Category: Word of the Day – C

ETYMOLOGY
from cover (to put or something over an object, with the effect of hiding from view or protecting) + slut (an untidy, dirty, or slovenly woman; a woman who is habitually careless, lazy, or negligent with regard to appearance, household cleanliness, etc.)

ETYMOLOGY
from ‘clotty‘ related to clot (vb.);
with ‘mauls‘ ‘mauley‘ (the hand, fist, sl.)

EXAMPLE
“… sich a passionate chap, I wor afreead o´ his clottymoles comin´ i´ contact wi´ my bowster: soa thowt I, I´d wesh ´em, an´ just sponge my cloas dahn at t´ same toime. …”

From: The Salamanca Corpus
Wadsley Jack; or, The Humours & Adventures of a Travelling Cutler
By Reuben Hallam, 1866

ETYMOLOGY
from French chilonique, from Chilon (Χίλων), one of the seven wise men of Greece, whose sentences were very short and to the point

EXAMPLE
All job descriptions should be in a Chilonic style of writing.

ETYMOLOGY
for. n. 1. & n. 2. from cuff (to strike with the fist or open hand, to buffet) + -er
for n. 4. from cuff (to discuss, to talk over) + -er

ETYMOLOGY
from French crudelité, from Latin crudelitas (cruelty), from crudelis (cruel)

EXAMPLE
“…The thyrd synne is vnmyserycorde and crudelyte For he whyche playeth wold fayne take from his felowe bothe breche and sherte the whiche thynge the theuys whyche dyspoyle and robbe the pylgrymes doon not…”

From: Here begynneth the prologue or prohemye of the book callid Caton
Translated by William Caxton, 1483

ETYMOLOGY
from cloth + market

EXAMPLE
“…Neverout. Miss, your Slave: I hope your early Rising will do you no Harm. I hear you are but just come out of the Cloth-Market.
Miss. I always rise at Eleven, whether it be Day or no.
Col. Miss, I hope you are up for all Day?
Miss. Yes, if I don’t get a Fall before Night …”

From: A complete collection of genteel and ingenious conversation, according to the most polite mode and method now used at court, and in the best companies of England,
By Jonathan Swift, 1738

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin cenatorius (pertaining to dinner)

EXAMPLE
“…The consent of the Jews with the Romans in other ceremonies and rites of feasting, makes probable their conformity in this. The Romans washed, were anointed, and wore a cenatory garment: and that the same was practised by the Jews, is deduceable from that expostulation of our Saviour with Simon, that he washed not his feet, nor anointed his head with oyl: the common civilities at festival entertainments: and that expression of his concerning the cenatory or wedding garment; and as some conceive of the linnen garment of the young man or St. John; which might be the same he wore the night before at the last Supper. …”

From: Pseudodoxia Epidemica:
Or, Enquiries into Very many Received Tenents and And Commonly Presumed Truths
By Thomas Browne, 1650

ETYMOLOGY
from. obs. French consequentieux, from Latin consequentia: + -ous

EXAMPLE
“…Now when the politicke Ambassadour, had wrought Prince Temeriske, as he desired, he then perswades with Abbas, that the Georgians hated him, that their King had entertained discourse with the Grand Signior, and sought but an aduantage to betray his trust, that if his words seemed of no moment, the matter was not consequentious, and his employment carried him, to other ends then forreigne Obiects. …”

From: A Relation of some Yeares Trauaile begunne anno 1626. Into Afrique and the greater Asia
By Thomas Herbert, 1634

ETYMOLOGY
from clunch (to clench) + fist + -ed

EXAMPLE
“…He (that is, He that will confesse Abraham to have paid no other tithes then, Heb. 7. 4.) delivers to the world, Abraham to Godward, to have been piteously penurious. That of his dues to Religion he was a niggardly Micher: That he was an Abraham clunchfisted, and all that this way went he thought it onely wast: that the good child Judas, that he did, he did learn of his Father Abraham, Quorsum perditio haec?…”

From: A Discourse of Proper Sacrifice
By Edward Dering, 1644

ETYMOLOGY
probably from an extended form of cock (a mature male of the domestic chicken) + bird 

EXAMPLE
“…The artist’s occupation is gone henceforth, and the painter’s studio, like ‘all charms, must fly, at the mere touch of old philosophy.’ So Major Campbell prepares the charming little cockyoly birds, and I call the sun in to immortalize them. …”

From: Two Years Ago
By Charles Kingsley, 1857