Word of the Day

Word of the Day: CLAPPERDUDGEON

ETYMOLOGY
apparently from clapper (the tongue of a bell) + dudgeon (hilt of a dagger): 
the origin of the appellation is unknown.
John P. Collier (writer and scholar) suggests ‘from his knocking the clapdish (which beggars carried) with a knife or dudgeon’.

EXAMPLE
“… A pallyarde

These Palliards be called also Clapperdogens, these go with patched clokes, & haue their Morts with them, which they cal wiues and if he goe to one house to aske his almes, his wife shal goe to another, for what they get, as bread, cheese, malte, and well, they sel the same for redy money, for so they get more, and if they went together, although they be this deuided in the daie, yet they mete iompe at night. …”

From: A Caueat for Commen Cursetors vvlgarely called uagabones
By Thomas Harman, 1567

Word of the Day: ILLICENTIOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from il- + licentious (overstepping customary limits)

EXAMPLE
“… The Ciuile law, which is an abridgement, derogating many illicentious customes which grew by peruersnesse and corruptnesse of nature, and is termed Peculiar, vsed by one kind of people, called the the Imperiall Law. …”

From: Consuetudo, vel lex mercatoria, or The Ancient Law-merchant
 By Gerard de Malynes, 1622

Word of the Day: POECILONYM

ETYMOLOGY
from Greek ποικίλος (poikilos) (many-coloured, variegated, various):
a formative element in scientific terms + Greek ὄνοµα (onoma), ὄνυµα (name)

EXAMPLE
“… Considering that the Parliament House (the “Sansad Bhavan”) and the seat of the President (the “Rashtrapati Bhavan”) are both situated in New Delhi – which is the capital of the country – the name of the city is frequently used as a poecilonym for the Government of India. …”

From: The Sovereign
Sprouts Of Good Governance
By Kislay Panday, 2022

PRONUNCIATION
PEE-suh-luh-nim

Word of the Day: GULIST

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin gula (gullet, appetite, gluttony) + -ist

EXAMPLE
“… He that sell’s himselfe to the custome of disloyalty to his Creator, become’s ignorant of his offence; and, instead of correction, prove’s unskilfull in the knowledge of his sinne. The gluttonous satiety of our swelling Gulists, argue’s their necessity of offending by forgetfulnes: and their own abundance barr’s them frō the just weighing of the poverty of the distressed. The common drunkard cannot be taken with a due thanks-giving for that superfluity which he corrupt’s, from whence many thirstie soules might sucke a reasonable supply for necessity. …”

From: The Honor of Chastity
By John Featley, 1632

Word of the Day: EPISTOLIST

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin epistola (epistle) + -ist

EXAMPLE
Mrs. Carter to Miss Talbot, Deal, April 16, 1743.
“… I am extremely obliged to you, my dear Miss Talbot, for your account of the Italian epistolists. I find I am not likely to be much edified by their sense, but they may perhaps be of use to me in gaining the improvement I wish for in the language. …”

From: A Series of Letters Between Mrs. Elizabeth Carter and Miss Catherine Talbot, from the year 1741 to 1770
By Elizabeth Carter, 1743

Word of the Day: LEGIFEROUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin legifer (law-giving); (from legi-, lex (law) + -fer (bearing, bringing)) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“… When both joynd issue to Entertaine the King
(Your Royall Grandfather of blessed memory)
Then did the issues of the Schollars braine
Put Ignoramus on’s Legiferous straine …”

From: Ignoramus. Or, The Academical Lawyer
By Ferdinando Parkhurst, 1662
in The Prologues and Epilogues of the Restoration 1660-1700
By Pierre Danchin, 1981

Word of the Day: TARDIGRADE

ETYMOLOGY
from French tardigrade (slow-paced) or from Latin tardigradus (walking slowly); from Latin tardus (slow) + -gradus (stepping, going)

EXAMPLE (for adj. 1)
“… Once more a cruelly long passage fell to my lot. The Deborah proved a marine hackney-coach of the most tardigrade order. But it could not be helped; so, like Diogenes, I resolved to be satisfied with my tub, and as for sunshine, I found it within and without! …”

From: Our Antipodes:
Or, Residence and Rambles in the Australasian Colonies.
By Lt. Colonel Godfrey Charles Mundy, 1852

Word of the Day: NECATION

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin necation-, necatio (killing); from Latin necat-, past participial stem of necare (to kill); (from nec-, nex (death, violent death)) + ‑iō ‑(ion)

EXAMPLE
“… Yet such an inveterate poacher was he that at the next sessions he was “up” again for a like offence at the same place, save that on this second charge the evidence seems to have extended to “exagitation” only, and not to “necation.”…”

From: The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine
Volume XIX, 1881
Extracts from the Records of the Wiltshire Quarter Sessions.
‘Trespass in Pursuit of Game. Licence to Shoot’

Word of the Day: FROBLY-MOBLY

ETYMOLOGY
of unknown origin

EXAMPLE
“… If people felt but indifferently well, they said they were frobly-mobly; if they had swollen faces, they spoke of boun muns; if they were ready to faint, they said coath. …”

From: All The Year Round:
A Weekly Journal
Conducted by Charles Dickens, Jun.
Volume IV. From June 4, to November 26, 1870
‘In the Provinces ‘

Word of the Day: REPRUCE

ETYMOLOGY
from Anglo-French repruce, variant of reproche (reproach)

EXAMPLE
“… Þou settest us repruse [MS depruse.] to our neȝburs, vndernimyng [Here an e follows, but is dotted out.] and scorne to hem þat ben in our cumpas. …”

From: The Earliest Complete English Prose Psalter, c1350
Preface, introduction, notes, and glossary, by Karl D. Bülbring, 1891