Category: Word of the Day – C

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin type cognoscibilis (knowable), from cognscere

EXAMPLE
“…There remains nothing entire, nor cognoscible in Germany, but the Sea and the Mountains…”

From: Le Prince
By Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac
Translated by H. Gresby, 1648

ETYMOLOGY
from French cataglottisme (‘a kisse or kissing with the tongue’ (Cotgrave)), 
from Greek καταγλώττισµα, (kataglottisma) -ισµός (‘a lascivious kiss’)

EXAMPLE
“…The kiss is not only an expression of feeling; it is a means of provoking it. Cataglottism is by no means confined to pigeons…”

From: Studies in the Psychology of Sex, 
Volume 4: Sexual Selection In Man
Havelock Ellis, 1905

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin cogitabundus (thinking), from cogitare (to think)

EXAMPLE
“…To turn the apple of the eye towards the Nose, is their peculiar action who are Sowre and Severe; for, such are of a Contuitive, Grave, and Cogitabund aspect, such as is seen in those who with some Tragicall and Goblin-like look would affright and scare others…”

From: Pathomyotamia
By John Bulwer, 1649

ETYMOLOGY
from child + -ling

EXAMPLE
“…and therefore more than one hundred times doth he in this his rayling pasquill expresse himselfe against me in such termes as these: Youngling, novice, boy, childe, youth, young springlius, young glorioso, young ignaro, young Phaeton, vaine young man, unworthy young man, young Jenkins, young simplicius, childling, young Pragmatico, shamelesse young man, young Dictator, young Metropolitan, young Thraso, green-head, young peece of presumption, Prelaticall peece of Presbytery, unhallowed peece of Presbytery, swelling peece of vanity, san of shame and folly, illiterate soule, poore man, silly brain, mancipium of illiteratenesse, friend William, Batte mi fili, (as if with his religion and reason, he had also abjured good manners.) And he plainly tels his Reader, that his aime in writing his booke was thus: To make me know my selfe; though a gracious heart would have put him upon writing to have made the people know the truth….”

From: Ὁδηγος Τυϕλος [Odegos Tuphlos]: The Blind Guide, or, The Doting Doctor
By William Jenkyn
Written by John Goodwin, 1648

ETYMOLOGY
a humorous formation from Latin circum( round about) + bend + Latin –ibus (ablative plural ending)

EXAMPLE
“…Dominic: Let him alone; let him alone; I shall fetch
him back with a circum-bendibus I warrant him…”

From: The Spanish Fryar;
or, The Double Discovery
By John Dryden, 1681

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin concitat- participle stem of concitare (to move violently, to excite),
from con- + citāre (to move)

EXAMPLE
“…Cyrus king of Persia, mynding to concitate the myndes of his people, to wery & anger them, with payneful labour, held thē all one day at worke and vtterly tyred thē, in hewing vp a certayne Wood, on the morow after he made for them a very plentitious feast, demaunding in the feast tyme…”

From: A Right Exelent and Pleasaunt Dialogue Betwene Mercury and an English Souldier contayning his Supplication to Mars
Barnabe Rich, 1574

ETYMOLOGY
from French cafard, caphard, of doubtful origin:
some have proposed to identify it with Catalan cafre (infidel), Spanish, Portugese cafre (cruel), which are apparently adapted from Arabic kafir

PRONUNCIATION
kaff-AR

EXAMPLE
“…wherat he woundred, and sayd that he thought Your Grace the Prince best furnished thereof in Christendom. We commoned of the cafart, Cornibus, that slanderose frere. He said that Your Majesties Ambassadour, the Bishop of Hereford, hath sued and proposed certayn articles against him, athe copie whereof he hath promessed to sende unto me…”

From: State Papers Published Under the Authority of His Majesty’s Commission
King Henry the Eighth, 1830
Crumwell to King Henry VIII, 1539

ETYMOLOGY
from clunch (to clench) + fist

EXAMPLE
“…such a quoile with pro and con, such vrging of Ergoes, til they haue gone fro Art togither by the eares, and made their conclusions end with a Clunchfist, right like the old description of Logicke…”

From: Plaine Percevall, the Peace-maker of England:
Being a Reply to Martin Mar-Prelate
By Richard Harvey, 1590

ETYMOLOGY
from cluster in sense of lump, clumsy mass + fist

EXAMPLE
“…Saturday Night passed with much Perplexity to the Monks, who were at their Wits Ends, and Lives too (they could not hope better things) about the Charter, which was no where extant but in the Noddles of these Cluster-fists. But Day and Comfort broke out together upon them; suddenly this Overflow of Pride, and Arrogancy abated, their Loftiness fell, and their Bristles were somewhat laid…”

From: The Works of Mr. John Cleveland
By John Cleveland, 1687
The Rustick Rampant, or Rural Anarchy Affronting Monarchy, a1658

ETYMOLOGY
? from cob (a big man, a great man, a leading man) + castle

EXAMPLE
“…’Twixt the wood and the castle they see at high water
The storm, the place makes it a dangerous matter;
And besides, upon such a steep rock it is founded,
As would break a man’s neck, should he’scape being drowned:
Perhaps though in time one may make them to yield,
But ’tis prettiest Cob-castle e’er I beheld…”

From: Poems on Several Occasions written by Charles Cotton, 1689
A Voyage to Ireland in Burlesque