ETYMOLOGY
from lick (vb.) + spittle (a house or place for the reception of the indigent or diseased)
EXAMPLE
“…Yes – and to hear his lickspittles speak, you would think that a man of great and versatile talents was a miracle; whereas there are some thousands of them publicly acknowledged in England at this day…”
From: Noctes Ambrosianae (J. Wilson) in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine,
Volume XVIII, July-December, 1825
ETYMOLOGY
from open + tail (posterior extremity)
EXAMPLE
“…Kate still exclaimes against great Medlers,
A busie-body hardly she abides,
Yet she’s well pleas’d with all Bum-fiddlers,
And hir owne Body stirring still besides:
I muse her stomacke now so much should faile,
To loath a Medlar, being an Open-taile…”
From: The Scourge of Folly,
By John Davies, 1611
ETYMOLOGY
from Middle French (queint-) cointerelle feminine of cointerel (beau, fop), from cointe (quaint)
EXAMPLE
“…It folweth nouht that thouh j be thus kembt and a litel make the queyntrelle that for swich cause j am fair I am foul old and slauery foule stinkinge and dungy…”
From: Pilgrimage of the Lyf of the Manhode,
from the French of G. de Guilleville, c1430
ETYMOLOGY
adj.: from Latin collacrimatus, pa. pple. of collacrimare;
vb. : from Latin collacrimat- ppl. stem of collacrimare, from col- (together) + lacrimāre (to shed tears, weep), from lacrima (tear)
EXAMPLE
“…A tormentor would collachrymate my case, and rather choose to have been tortured himself than torment me with ingratitude as thou dost…”
From: Christs teares ouer Ierusalem,
By Thomas Nashe, 1593
ETYMOLOGY
from ninny (a simpleton, a fool) + broth (liquid in which anything has been boiled)
EXAMPLE
“…How to make coffee, alias ninny-broth: a new invention of buttering turneps: to make a loaf of bread to dance about the table, intermixed with profit and delight …”
From: Poor Robin,
By William Winstanley, 1694
ETYMOLOGY
from plume (mark of honour or distinction) + plucked
EXAMPLE
“…Yorke. Great Duke of Lancaster, I come to thee
From plume-pluckt Richard, who with willing Soule
Adopts thee Heire, and his high Scepter yeelds
To the possession of thy Royall Hand…”
From: The Tragedie of King Richard the Second
By William Shakespeare, 1597
ETYMOLOGY
from under- ;
? possibly for dunderhead
EXAMPLE (for n.2.)
“…And indeed wiser discretions, that have the thread of reason to conduct them, offend without a pardon; whereas under heads may stumble without dishonour…”
From: Religio Medici
By Thomas Browne, 1643
ETYMOLOGY
from Greek ϕιλο-, ϕιλ-, combining form from root of ϕιλεῖν (to love), ϕίλ-ος (dear, friend)
+ θήρ (wild beast)
EXAMPLE
“…It is the reply of an old fisher-woman, when reproved by some Philotherian for skinning eels alive.
“Sir,” said she, “I have skinned them thusly for nearly fifty years; and they have got so used to it, they don’t mind it one bit.”…”
From: The Harvard Advocate
Vol. XI. Cambridge, Mass., February 28, 1871. No. I
Editorial
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin Thrason-, Thraso Thraso, braggart soldier in the comedy Eunuchus by Terence
EXAMPLE
“…Warres austere God, with stout Achilles lance,
And wrinkled browes, doth Thrasonize it, rage:
Cornuted Phoebe, in her coach, doth prance:
Bacchus with grapes, doth stretch it on the stage:
Whiles this cup-saint, too lavish and profuse,
Embrews his temples in their liquid juice…”
From: ‘Ixions Wheele’ in Follie’s Anatomy,
By H. Hutton, 1619
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin Cyprius (of Cyprus) + -an;
in French cyprien
EXAMPLE
“…Shall Curio streake his lims on his dayes couch,
In Sommer bower? and with bare groping touch
Incense his lust, consuming all the yeere
In Cyprian dalliance, and in Belgick cheere?
Shall Faunus spend a hundred gallions,
Of Goates pure milke, to laue his stallions,
As much Rose iuyce? O bath! ô royall, rich
To scower Faunus, and his salt proude bitch!…”
From: The Scourge of Villanie
By John Marston, 1598
Lexicophilia 