Category: Word of the Day – B

ETYMOLOGY
from bajulat-, participial stem of bajulare (to carry), from bajulus (porter);

BADGER – a person who buys corn and other commodities and carries them elsewhere to sell; an itinerant dealer who acts as a middleman between producer (farmer, fisherman, etc.) and consumer; a cadger, hawker, or huckster

EXAMPLE
“…Hence it is, that in the late Order for regulating the wages of Coach-men, at such a price a day and distance from London, Sussex alone was excepted, as wherein shorter way or better pay was allowed. Yet, the Gentry of this County well content themselves in the very badness of passage therein, as which secureth their provisions at reasonable prices; which, if mended, Higglers would mount, as bajulating them to London.…”

From: The History of the Worthies of England
By Thomas Fuller, 1662

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin bimaris,
from bi– (two) and mare (the sea)

EXAMPLE
The Tale of Two Seas is a bimarical tale.

ETYMOLOGY
from blunder, taken in sense of ‘blunderer’ + -kin

EXAMPLE
“…I vtterly despaire of them, or not so much despaire of them, as count them a paire of poore ideots, being not only but also two brothers, two blockheads, two blunderkins, hauing their braines stuft with nought but balder-dash, but that they are the verie botts & the glanders to the gentle Readers…”

From: Haue with you to Saffron-Walden; or, Gabriell Harueys Hunt is Vp
By Thomas Nashe, 1596

ETYMOLOGY
probably from blow (vb.) + -viate

EXAMPLE
“…Peter P. Low, Esq., will with open throat…bloviate about the farmers being taxed upon the full value of their farms, while bankers are released from taxation…”

From: Huron Reflector (Norwalk, Ohio)
October 14, 1845

PRONUNCIATION
BLOH-vee-ayt

ETYMOLOGY
from be- + flum;
perhaps influenced by Scots blaflum, bleflum (to cajole)

EXAMPLE
“…that are but ill settled yet, till they durst na on ony errand whatsoever gang ower the door-stane after gloaming, for fear John Heatherblutter, or some siccan dare-the diel, should tak a baff at them: then, on the hand, I beflum’d them wi’ Colonel Talbot – wad they offer to keep up the price again the Duke’s friend? did na they ken wha was master?…”

From: Waverley; or, ‘Tis Sixty Years Since,
By Walter Scott, 1814

ETYMOLOGY
from French bel (belle) ami (fair friend)

EXAMPLE
“…Thenne aunsweryd the kyng off Fraunce To Kyng Richard withouten destaunce, ” I suffre, sere, bele amys, Thou hast wrong, sere, be Seynt Denis, That thou thretest that markys, That thè never yit dede amysse…”

From: Richard Coer de Lion
A Middle English Romance, c1325

ETYMOLOGY
from belly (n.) + cheer

EXAMPLE
“…so they would contynue, in case theyr ordinaries, Curates, & ministers were not trylers and hynderours therof, and if they were not seduced, and taught by sedicious earewhisperours contrary to the worde of God & the Kynges hyghnes mooste godly gracious procedinges, onely for pelfe , belycheare, ease and lucre. But take me not, that I meane all them to be triflers, hynderours, or sinistre resisters, that are ordinaries, curates or ministres…”

From: The Seconde Tome or Volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus
By Desiderius Erasmus
Translated by John Olde, 1549

ETYMOLOGY
of uncertain origin;
possibly from bum (to give a beating to, especially as a punishment) + feague (to beat, to whip)

EXAMPLE
“…I wil presently proue both maior and minor of this sillogisme. And hold my cloake there sombody, that I may go roundly to worke. For ise so bumfeg the Cooper, as he had bin better to haue hooped halfe the tubbes in Winchester, then write against my worships pistles…”

From: The Marprelate Tracts
‘Penned and compiled by Martin the Metropolitane’
Hay Any Worke for Cooper, 1523

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

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