Category: Word of the Day – B

ETYMOLOGY
– from Latin blæsiloquentem,
from blæsus (lisping, stammering) + (loquentem speaking)

EXAMPLE
“…They might gracefully call gentlemen on the other side of the House either blesiloquent or superbiloquent, and they might accuse an opponent of morology with impunity, whereas if they were to say that he was “talking like a fool,” they might be called to order by the Speaker, who would consider them immorigerous (rude), and describe their behaviour as propudious (shameful)…”

From: The Saturday Review
Of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art
No. 1,834, Vol. 70, December 20, 1890
The New World of Words

ETYMOLOGY
– ? from bumfuddled,
? from bamboozle

EXAMPLE
“…Well, father, I thought he’d a fainted too, he was so struck up all of a heap, he was completely bung fungered; dear, dear, said he, I didn’t think it would come to pass so soon, but I knew it would come; I foretold it…”

From: The Clockmaker
or The Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick,
Thomas Chandler Haliburton, 1836

ETYMOLOGY
– ? a cross between blib (a weak, watery portion, as of tea, etc.) and ribbons

EXAMPLE
“…Now, Jenny, min’, nae blibbans in the kail the day.”

From: Supplement to Jamieson’s Scottish Dictionary, 1887