Category: Word of the Day – B

ETYMOLOGY
from Old English beswincan, from be- + swincan (to toil, to labour)
definition 2: probably for beswinge (as per OED)

EXAMPLE (for vb. 2.)
“… “Here now,” quod hunger “and holde it for a wisdome:
Bolde beggeres and bigge þat mowe her bred biswynke,
With houndes bred and hors bred holde vp her hertis,
Abate hem with benes for bollyng of her wombe;
And ȝif þe gomes grucche bidde hem go swynke,
And he shal soupe swettere whan he it hath deseruid ….”

From: The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman
By William Langland, 1377

ETYMOLOGY
from blast (a blowing or strong gust of wind) + -ful

EXAMPLE
“…Breezy hills and blastful mountains,
Chirp of birds, and thunder’s roll.
Tinkling rills and gushing fountains.
Powers that spurn weak man’s control.
Cradle song and chariot’s rattle.
Mighty thoughts that stir the soul,
Throng of business, roar of battle,
All make music In the whole. …”

From: Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine,
July – December 1883
‘October Song’

ETYMOLOGY
from babble (to talk excessively, to chatter excitedly or quickly) + -ative.

EXAMPLE 1
“…Manye of them which lacke good bringing vp and haue not beene trayned in learning and ciuilitie, are of disposition, wauering, vnconstant, captious, deceitfull, falseharted, destrous of alterations and tumultes, babblatiue, and full of muche vaine tattling: in consultacion and counsell so suttle and craftie, that whatsoeuer they once conceyue in mynde or purpose to do, without delay that do they iudge best, forthwith to be enterprysed, & out of hande to be atchieued: and whereunto so euer they addict their mindes, therin proue they right excellente…”

From: The Touchstone of Complexions
By Leuine Lemnie
Translation by Thomas Newton, 1576

EXAMPLE 2
“…He could mesmerize a room full of scientists, an auditorium flush with factory workers, or a parlor pack of literati, including his salon companions Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the sharpest talkers in a smart and garrulous town. He was one of those brilliant, babblative sorts whose immense skill in their main work is nearly eclipsed by their gift for talk…”

From: Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral
By David Dobbs, 2005

PRONUNCIATION
BAB-luh-tiv

ETYMOLOGY
from Old French buisnart, buinard (silly fellow)

EXAMPLE
“…”Wat! nou const þou no god?
Me þinkeþ þat þou art wod:
Ȝeuest þo þe welpe mustard?” 
“Be stille, boinard!…”

From: Dame Siriz (Dame Sirith),
A late thirteenth-century Middle English poem.

• nou const þou no god? = can you do no good?
• þinkeþ = thinketh
• wod = mad, crazy
• Ȝeuest þo þe welpe = give you the whelp
• Be stille, boinard = hold your tongue fool

ETYMOLOGY
from batracho- (comb. form) [from Greek βάτραχος (bátrakhos, frog)] + ‑phobia 

EXAMPLE
“…The world looks down upon them, gives them ill names, affects a sort of horror of them, and does its best to kick them out of sight; and the consequence is that the world knows next to nothing about them, and thus misses one of the most marvellous chapters in the whole range of zoological science. The Batrachophobia is at length giving way in one direction, it is true; for the Aquarium, has made it manifest that the Water-Newts, spite of a long-cherished belief to the contrary, are perfectly harmless little creatures…”

From: Links In The Chain;
Or, Popular Chapters On the Curiosities of Animal Life
By George Kearley, 1863
‘The Ancient Order of Batrachians’

PRONUNCIATION
bat-ruh-koh-FOH-bee-uh

ETYMOLOGY
from bran (the husk of a cereal after grinding) + -faced

EXAMPLE
“…And for the rest, if any fuddling, bolus-brained, bran-faced, turnip-tongued, hippopotamus-headed moon-calf doubts my word, let him remember that there are pistols for two – and coffee for one, in Belgium, and let him tremble…”

From: Punch, Or The London Charivari
Vol. 98, 1890
In The Know (By Mr. Punch’s Own Prophet)

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

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin bucculentus, from bucca (cheek)

EXAMPLE
“… The Royal Game of Goose or the Yorkshire Tragedy, which form the common ornaments of our cottages, are superseded in theirs by some marvellous legend redolent of beatitude; and instead of the Amazonian Trull, or the weather-beaten Admiral which frowns from the bowsprit of a British man-of-war, they carve on their prows the fair image of some bucculent Cherub, or some semi-anatomized Saint …”

From: The British Critic
Volume XIX. January-June, 1823
‘Blunt’s Vestiges of Ancient Manners in Italy’

ETYMOLOGY
from bam (to hoax, to make fun of to impose upon the credulous) + bluster

EXAMPLE
“…”In course,” continued Joe, more soothed: “none but a Jolly would go to say anything again it, or doubt the woracity o’ the thing. Well, shipmates, to heave ahead, I’m saying I was reg’larly bamblustercated when one of the genelmen up in the niches squeaks out, ‘King Herod, I’ll just thank your for a thimble-full of the stuff.'” …”

From: Bentley’s Miscellany, Volume II, 1837
‘Nights at Sea’

ETYMOLOGY
of unknown origin

EXAMPLE
“…I fell down, and they all capsized, turned turtle – heels up, nose down – every man Jack, one after the other, over each other’s legs. Never saw such a mix, A common-keeper, one of the lot, got a heavy oner on the boko for his share.’
‘Boys,’ said Mr. Hamblin, ‘who use slang come to the gallows. Boko is …’
‘Conk or boko,.’ said Nicolas the vulgar. ‘It’s all the same. Took it home in a bag made out of a picket-handkerchief.’…”

From: Time
A Monthly Miscellany of Interesting and Amusing Literature
Edited by Edmund Yates, Volume I, 1879
‘The Seamy Side’
By Walter Besant, and James Rice