Category: Word of the Day – C

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

ETYMOLOGY
from participial stem of Latin coquinare (to cook), from coquinus( adj.), from coquus (cook)

EXAMPLE
Most chefs on reality cooking shows appear to be quite capable of coquinating, but like all reality shows, they’re probably scripted.

ETYMOLOGY
from Greek κρυπτός (hidden) + ὄνοµα (name)

EXAMPLE
“…The Ballad Book. Edinb. 1 827. 8vo. Maillet, Benedict de. Telliamed, being a Translation from the French.
A cryptonymous book — Telliamed being the anagram of M. de Maillet. It consists of * Discourses between an Indian philosopher and a French missionary on the diminuation of the sea, the formation of the earth, the origin of men and animals, and other curious subjects relating to natural history and philosophy. …”

From: The Bibliographer’s Manual of English Literature, Vol. III
By William Thomas Lowndes, 1834

ETYMOLOGY
from stem of compunction (pricking of the conscience, remorse) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“…The Rauen himselfe is hoarse,
That croakes the fatall entrance of Duncan
Vnder my Battlements. Come you Spirits,
That tend on mortall thoughts, vnsex me here,
And fill me from the Crowne to the Toe, top-full
Of direst Crueltie: make thick my blood,
Stop vp th’ accesse, and passage to Remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of Nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keepe peace betweene
Th’ effect, and hit. Come to my Womans Brests,
And take my Milke for Gall, you murth’ring Ministers,
Where-euer, in your sightlesse substances,
You wait on Natures Mischiefe. Come thick Night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoake of Hell,
That my keene Knife see not the Wound it makes,
Nor Heauen peepe through the Blanket of the darke,
To cry, hold, hold….”

From: Macbeth
By William Shakespeare, a1616

ETYMOLOGY
from  controvertist (a person who engages in argument or controversy) [from controvertere (in logic, to invert; to argue, to dispute, to oppose)] + ‑ical 

EXAMPLE
“…The Company began to Smile at this odd Rodomontade, but Eudoxus told him, in controvertistical Debates, there was no Appeal from Reason to the Sword; that it was more prudent to confess Errors, than to defend ’em; to cancel past Crimes, than to commit new ones …”

From: A Gentleman Instructed in the True Principles of Religion
By William Darrell. 1707

ETYMOLOGY
of uncertain origin;
perhaps from one who clinches or clenches the poops of vessels,
a clincher (a workman who clinched the bolts in shipbuilding)

EXAMPLE 1.
“…Yf a Gentlemanne haue in hym anye humble behauour, then Roysters doo cal suche one by the name of a Loute, a Clynchepope, or one that knoweth no facyons…”

From: The Institucion of a Gentleman
By Humfrey Braham, 1555

EXAMPLE 2.
“…Cléante
Ma chere, ma chere, c’est vrai, c’est vrai,
But my rival is a juggins –

Angélique
A muggins –

Cléante
A noodle and a looby –

Angélique
A lopdoodle, a dunderhead, a pigsconce and a booby –

Cléante
A Clinchpoop, a gobemouche, a snollygoster, a gongoozler –

Angélique
A lickspiggot, a fuzzdutty, a jobbernowl, an ass –

Thomas
It’s highly amusing.

Cléante
– Who’s in love with the sound of his own braying …”

From: The Hypochondriac
Roger McGough’s translation of Molière’s Le Malade Imaginaire, 2009

ETYMOLOGY
seemingly an alteration of malapert (adj.) after cock (a mature male of the domestic chicken)

EXAMPLE
for adj.

“…Which is terbox to your side: for out of dout,
Your cockapert pride: and your couetous harts.
Haue brought: more than three parts of our ils about.
Your rude rebelins disobedient parts:
Much vnto our (and much more to your own) smarts:
Kicking and wincing at euery good order,
Hath distroide good order in euery border…”

From: The Spider and the Flie
By John Heywood, 1556

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for n.

“… I could tell he was cross about something. I didn’t think the blisters were enough to account for it; he’d suffered them for days without complaint. We got under the quilt and I pulled the coverlet over our heads. In the dark I could watch him but he couldn’t see me. There was a strong scent of sweet balm from the foot salve. I said, “I heard about Sire … Lackadaisy, or or Lapscallion – the cockapert who insulted you. Are you still hungry at him?…”

From: Wildfire: A Novel
By Sarah Wicklem, 2009

ETYMOLOGY
? perhaps from bung (the buttocks, the backside [obs.]) + -us (abounding in, full of)

EXAMPLE
“…Sims, after a little unartistic squaring, lunged out awkwardly, and caught Tom on the chest with his left. Tom, who was evidently waiting to find out what his adversary could do, returned smartly on the gob, and in getting back, fell on his corybungus…”

From: Tom Sayers, Sometime Champion of England,
His Life and Pugilistic Career
By Thomas Sayers, 1866
‘Fight between Tom Sayers and George Sims, for £75, on Tuesday, the 28th of February, 1854, at Longreach’