Word of the Day: ONOMATOUS


ETYMOLOGY
from Greek ὀνόµατὄνοµα (name) + -ous


PRONUNCIATION
uh-NOM-uh-tuhss


EXAMPLE
“…For our own parts, we will not be forward to remove the disguise, and, indeed, in very many cases we should as a rule prefer the anonymous to the onomatous mode of addressing the public…”

From: The Spectator
A Weekly Review of Politics, Literature, Theology, and Art
Volume the Forty-Second, 1869

Word of the Day: ARGUITIVE


ETYMOLOGY
from Latin arguit- ppl. stem of arguere + -ive, as if from Latin arguitivus (attacking or accusing)


EXAMPLE
“…But, as it is, the only knowledge of God to which the mind of man can naturally attain, is arguitive, being deduced from his cognitions of the creature; and therefore in the enunciation of the Thesis, the direct measure of the human intellect is restricted to finite Being…”

From: The Metaphysics of the School
By Thomas Harper, 1879

Word of the Day: IMMEMORIOUS


ETYMOLOGY
from im- + memorious


EXAMPLE
“…And we like wretches, carelesly oreseene
Neglecting all continuance of our good,
Of our owne birth haue immemorius beene,
And quite forgot the Nephewes of our blood,
And of neere kin are growne meere strāgers rather,
Almost forgetting we had all one father
…”

From: Svvord and Buckler, or, Seruing-Mans Defence
By William Basse, 1602

Word of the Day: FROST-BRAINED


ETYMOLOGY
from frost + brained


EXAMPLE
“…MARTIANUS: Madam, we all have so importund him
Laying unto his judgement every thing
That might attract his sences to the crowne;
But he, frost-braind, will not be obtaind
To take upon him this Realmes government
…”

From: No-Body and Some-Body, 1606
“Printed for John Trundle, and are to be sold
at his shop in Barbican, at the signe of No-body.”

Word of the Day: BERSATRIX


ETYMOLOGY
from French berseaux (cradle) + –trix a feminine ending


EXAMPLE
“…High rewards, as was then customary, were bestowed on the messenger who attended the child, and on the bersatrix who rocked the cradle of the infant hero…”

From: A History of the Life of Edward the Black Prince, 
By George Payne Rainsford James, 1836

Word of the Day: NOVANTIQUE


ETYMOLOGY
from Latin novus (new) + antique


EXAMPLE
“…yet as they will not counterbalance the weight of those other arguments that militate on the contrary side, so they will without any difficulty be answered by the assertors of this Novantique philosophy…”

From: Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality
By Ralph Cudworth, a1688

Word of the Day: IMAGINOUS


ETYMOLOGY
? from Latin imagoimaginem (image) + -ous,
or ? from imagine (vb.) + -ous


PRONUNCIATION
uh-MAJ-uh-nuhss


EXAMPLE
“…I oft haue heard there is a kind of cure
To fright a lingring Feuer from a man
By an  imaginous feare, which may be true,
For one heate (all know) doth driue out another,
One passion doth expell another still,
And therefore I will vse a fainde deuice
To kindle furie in her frozen Breast,
That rage may fire out griefe, and so restore her
To her most sociable selfe againe
…”

From: Monsieur D’Oliue
By George Chapman, 1606