ETYMOLOGY
from sinister: from Old French senestre, sinistre or Latin sinister (left, left-hand)
EXAMPLE
“… That which still makes her mirth to flow,
Is our sinister-handed woe,
Which downwards on its head doth go,
And, ere that it is sown, doth grow.
This makes her spleen contract,
And her just pleasure feast:
For the unjustest act
Is still the pleasant’st jest. …”
From: Lucasta: Posthume Poems
Lucasta Laughing
By Richard Lovelace, a1657
ETYMOLOGY
from Greek aσµατογράϕος (from ᾀ̑σμα, -µατ– (song, lyric) + -γράϕος writing, writer) + -er
EXAMPLE
” … (Title) 1639 Songs: – A Collection of Original Songs, by Oddibus, Funnybus, Asmatographer to the Court of Comus…”
From: Catalogue of the Singularly Curious, Very Interesting, and Valuable Library
of Edward Skegg,
Arranged by S. Leigh Sotheby, Auctioneer of Literary Property, and Works of Art,
1842
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin rabiosus (rabid, mad, frenzied, furious), from rabies (rabies) + –osus (-ous)
EXAMPLE
“… Ethelred, languishing in minde and body, Edmond his sonne, surnamed Ironside (to oppose youth to youth) was imployed against this rabious inuador. A Prince worthy of a better time, and had he found faith, had made it so, and deliuered his country at that turne, from the worst of miseries, the conquest by strangers. …”
From: The First Part of the Historie of England
By Samuel Daniel, 1612
ETYMOLOGY
from segge (to say) + -er
EXAMPLE (for n.1.)
“… As yoe are a lorde most lofsom of lyre
Vndir sir Pilate that lyfis in this empire,
Ȝone segger that callis hymselffe a sire
With tresoure and tene sall we taste hym.
Of yoone losell his bale schall he brewe,
Do trottes on for that traytoure apas
In hast. …”
From: York Mysteries, c1440
The Agony and Betrayal
ETYMOLOGY
from bread + wright (a workman, artificer)
EXAMPLE
“… And her wrigteleslike holden in bond.
Quað ðis bred wrigte liðeð nu me.
me drempte ic bar bread lepes ðre. …”
From: Genesis and Exodus, composed c1250;
Joseph and his Brethren
in: Selections from early Middle English, 1130-1250
By: Joseph Hall, 1920
ETYMOLOGY
from sniffle (vb.) + -er
EXAMPLE (for n. 1.)
“… Gin this be courting, well I wat ’tis clear,
I gat na sik a teazle this seven year :
Sae ye maun gee your answer now perqueer,
I maunna ilka day be coming here,
To get sic sniflers ; courting’s nae a jest.
Another day like this’ll be my priest.’ …”
From: Helenore: Or the Fortunate Shepherdess, a Pastoral Tale
By Alexander Ross, 1768
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin oscitat-, past participial stem of oscitare (to open (as a mouth)),
also oscitari (to gape, yawn), from os mouth + citare (to move, actuate)
EXAMPLE
“… and if he will but imitate some drowsy people at church, by taking a sternutatory, he will arrive at the close without feeling fatigue or ascribing his heaviness to the writer; There are persons whose physical constitutions are so delicate that mere thoughts of taking snuff, (and medicines generally) produce the same effect as inhaling the powder itself: now, if the imagination of the reader has a similar influence over his system, he can have no disposition to oscitate while finishing the chapter; on the contrary, the greatest obstacle to his progress will arise from a disposition to sneeze. …”
From: Transactions of the Society of Literary and Scientific Chiffonniers;
Being Essays on Primitive Arts In Domestic Life.
The Spoon
By Hab’k O. Westman, 1844
Chapter X, Snuff taken with Spoons
ETYMOLOGY
from gain- (against, in opposition to) + stand (vb.)
EXAMPLE (for vb.)
“… Throuch his falsheid and craftynes
He sall flow in to welthynes
The Godlye pepyll he sall noye
By creuell deith, and thame distroye
The kyng of Kyngis, he sall ganestand
Syne be distroyit withouttin hand. …”
From: Ane Dialog Betuix Experience and ane Courteour off the Miserabyll Estait of the Warld
By David Lindsay, 1554
ETYMOLOGY
from glum + -y
EXAMPLE (for adj. 1)
“… yet it can not be denyed, but that such casuall blastes may happen, as are most too bee feared, when the wether waxeth darke and glummy. …”
From: The Triall of Truth, wherein are discovered three greate enemies vnto mankind
By Edward Knight, 1580
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin exundat- participial stem of exundare,
from ex- (out) + undare (to rise in waves), from unda (wave)
EXAMPLE
“… Thus armed, he advanced to the well. The yew-twig struck the bright motionless water, and strongly agitated it. The stream exundated on every side, kindled as it mounted, and, tumbling and commingling, in a few seconds, like an enormous flame of fire, rolled forwards and backwards round the margin of the fountain. …”
From: Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
Volume LVI. July-December 1844
Traditions and Tales of Upper Lusatia
No. III. The Dwarf’s Well
Lexicophilia 