Mr. Hodgson)
By Lord Rosslyn in Blackwood’s Magazine, February Ist, 1840

Word of the Day: MORIENT

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin morientem, present participle of mori (to die), cognate with mors (death) and mortuus (dead)

EXAMPLE
“… we see him (saith he) in our Day, by Luther, Calvin, Perkins, &c. who unmask’d him; and he adds a 6th Period, to wit, Morient, saying, If we do not, yet our Posterity shall see him die, for God saith, that his day is coming, …”

From:  A Distinct Discourse and Discovery of the Person and Period of Antichrist
By Christopher Ness, 1679

Word of the Day: NEGATORY

ETYMOLOGY
from French negatoire or Latin negatorius negative; from negāt-, past participial stem of negare (to negate, to render invalid) + –orius (‑ory) 

EXAMPLE
“… Only one thing grieved me by anticipation; the sorrow of my Berga, for whom, dear tired wayfarer, I on the morrow must overcloud her arrival, and her shortened market – spectacle, by my negatory intelligence. She would so gladly (and who can take it ill of a rich farmer’s daughter?) have made herself somebody in Neusattel, and overshone many a female dignitary! …”

From: Translations From The German
Schmelzle’s Journey to Flaetz
By Jean Paul Feiedrigh Richter
Translated by Thomas Carlyle, 1827