Category: Word of the Day – C

ETYMOLOGY
adjective: from Latin conspurcātus past participle
verb: from Latin conspurcāt-, participial stem of conspurcāre (to defile, pollute),
from con- + spurcāre (to befoul), 
from spurcus (unclean, dirty, foul)

EXAMPLE
“…in dede I thynk they both will declare it hartely, if they should come before them. As for me, if you woulde knowe what I thynk (my good and most deare brother Laurence) bycause I am so synfull & so conspurcate (the Lord knoweth I lye not) with many greuous synnes (which yet I hope ar washed away Sanguine Christi) I neither can nor would be consulted withal, but as a siphar in augrim.…”

From: The first volume of the ecclesiasticall history contaynyng the actes and monumentes of thynges passed in every kynges tyme in this realme
– John Foxe, 1563

ETYMOLOGY
from cock + stride

EXAMPLE
“…It is now February and the Sun has gotten up a cocke-stride of his climbing, the vallies now are painted while, and the brooks are full of water…”

From: Fantasticks 
– Nicholas Breton, 1626

ETYMOLOGY
from Greek καλός (fair, excellent) + -ϕαντης (shower) (from ϕαίνειν to show) + -ic

EXAMPLE
“…T’is only wisht your work from Dolts, your Hiues from Drones were free:
T’is wisht in These, in Fugitiues, in Papists, and (more bad,
Whom to perswade to reason, were with reason to be mad)
In Calophantick Puritaines, amisse amendment had…”

From: Albions England
A continued historie of the same kingdome, from the originals of the first inhabitants thereof
– William Warner, 1596

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin crēbrum (frequent) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“…Now at the lengthe not onlie harde necessitie, but also most principallie the crebrous phame of your clemencie, and the right worshipfull and Godlie reporte of your bountefull humanitie and gentlenes vnto all men…”

From: Original Letters of Eminent Literary Men of the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Centuries
– J. Leach. c1600
Edited by Henry Ellis

ETYMOLOGY
– from Latin clanculārius (secret),
from clanculum (adv.), diminutive of clam (in secret, private)

EXAMPLE
He was host to many clancularious gatherings, always conducted under cover of darkness.

ETYMOLOGY
– from Old French concordieux, -euse,
from medieval Latin concordiōsus ,
from concordia,  
from concors, concord (of one mind) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“…the King found himself at more Leisure and Freedom, in the Absence of the Lord Marquess, to study the calling of a Comfortable and Concordious Parliament, wherein the Subject might reap Justice, and the Crown Honour…”

From: Scrinia Reserata: 
A Memorial Offer’d to the Great Deservings of John Williams.
By John Hacket, a1670
The Life of Arch-Bishop Williams

ETYMOLOGY
– of unknown origin

EXAMPLE
“…A got him cuddle-muddlin’ wee ane anither at the back o’ a dyke.”

From: The Dialect of Banffshire
Walter Gregor, 1866

ETYMOLOGY
– from Latin confarreātiōnem, a noun of action from confarreāre (to unite in marriage by the offering of bread), 
from con- + farreus (of spelt, corn, or grain), farreum (a spelt-cake),
from far, farr-is (grain, spelt)

EXAMPLE
“…And if fell out that, that iust number coulde not bee founde, the vse of confarreation, or marriage with a cake of Wheate, either not vsed, or only of a few: whereof he alleaged many reasons, though the chiefest was, the carelesnes of men and women…”

From: The Annales of Cornelius Tacitus. The Description of Germanie.
(Translation Richard Grenewey)
Cornelius Tacitus, 1598