ETYMOLOGY
aphetic formed on avouter (an adulterer, esp. a male one);
in its oldest form from Old French avoutre, aoutre
EXAMPLE
“…For in þis werlde is no doge for þe bowe
þat knowe an hurt dere fro an holde bet cowe
þan þis Somenour knewe a licour
Or a vouter or elles a paramour
And for þat was þe fruyte of al þe rente
Ther-for on it he set al his entente…”
From: The Lansdowne Manuscript of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales,
Geoffrey Chaucer, c1386
ETYMOLOGY
from sleight (adroitness, nimbleness of mind or body) + -ful
EXAMPLE
“…Not worschipe men for here worldly rychesse. as þe fals world doþ
for þey be mysdoers, sotel, and slyhtful dysseyuers…”
From: The Lay Folks’ Catechism
(Lambeth MS.). 1380
ETYMOLOGY
an imitative or expressive formation
EXAMPLE
“…Hoe! God, be here! on their bald, burnt, parchment pates. Pish, pish! what talke you of olde age or balde pates? Men and women that haue gone vnder the south pole, must lay of theyr furre night-caps in spyght of their teeth, and become yeomen of the vineger bottle…”
From: Pierce Penilesse, His Supplication to the Diuell
By Thomas Nashe, 1592
ETYMOLOGY
from boast (vb.) + -ive
EXAMPLE
“…Of acid blood, proclaiming Want’s disease
Amidst the bloom of shew. The scanty stream,
Slow-loit’ring in its channel, seems to vie
With Vaga’s depth; but should the sedgy pow’r,
Vain-glorious, empty his penurious urn
O’er the rough rock, how must his fellow streams
Deride the tinklings of the boastive rill…”
From: The Poetical Works of William Shenstone, 1768
By William Shenstone, a1763
ETYMOLOGY
from Anglo-Norman and Middle French acoler, acoller, Middle French accoler (to throw the arms round the neck of, to embrace),
from a (a-) + col (neck)
EXAMPLE
“…Þen acoles he þe knyȝt and kysses hym þryes,
As sauerly and sadly as he hem sette couþe…”
From: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
By Anonymous, c1400
ETYMOLOGY
of unknown origin
EXAMPLE
“…Albius. For fault of a better, Sir.
Tucca. A better; prophane Rascall? I cry thee mercy (my good Scroile?) was’t thou?
Albius. No Harme, Captaine…”
From: Poetaster, or the Arraignment
By Ben Jonson, 1602
ETYMOLOGY
adj,: apparently from Italian vago
EXAMPLE
“…no doubt but better parts, finer colours, purer lights proportionably combined, cause a more excellent beautie, shew, and lustre: as the siner gold, the richer stones (if art bee correspondent) the more vage and beautifull iewell…”
From: The Passions of the Minde in Generall
By Thomas Wright, 1604
ETYMOLOGY
imitative
EXAMPLE
“…As she was speaking I heard a sort of cloop, by which well-known sound I was aware that somebody was opening a bottle of wine, and Ponto entered, in a huge white neckcloth, and a rather shabby black suit …”
From: The Book of Snobs
By William Makepeace Thackeray, 1848
ETYMOLOGY
for adj.: of obscure origin
for n.1.: from teat () + -y
EXAMPLE
“…but if they loose, though it be but a trifle, two or three games at tables, or a dealing at Cards for 2d a game, they are so cholericke and tetty that no man may speake with them, and breake many times into violent passions, oaths, imprecations, and vnbeseeming speeches, little differing from mad men for the time…”
From: The Anatomy of Melancholy
By Robert Burton, 1621
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin strepitat-, ppl. stem of strepitare (to make a repeated noise),
frequentative of strepere (to make a noise)
EXAMPLE
“…It’s yet, I say, to be mentioned to Uncle Harcourt, who’ll blow a stout gale, I know, enough to wreck some of us, when it is mentioned. He’ll strepitate finely, to use one of his own great words…”
From: Farquhar Frankheart; Or, Incidents in the Introduction of Methodism into Yorkshire
By Farquhar Frankheart, 1860
Lexicophilia 