Category: Word of the Day – C

ETYMOLOGY
perhaps from coll (a fool, simpleton, dupe) + hardy,
though the dupe or simpleton is not exactly the type of the ‘hardy’ fool

EXAMPLE
“… Is this the profession of a Byshop? is this the Diuinitie of Osorius? Downe with that Pecockes tayle, away with this arrogancie: be no more so collhardy, and write hereafter more aduisedly, and take better regard to your penne, lest you bryng your name into odious contempt with all Christendome. …”

From: Against Ierome Osorius Byshopp of Siluane in Portingall and against his slaunderous inuectiues An aunswere apologeticall: for the necessary defence of the euangelicall doctrine and veritie,
By Walter Haddon and John Foxe
Translated by James Bell, 1581

ETYMOLOGY
from carry (vb.) + tale

EXAMPLE
“… After the solemnitie of this marriage, there appeared outwardlie to the world great loue and friendship betweene the duke and the earle, but by reason of carie tales and flatterers, the loue continued not long, …”

From: The Firste (laste) Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande
By Raphael Holinshed, 1577

ETYMOLOGY
alteration of cockabell, cockerbell, variants of cocklebell (an icicle);
probably after English dialect conker (snail-shell)

EXAMPLE
“… An’ leetle Bob! tha daps o’s veather,
Hoi, wull, us did count on un, reather :
Yer Bobby yer’s tha crickett,
Tha chield’s avroared, tha conkerbells
Be hangin’ to un — Yett theesel,
Bob — Yen thick auther thicket. …”

From: Jim and Nell: a Dramatic Poem in the dialect of North Devon
By William Frederick Rock, 1867

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin calens, calentem present participle of calere (to be hot)

EXAMPLE
“… The Lion also is a signification of the Sun, for the hairs of his mane do resemble the streaming beams of the Sun, and therefore this constellation is styled with the same Epithets that the Lion and the Sun are, as heat-bearing, aestive, ardent, arent,
calent, hot, flammant, burning, Herculean, mad, horrible, dreadful, cruel, and terrible. It is feigned of the Poets, that this Lion was the Nemaean Lion slain by Hercules, which at the commandment of Juno was fostered in Arcadia, and that in anger against Hercules after his death, she placed him in the heavens. …”

From: The History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents describing at large their true and lively figure, their several names, conditions, kinds, virtues …
By Edward Topsell, 1607

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin colloqui + –acious, after loquacious

ETYMOLOGY
from child + great (big)

EXAMPLE
“… Swines-Bread, sovsed, doth not onely speed
A tardy Labour; but (without great heed)
If ouer it a Child-great Woman stride,
Instant abortion often doth betide.
The burning Sun, the banefull Aconite,
The poysonie Serpents that vnpeople quite
Cyrenian Desarts, neuer Danger them
That wear about them th’ Artemisian Stem. …”

From: Du Bartas his Deuine Weekes and Workes
By Guillaume de Saluste Du Bartas
Translated by Joshua Sylvester, 1605

ETYMOLOGY
conjectured to be a whimsical imitation of concur (cur = dog);
but no evidence has been found of its actual origin

EXAMPLE
“… Alcum. So is it, and often doth it happen, that the iust proportion of the fire and all things concurre.

Rafe. Concurre, condogge. I will away.

Alcum. Then away. …”

From: Gallathea
By John Lyly, 1592

ETYMOLOGY
from carrion (the human body) + case (a covering)

EXAMPLE
“He wore a tight, white, long-sleeved, button-up carrion-case.”

ETYMOLOGY
adj. 1.: from chit (a freckle or wart, obsolete) + -y
adj. 2. & 3..: apparently deduced from chitty-face, (thin face), but afterwards associated with chit (the young of a beast)
n. 1.:  from Hindi chiṭṭhi, Marathi chitthi, chithi and its cognate
Hindi ciṭṭhi (document, letter, note, promissory note, pass), of uncertain origin

EXAMPLE (for adj. 1.)
“… How shall I stifle now my rising Phlegm,
Are all, are all his Thoughts employ’d on them
Shall they such Chitty Jades so happy be,
And can he not bestow one word on me;
Hence from my Sight, avoid this wicked Room,
Go you ungracious Minxes, get you home. …”

From: The Rival Milliners: or, the Humours of Covent Garden
A Tragi-Comi-Operatic-Pastoral Farce
By Robert Drury, 1737

ETYMOLOGY
probably an alteration of cheslop, a variant of cheslip (a woodlouse), after bob (a bunch or cluster, as of leaves, flowers, fruit, etc.)

EXAMPLE
“I saw several chizzle-bobs crawling out from under the damp wood that was stored in the shed”