Word of the Day

Word of the Day: BAWTIE

ETYMOLOGY
from Old Sc. bawté, bawtie (a dog’s name), extended to dogs;
bawd is a Sc. term for a hare

EXAMPLE
“…I rew the race that Geordie Steill
Brocht Bawte to the kingis presence.
I pray God lat hym neuer do weill,
Sen syne I gat na audience.
For Bawte now gettis sic credence,
That he lyis on the Kingis nycht goun.
Quhare I perforce for my offence,
Man in the clois ly lyke ane loun….”

From: The Warkis of the Famous and Vorthie Knicht Schir Dauid Lyndesay of the Mont, alias, Lyoun King of Armes
By David Lindsay, 1568
‘The Complaint and Publiet Confessioun of the Kingis Auld Hound, callit Bagsche, directit to Bawte, the Kingis best belouit dog, and his Companʒeonis’

PRONUNCIATION
BAW-tee

Word of the Day: GYNOPHAGITE

ETYMOLOGY
from gyno– (combining form denoting female, woman) + Greek -ϕαγος (eating) + -ite

EXAMPLE
“…If our Ulysses, thus rejuvenated by his Minerva, has not fully made up his mind to make
a Penelope of Miss Jemima, all I can say is, that he is worse than Polyphemus, who was only an Anthropophagos; —
He preys upon the weaker sex, and is a Gynophagite!…”

From: My Novel
By Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1853

Word of the Day: AGELAST

ETYMOLOGY
from agelaste (person who never laughs),  from Greek ἀγέλαστος (agelastos – not laughing),
from ἀ- (a– having sense without) + γελασ-, stem of γελᾶν (to laugh) + ‑τος

EXAMPLE
“…But let us beware lest in our laughter we commit the very sin which raised it, for through all laughter, the most benighted, must arise primarily from an, at least, imagined comic perception, in most the maximum is on the wrong side, Over-laughing, the sin of the ‘hypergelast’ as Mr. Meredith terms him, is even less tolerable to the muse than that of the ‘agelast‘ he who
‘Show his teeth in way of smile
Though Nestor swore the jest be laughable,’
and if we are guilty of it, the muse will but send out another laughter upon ours, which in its turn may need chastening…”

From: George Meredith: Some Characteristics.
By Richard Le Gallienne, 1890
‘The Comic Muse’

PRONUNCIATION
AJ-uh-lasst

Word of the Day: MALIGNIOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from malign (adj.), from Latin malignus (evil-disposed),
from malus (evil) + -gnus, from base of gignere (to beget, produce, devise)

EXAMPLE
“… for as by the bad is the good knowen, so by the sower is the sweete the better discerned, and by the darkenesse of the night may a man iudge the brightnesse of the day, in so much that I wholy perswade with my selfe that lightly your Honour will pardon my attempt, and fond presumption, in being bold vnder your honours patronage to shield me with defence against such carping, blustering, and malignious tongues, which not onely doo perillously shake at, yea, and indeuour mainely to beat downe, and confute not onely all kind of blossomes, and young budded fruites…”

From: Florio His Firste Fruites which yeelde Familiar Speech, Merie Prouerbes, Wittie Sentences, and Golden Sayings
By John Florio, 1578

Word of the Day: RUVID

ETYMOLOGY
from Italian ruvido (rough, rugged, rude, uncivilized, ill-mannered),
from Latin rugidus (creased, wrinkly),
from ruga (crease, small fold, wrinkle) + ‑idus (‑id)

EXAMPLE
for adj. 1

“…Gaza now is called Habalello, and is composed of twelve hundred fire-houses, and sensible against the incursions of Arabs: The ruvid Cittizens, being Turkes, Moores, Jews, domeseticke Arabians, with a few Georgians, & Nostranes …”

From: The Totall Discourse of the Rare Adventures & Painefull Peregrinations of long Nineteene Yeares Travayles from Scotland, to the most famous Kingdomes in Europe, Asia, and Affrica.
By William Lithgow, 1632

Word of the Day: ARTOPHAGOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Greek ἀρτοϕάγος (bread-eating) [from ρτο-, combining form of ἄρτος (bread) + ‑ϕάγος (eating)] + -ous

EXAMPLE
“… —give him a loaf, Tom] Again! Our old writers are never weary of this jest. In the ‘Rebellion,’ by Rawlins, allusions to this artophagous propensity of the tailors occur in almost every page…”

From: The Works of Ben Jonson
Edited by W. Gifford, Volume the Fifth, 1816
‘The Staple of News’

Word of the Day: PINCHFART

ETYMOLOGY
formed by compounding pinch- (comb. form. a nip, a squeeze; to nip, to squeeze)

EXAMPLE
“…It were lamentable to tel what misery the Rattes and Mise endured in this hard world, how when all supply of vittualls failed them, they went a Boot-haling one night to Sinior Greedinesse bed-chamber, where finding nothing but emptines and vastitie, they encountred (after long inqusition) with a cod-peece, wel dunged and manured with greace (which my pinch-fart penie-father had retaind from his Bachelorship, vntill the eating of these presents).…”

From: Pierce Penilesse, His Supplication to the Divell
By Thomas Nashe, 1592

Word of the Day: AURICOMOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin auricomus, from auri-, comb. form of aurum (gold) + coma (hair) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“…Mrs. Poignarde, who was walking beside Saltasche, raised her eyelashes, and timidly looked for a recognition. Mrs. Hepenstall, a very frisky matron, and her friend of the auricomous hair, looked blankest forgetfulness…”

From: Hogan, M.P.: A Novel
By May Laffan Hartley, 1881

Word of the Day: COCKAPERT

ETYMOLOGY
seemingly an alteration of malapert (adj.) after cock (a mature male of the domestic chicken)

EXAMPLE
for adj.

“…Which is terbox to your side: for out of dout,
Your cockapert pride: and your couetous harts.
Haue brought: more than three parts of our ils about.
Your rude rebelins disobedient parts:
Much vnto our (and much more to your own) smarts:
Kicking and wincing at euery good order,
Hath distroide good order in euery border…”

From: The Spider and the Flie
By John Heywood, 1556

for n.

“… I could tell he was cross about something. I didn’t think the blisters were enough to account for it; he’d suffered them for days without complaint. We got under the quilt and I pulled the coverlet over our heads. In the dark I could watch him but he couldn’t see me. There was a strong scent of sweet balm from the foot salve. I said, “I heard about Sire … Lackadaisy, or or Lapscallion – the cockapert who insulted you. Are you still hungry at him?…”

From: Wildfire: A Novel
By Sarah Wicklem, 2009