Word of the Day

Word of the Day: NICHILLATE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin nichilat-, past participial stem of nichilare,
variant of nihilare to reduce to nothing, to destroy

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1560 – see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
“…immediatlie after the proclamacion that Sir Robert Worsselye send that was nichlate, etc. …”

 From: Liverpool Town Books
Proceedings of Assemblies, Common Councils, Portmoot Courts, &c., 1550 – 1862,
Edited by J. A. Twemlow, 1918

Word of the Day: PEBBLE-BEACHED

ETYMOLOGY
from pebble (n.) + beached (adj.)

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1890 – see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
“…He had arrived at a crisis of impecuniosity compared to which the small circumstance of being pebble-beached and stony-broke might be described as comparative affluence….”

 From: A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant
Embracing English, American, and Anglo-Indian Slang, Pidgin English, Tinker’s Jargon and Other Irregular Phraseology
– Albert Barrère, Charles Godfrey Leland

Word of the Day: EMBERLUCOCK

ETYMOLOGY
from French emburelucocquer, nonce-word of fanciful formation

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
a1548 – see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
“…Ha, for favour sake, (I beseech you) never emberlucock or inpulregafize your spirits with these vaine thoughts and idle conceits; for I tell you, it is not impossible with God, and if he pleased all women henceforth should bring forth their children at the eare….”

 From: The Works of Mr. Francis Rabelais
Doctor in Physick. Containing Five Books of the Lives, Heroick Deeds and Sayings of Gargantua and his Sonne Pantagruel
 – Mr. Francis Rabelais
Translated into English by Sir Thomas Urquhart and Peter Antony Motteux