Word of the Day: BIBITORY


ETYMOLOGY
from modern Latin bibitorius, from  bibit- ppl. stem of bibere (to drink)


EXAMPLE
“…The verdict does not favour total abstinence, though it is decidedly against bibitory indulgence. It was clear from the close study of the patient – who was so well-formed and healthy that hey may be regarded corporeally as a typical man – that alcohol was not necessary to him…”

From: The Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Chronicle
Volume 229, 1870
Notes and Incidents

Word of the Day: BOASTIVE


ETYMOLOGY
from boast (vb.) + -ive


EXAMPLE
“…Of acid blood, proclaiming Want’s disease
Amidst the bloom of shew. The scanty stream,
Slow-loit’ring in its channel, seems to vie
With Vaga’s depth; but should the sedgy pow’r,
Vain-glorious, empty his penurious urn
O’er the rough rock, how must his fellow streams
Deride the tinklings of the boastive rill
…”

From: The Poetical Works of William Shenstone, 1768
By William Shenstone, a1763

Word of the Day: BERSATRIX


ETYMOLOGY
from French berseaux (cradle) + –trix a feminine ending


EXAMPLE
“…High rewards, as was then customary, were bestowed on the messenger who attended the child, and on the bersatrix who rocked the cradle of the infant hero…”

From: A History of the Life of Edward the Black Prince, 
By George Payne Rainsford James, 1836

Word of the Day: BISMER


ETYMOLOGY
from OED: from West Germanic: Old English bísmer-or (strong neuter), identical with Old High German bísmer (ridicule), from bí-, be- prefix (in its strong or accented form) + -smer, which Schmeller connects with Middle High German smier (a smile, laughing), smieren (to smile).
Others have compared Old High German smero, Old English smeoru, Old Germanic *smerwo-(m, ‘fat, grease, butter,’ which seems, on phonetic as well as other grounds, less probable.


EXAMPLE
“…And eek for sche was somdel smoterlich
Sche was as deyne as water in a dich
     As ful of hokir and of bissemare
hir thoughte ladyes oughten hir to spare /
what for hir kynreed and hir nortelrye
…”

From: The Harleian ms. 7334 of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer, c1386

Word of the Day: BADINE


ETYMOLOGY
from French badin (as a noun – a light-hearted person, fool, idiot; also used to denote the fool or clown in drama), (as an adjective – light-hearted, cheerful, foolish, silly),
from Old Occitan badin, adjective and noun, from badar (to gape), from Latin badare (to gape) + -in (-ine)


EXAMPLE
“…Such a Badeen ne’er came upon the Stage,
So droll, so monkey in his play and rage;
Sprawling upon his back, and pitching pyes,
Twirling his head, and flurring at the flies.
A thousand tricks and postures would he show,
Then rise so pleas’d both with himself and you,
That the amaz’d beholders could not say
Whether the bird was happier, or they…”

From: Poems by Sir W.T.
By William Temple, 1670
‘Upon My Lady Giffard’s Loory’

Word of the Day: BRIGOUS


ETYMOLOGY
either from:
a) Middle French brigeux (from brigue (a quarrel, an argument; strife, contention)) + -eux (-ous)
b) from Latin brigosus (from briga (quarrel, dispute, strife) + -ōsus (-ous) + -ous 
c) or directly from brigue (a quarrel, an argument) + -ous


EXAMPLE
“…Þis answere assoileth noght at all This brigous questioun…”

From: De Consolatione Philosophiae (on The Consolation of Philosophy)
By Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Translated by John Walton, c1450

Word of the Day: BELLIBONE

ETYMOLOGY
possibly a corruption of French belle bonne or belle et bonne (fair and good);
if not a humorous perversion of bonnibel (fair maid, bonny lass)

EXAMPLE
“…PERIGOT. The while my Flock did feed thereby,
WILLY. The while the Shepherd self did spill:
PERIGOT. I saw the bouncing Bellibone;
WILLY. Hey ho Bonnibel!
PERIGOT. Tripping over the Dale alone,
WILLY. She can trip it very well
…”

From: The Shepheardes Calender
VIII: August
By Edmund Spenser, 1579