Word of the Day

Word of the Day: PROPUDIOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin propudiosus (shameful, infamous), from propudium (a shameful action),
(from pro- + pudere (to make ashamed) + -ium) + -osus (-ous)

EXAMPLE
“… Yea in the Cirque or Race-yard, (where was the greatest Concourse of People) they de-cryed Iulian; calling vpon Niger, the chiefest Officer of the sacred Empire, to vindicate the Roman State, and hasten to free them from that propudious Gouernour . ….”

From: Herodian of Alexandria His History of Twenty Roman Cæsars
Interpreted out of the original Greek by James Maxwell, 1629

Word of the Day: HODDY-NODDY

ETYMOLOGY
reduplicated from noddy (a fool, a simpleton)

EXAMPLE
“… Lastly it is no where to be shewed, that Christ gaue any speciall commaundement, that Peter should remooue his seat from Antioche to Rome. If this hoddy Noddy thinke otherwise, let him if he canne, bring foorth his proofes, and shew where this commaundement is to be séene. …”

From: A briefe replie to a certaine odious and slanderous libel, lately published by a seditious Iesuite,
By Matthew Sutcliffe, 1600

Word of the Day: CONKERBELL

ETYMOLOGY
alteration of cockabell, cockerbell, variants of cocklebell (an icicle);
probably after English dialect conker (snail-shell)

EXAMPLE
“… An’ leetle Bob! tha daps o’s veather,
Hoi, wull, us did count on un, reather :
Yer Bobby yer’s tha crickett,
Tha chield’s avroared, tha conkerbells
Be hangin’ to un — Yett theesel,
Bob — Yen thick auther thicket. …”

From: Jim and Nell: a Dramatic Poem in the dialect of North Devon
By William Frederick Rock, 1867

Word of the Day: FRIMPLE-FRAMPLE

ETYMOLOGY
of obscure origin;
possibly from frample (to put in disorder)

EXAMPLE
“… This is the laund that bigs the winds; winds big the cloods; 
the cloods, the weit, the weit, the grun; an antrin steer 
o syle an rain. Thon frimple-frample watter rowin 
frae Kenmore tae Dundee is cried the River Tay. …”

From: Wild Mushrooms: Writings
By Kate Armstrong, 1993

Word of the Day: CALENT

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin calens, calentem present participle of calere (to be hot)

EXAMPLE
“… The Lion also is a signification of the Sun, for the hairs of his mane do resemble the streaming beams of the Sun, and therefore this constellation is styled with the same Epithets that the Lion and the Sun are, as heat-bearing, aestive, ardent, arent,
calent, hot, flammant, burning, Herculean, mad, horrible, dreadful, cruel, and terrible. It is feigned of the Poets, that this Lion was the Nemaean Lion slain by Hercules, which at the commandment of Juno was fostered in Arcadia, and that in anger against Hercules after his death, she placed him in the heavens. …”

From: The History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents describing at large their true and lively figure, their several names, conditions, kinds, virtues …
By Edward Topsell, 1607

Word of the Day: NUGATORIOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin nugatorius (frivolous, insignificant, worthless) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“… The tenet of the Catholick Church concerning Angels and Devils, that they are invisible spirits created of God in their own distinct substances separate from men, is nugatorious: that the Angels are only qualities and motions which God inspires into men, that the Devils are nothing but only boggles in the night to terrifie men arising from mens imaginations. …”

From: Anabaptism, the true fountaine of Independency, Brownisme, Antinomy, Familisme, and the most of the other errours, which for the time doe trouble the Church of England, vnsealed
By Robert Baillie, 1647

Word of the Day: HOUNDSFOOT

ETYMOLOGY
from Dutch hondsvot, German hundsfott (scoundrel, rascal), lit. cunnus canis

EXAMPLE
“… If the Violence of a hooping Cough can cauſe a Rupture , what may not one justly dread from such an Explosion of Wind and Vapour? But hold, Sirs! Methinks I shou’d know the Skream, I have heard something like it before now. O pox! It’s that Hounsfoot Tom Whigg, A Son of a—! He’ll skream to be heard from London to Geneva, when he’s no more hurt than I am this Minute. …”

From: A True and Faithful Account of the Last Distemper and Death of Tom Whigg, Esq., 1710

Word of the Day: GLOAMING

ETYMOLOGY
representing Old English glomung strong feminine, from (on the analogy of ǽfning evening) glom (twilight), probably from the Germanic root glo-;
the etymological sense would thus seem to be the ‘glow’ of sunset or sunrise

EXAMPLE
“… There’s some exceptions, man an’ woman;
But this is Gentry’s life in common.
By this, the sun was out o’ sight,
An’ darker gloamin brought the night;
The bum-clock humm’d wi’ lazy drone;
The kye stood rowtin’ i’ the loan;
When up they gat, an’ shook their lugs,
Rejoic’d they were na men, but dogs;
An’ each took aff his several way,
Resolv’d to meet some ither day. …”

From: The Twa Dogs. A Tale
By Robert Burns, 1786

Word of the Day: SCOLOPENDRA

ETYMOLOGY
Latin, from Greek σκολόπενδρα (skolopendra) (centipede)

EXAMPLE (for n. 3.)
“… I have bought it gentlemen, and you in a mist
Shall see what I paid for it, thou hast not drunke yet:
Nere feare the reckning man, more wine , you varletts,
And call your Mistris, your Scolopendra
If we like her complexion, we may dine here. …”

From: The Gamester
By James Shirley, 1633

PRONUNCIATION
skol-oh-PEN-druh