Word of the Day

Word of the Day: MISOCAPNIST

ETYMOLOGY
from miso- +‎ stem of Ancient Greek καπνός (kapnós, “smoke”) +‎ -ist

EXAMPLE
“…smoking at all times, in all places, and in all companies, offending the nostrils of all misocapnists with the fumes of his mundungus, and disgusting all decent people with his ptyalism, as an auricular sage, with great delicacy, terms the perpetual ejection of saliva…”

From: A Paper: -of Tobacco
By Joseph Fume (real name: William Andrew Chatto), 1839

Word of the Day: QUADRIVIOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin quadrivium (place where four ways meet) + -ous 

EXAMPLE
“…By means of small galleries directed from the cellars of houses in the vicinity of any square or quadrivious spot, which it is likely a body of troops might occupy as a position, it will be very easy to establish and to spring mines with considerable effect…”

From: Defensive Instructions for the People
By Francis Maceroni

Word of the Day: CONFRAGOSE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin confragosus (broken, rough, uneven),
from Latin confringere and fragosus, from stem frag- of frangere (to break)

EXAMPLE
“…But, what appeared most stupendous to me, was the rock of St. Vincent, a little distance from the towne, the precipice whereof is equal to any thing of that nature I have seene in the most confragose cataracts of the Alpes, the river gliding between them at an extraordinary depth. Here, we went searching for diamonds, and to the Hot Wells, at its foote…”

From: The Diary of John Evelyn
27 June 1654

Word of the Day: DESINENT

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin desinentem, present participle of desinere (to leave off, close),
from de- + sinere (to leave)

EXAMPLE
“… In front of this sea were placed six tritons, in moving and sprightly actions, their upper parts human, save that their hairs were blue, as partaking of the sea-color: their desinent parts fish,  mounted above their heads, and all varied in disposition. From their backs were borne out certain light pieces of taffata, as if carried by the wind, and their music made out of wreathed
shells…”

From: The Masque of Blackness in Characters Two Royall Masques
By Benjamin Jonson, 1608

Word of the Day: PANICHTHYOPHAGOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Greek πᾶν, pan, (“all”, “of everything”, “involving all members” of a group)
+ from Latin ichthyophagus,
from Greek ἴχθυοϕάγος  from Greek ἰχθυο- (fish-) + -ϕάγος (eating),
from ϕαγεῖν (to eat) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“…The caranx, trachurus, or bastard mackerel, probably corresponds with the individual so called by Oppian and Athenaeus. It abounds in the Mediterranean, and is a dry coarse fish, fit only for hungry boatmen and panichthyophagous puss…”

From: Fraser’s Magazine for Town and Country
Volume 47, March 1853
The Caranx