Category: Word of the Day – C

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

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