Author: Lexico

Word of the Day: OPINIASTROUS

ETYMOLOGY
either from French opiniastre (adj. – opinionated) + -ous,
or from opiniastre (n. – an opinionated person) + -ous 

EXAMPLE
“…Next, in matter of death, the Laws of England, wherof you have intruded to bee an opiniastrous Sub advocate, and are bound to defend them, conceave it not enjoyn’d in Scripture, when or for what cause they shall put to death, as in adultery, theft, and the like; your minor also is fals, for the Scripture plainly sets down for what measure of disagreement a man may divorce…”

From: Colasterion
A Reply to a nameless Answer against the Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce
By John Milton, 1645

Word of the Day: LIRICONFANCY

ETYMOLOGY
alteration of Latin lilium convallium (lily of the valleys), influenced by fancy

EXAMPLE
“…Of Liricumancie.
Liricumfancie, or as other iudge May Lilie, for resemblace alike: It hath his flowre verie white. In Greeke it is called Ephemeron, for his short continuance and daylie dying…”

From: A Greene Forest
By John Maplet, 1567

Word of the Day: HALF-HEADED

ETYMOLOGY
from half + headed

EXAMPLE
“…And there is not a man that is for Paritie, all Fellows in the Church, but he is not for Monarchie in the State. And certainly either he is but Halfe-headed to his owne Principles, or he can be but Halfe-hearted to the House of David…”

From: Seven Sermons Preached Upon Severall Occasions
By William Laud, 1625

Word of the Day: UBIQUARIAN

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin ubique (wherever, anywhere, everywhere) + -arian

PRONUNCIATION
yoo-buh-KWAIR-ee-uhn

EXAMPLE (for adj. 1)
“…Tho’ detestable the place,
Mean the lodgings, small and base,
Tho’ the crowded hoy pours forth
Company of little worth,
Coach or chariot, tho’ there’s none,
Rattling thro’ the fishing town,
Yet, Maria, yet, my fair,
Happiness shalt find us here:
Happiness our friend shall be,
Ubiquerian deity!…”

From: The Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Chronicle
Volume XXXII, 1762
Happiness Every Where
Occasioned by a fair Lady’s condemning the Author’s choice of Margate, for a Place of Entertainment

Word of the Day: TACENDA

ETYMOLOGY
Latin, gerundive neuter pl. of tacere (to be silent)

EXAMPLE
“…With due rigour, Willelmus Sacrista, and his bibations and tacenda are, at the earliest opportunity, softly, yet irrevocably put an end to. The bibations, namely, had to end; even the building where they used to be carried on was razed from the soil of St. Edmundsbury, and ‘on its place grow rows of beans:’ Willelmus himself, deposed from the Sacristry and all offices, retires into obscurity, into absolute taciturnity unbroken thenceforth to this hour…”

From: Past and Present
By Thomas Carlyle, 1843

Word of the Day: TISTY-TOSTY

ETYMOLOGY
for int.: perhaps a mere ejaculation
for n. 2.: it has been compared with obsolete tyte tust(e) or obsolete tussemose (a nosegay)

EXAMPLE
“…And now I wil daunce, now wil I praunce,
For why I haue none other woork:
Snip snap Butter is no bone meat:
Knaues flesh is no Porke.
Hey tisty tosty an Ole is a bird,
Iack a napes hath an olde face:
You may beleeue me at one bare woord,
how like you this mery cace?…”

From: A Pleasant Enterlude, Intituled, Like Will to Like Quoth the Deuill to the Collier
By Ulpian Fulwell, 1568

Word of the Day: DEMULCEATE

ETYMOLOGY
irreg. formed on Latin demulcere (to stroke down, to soothe caressingly) + -ate

EXAMPLE
“…Gallantry, sir, (said he, turning to me) or the exalted science of demulceating the amiable reservedness, and overcoming the attractive pudicity, of the gentler sex, by the display of rare and excellent endowments, was a discipline worthy of the accomplished chevaliers of these most memorable eras …”

From: Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
Volume I, April – September, 1817
Fragment of a Literary Romance

Word of the Day: COB-CASTLE

ETYMOLOGY
? from cob (a big man, a great man, a leading man) + castle

EXAMPLE
“…’Twixt the wood and the castle they see at high water
The storm, the place makes it a dangerous matter;
And besides, upon such a steep rock it is founded,
As would break a man’s neck, should he’scape being drowned:
Perhaps though in time one may make them to yield,
But ’tis prettiest Cob-castle e’er I beheld…”

From: Poems on Several Occasions written by Charles Cotton, 1689
A Voyage to Ireland in Burlesque

Word of the Day: SPISCIOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin spissus (thick, close, compact)

EXAMPLE
“…Methought this Drink had a kind of a sweet taste, like Asses Milk, yet it could not properly be called a liquor, but rather a certain concreted Mist or spiscious Froath; for being with no small paine got out againe, I found it had not so much as moistned my Cloaths…”

From: The Comical History of Francion
By Charles Sorel, 1655