Author: Lexico

Word of the Day: DAFFYDOWNDILLY

ETYMOLOGY
n. 1. a playful expansion of daffodilly. (from daffodil + -y);
n. 2: so called in Yorkshire from the slight similarity of the Greek name Daphne with Daffodil

EXAMPLE

“…Herbes, branchis & flowers for windowes & potts
• 1 Bayes, sowe or set in plants in Ianuarie.
• 2 Batchelers buttens,
• 3 Botles, blewe, red & tauney,
• 4 Collembines.
• 5 Campions.
• 6 Daffadondillies.
• 7 Eglantine, or swete bryer.
• 8 Fetherfewe.
• 9 Flower armour, sowe in Maye.
• 10 Flower deluce,
• 11 Flower gentil, whight & red.
• 12 Flower nyce.
• 13 Gelyflowers, red, whight & carnacions, set in Spring, & Heruest in potts, payles or tubs, or for sommer in bedds.
• 14 Holiokes, red, whight & carnacions.
• 15 Indian eye, sowe in Maye, or set in slips in March.
• 16 Lauender, of al sorts…”

From: Fiue Hundreth Points of Good Husbandry
By Thomas Tusser, 1573

Word of the Day: REBARBATIVE

ETYMOLOGY
from French rebarbatif (repellent, disagreeable),
from rebarber (to oppose, to stand up to; referring to two men squaring up face to face, beard to beard, aggressively) + -atif

EXAMPLE
“…It is not very clear why Sir Robert Coke (for that is his name) bestows so much trouble and time on this very rebarbative lady; it certainly is not for her undisguised admiration of him, as his own fascinations as well as his position enable him to command as much admiration as he cares for, and, besides, he seems to find it embarrassing; and it is not for the sake of her personal beauty, for she has none…”

From: The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art
Volume 74, November 12, 1892
‘Mrs Bligh’

PRONUNCIATION
ruh-BAR-buh-tiv

Word of the Day: LONGINQUE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin longinquus (situated at a distance, remote, of time or distance: long, distant),
from longe (far) + a suffix also seen in propinquus (close at hand, neighbouring)

EXAMPLE
“…Of the Iles of the Gentiles in IAPHETS portion: of BEROSVS his too speedie seating GOMER the sonne of IAPHET in Italie; and another of IAPHETS sonnes TVBAL in Spaine: and of the antiquitie of Longinque Nauigation….”

From: the first part of The History of the World
By Sir Walter Raleigh, 1614

Word of the Day: ELOQUIOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin eloquium (eloquence) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“…Eloquious hoarie beard father Nestor, you were one of them, and you M. Vlisses the prudent dwarfe of Pallas another, of whome it is Illiadizd that your very nose dropt sugar candie, and that your spittle was honye. Natalis Comes if he were aboue ground…”

From: Lenten Stuffe
By Thomas Nashe, 1599

Word of the Day: PERQUIRE

ETYMOLOGY
adj. & adv.: from French par cœur (by heart, by memory, perfectly, exactly)
vb.: from Latin perquirere (to make diligent search for), formed on  per-  + quærere (to seek)

EXAMPLE (for vb.)
“…Sweetly disposed soul (for so I hope)
Though most deluded by thy self, and Pope;
Perquire Zoographers, and none recite,
A Romane Pope turn’d willing Anchorite.
Now they so much abhor such doubtful ways,
They’ll not to Heaven go, without false ayes.…”

From: Divine Glimpses of a Maiden Muse
By Christopher Clobery, 1659