Word of the Day

Word of the Day: QUATERVOIS

ETYMOLOGY
after French quatre (four) + voie (way)

EXAMPLE
“…Of these conduits two are speciall, the one of them standeth and is within the cemiterie or churchyard of the cathedrall church of the said citie, and is called saint Peters conduit: the other being of great antiquitie standeth in the middle of the citie, at the méeting of foure principall streets of the same, and whereof somtimes it tooke his name, being called the conduit at Quatrefois or Carfox; but now the great conduit…”

From: Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicle
By Abraham Fleming, 1587

Word of the Day: MAMMOTHREPT

ETYMOLOGY
from  Latin mammothreptus, from Greek µαµµόθρεπτος (brought up by one’s grandmother),
from µάµµη (grandmother) + θρεπτός (vbl. adj.), from τρέϕειν (to bring up)

EXAMPLE
“…Amor. Nay play it I pray you, you do well, you do well: how like you it Sir?
Hed. Very well in troath.
Amor. But very well? O you are a meere Mammothrept in iudgement then; why do you not obserue how excellently the Ditty is affected in euery place? that I do not marry a word of short quantity, to a long Note, nor an zscending Sillable to a discending Tone…”

From: The Fountaine of Selfe-Loue;
or, Cynthias Reuels
By Benjamin Jonson, 1601

Word of the Day: OPERATORIOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin operatorius (creating, forming) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“…For no Lesse are they effectuall to transubstantiate the cup, then their wordes spoken of the bread are operatorius & myghty to transubstātiate the bread. For as they say of the bread, Thys is my body, so say they of the Cup, This cup is the new testament…”

From: Two Notable Sermons
By John Bradford, 1574

Word of the Day: RATTLEY-BAGS

ETYMOLOGY
??? – perhaps from the Scottish ‘rattlebag‘ (a bag filled with small stones and hung on the end of a stick to make a rattling noise)

EXAMPLE
“…In the North of England children call, or used to call, thunder Rattley-bags, and to sing this couplet during a storm –

Rowley, Rowley, Rattley-bags,
Take the lasses and leave the lads…”

From: Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders
By William Henderson, 1879

Word of the Day: QUAERITATE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin quaeritāre (to search for, to seek, to ask,
from quaerere (to ask, inquire) + –itare (-itate)

EXAMPLE
“…for Carpenters seeke to the Trunk of its Tree; Dyers to its barke; Boyes to its fruit; Apothecaryes quaeritate its Medicinall use, which Mithridates knew…”

From: A Medicinal Dispensatory:
Containing the Whole Body of Physick
By Jean de Renou
Translated by Richard Tomlinson, 1657