Word of the Day

Word of the Day: RUMBUSTICAL

ETYMOLOGY
possibly an alteration of rumbustious (boisterous, unruly);
or perhaps an alteration of obsolete English robustic (robust, robustious), 
from robust + -ic + -al

EXAMPLE
“… I will, your worship: but I am glad his honour, the Major, is not to be jocum tenus for your worship, he’s so much upon the roguish order with the women, now and ten. I did not care to mention it to your worship before; but as true as I’m alive he was a little rombustical to our Bridget, no longer ago than last Sunday was se’night, as she was coming home from church. …”

From: The Flitch of Bacon; a comic opera
By Henry Bate Dudley, 1779

Word of the Day: SLIDDERY

ETYMOLOGY
from slidder (to slide, to slip) + -y

EXAMPLE (for adj. 3)
“… Full slyddrie is the sait that thay on sit,
And for thair fault till Hell sune sall thay flit,
For suddanlie thay sall die with mischeif,
Thair distructioun salbe without releif. …”

From: A compendious book of godly and spiritual songs : commonly known as ‘The gude and godlie ballatis’
By John Wedderburn , Robert Wedderburn
Reprinted from the edition of 1567
Edited by Alexander Ferrier Mitchell, 1897
Quam bonus Deus Israell. Psal. lxxiij

Word of the Day: LIP-LICK

ETYMOLOGY
from lip + lick

EXAMPLE
“… Thee gay boy kindlye playing, thee knowne lads phisnomye taking:
That when Queene Dido shal col the, and smacklye bebasse thee,
When quaffing wynebols, when bancquets deyntye be serued,
When she shal embrace thee, when lyplicks sweetlye she fastneth;
That then thow be suer, too plant thy poysoned hoat looue. …”

From: Thee first foure bookes of Virgil his Aeneis
Translated intoo English heroical verse by Richard Stanyhurst, 1582

Word of the Day: TIRELING

ETYMOLOGY
apparently from tire (to diminish, give out, come to an end, obs.) + -ling

EXAMPLE
“… So as they gazed after her a while,
Lo where a griesly Foster forth did rush,
Breathing out beastly lust her to defile:
His tyreling iade he fiercely forth did push,
Through thicke and thin, both ouer banke and bush
In hope her to attaine by hooke or crooke,
That from his gorie sides the bloud did gush:
Large were his limbes, and terrible his looke,
And in his clownish hand a sharp bore speare he shooke. …”

From: The Faerie Queene
By Edmund Spenser, 1590

Word of the Day: OMNINESCIENT

ETYMOLOGY
from omni- combining form of Latin omnis (all) + nescient from Latin nescientem, 
pres. pple. of nescire (to be ignorant), from ne (not) + scire (to know)

EXAMPLE
“… The appeal is generally from those who know something to those who know less – and at last to those who are omni-nescient. …”

From: A Report of Proceedings at a Public Meeting of the Merchants, Bankers, and Traders of the City of London, held at the London Tavern, on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 1851
For a Reform of the Board of Customs
Part II. Chapter II. Appeals

Word of the Day: HURKLE-DURKLE

ETYMOLOGY
from hurkle (to crouch, to stoop, to squat down)

EXAMPLE
“… Lang after peeping greke o’day,
In Hurkle Durkle Habbie lay,
Gae tae yer wark, ye dernan murkle,
And ly nae there in Hurkle Durkle. …”

Note: the phrase ‘in hurkle durkle‘ = in indolence

From: Supplement to the Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language
By John Jamieson, 1825

Word of the Day: JOCOCIOUS

ETYMOLOGY
compound of jocose and facetious

EXAMPLE
“… “Yes, you have, you saucy baggage, and I will have them again from your ruddy lips,” at the same time smacking them with great glee. The girl was glad to find the ‘squire so jococious, and particularly too, as he gave her a shilling, and a chuck under the chin. …”

From: The Child of Providence
Or, The Noble Orphan, A Novel
By Miss H. L. Porter, 1820

Word of the Day: RIB-BASTE

ETYMOLOGY
from rib (n.) + baste (to beat or thrash)

EXAMPLE
“… A good Pay-master (answered Sancho) will neuer grudge to giue wages; I thinke to curry or so be-labour my selfe, that without endangering my life, my lashes shall bee sensible vnto me, and therein must the substance of this miracle consist. And immediately Sancho stripped himselfe bare from the girdle vpward, and taking the whip in his hand, began to ribbe-baste and lash himselfe roundly; and Don Quixote to number the strokes. When Sancho had giuen himselfe seuen or eight stripes, hee thought he had killed himselfe; so that pawsing awhile, hee said to his Master, that he was very much deceiued, and would therfore appeale, forsomuch as euery whip-lash did in lieu of a piece of three Blanks, deserue halfe a Ryall. …”

From: The second part of The History of the Valorous and Witty Knight-Errant, Don Quixote of the Mançha
Written in Spanish by Michael Cervantes
Translated by Thomas Shelton, 1620