Category: Word of the Day – C

Word of the Day: CAUPONATE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin caupōnāt- ppl. stem of caupōnāri (to traffic or trade in),
from caupōnem (retail tradesman, huckster, innkeeper)

EXAMPLE
“…Nor may these false and flattering Dalilahs of our times (who by cauponating Religion and handling the Scriptures deceitfully, seek to betray the strength, honour, and order this reformed Church in England, under pretences of great kindness)…”

From: Hieraspistes: A Defence by Way of Apology for the Ministry and Ministers of the Church of England
By John Gauden, 1653

Word of the Day: CALAMISTRATE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin calamistratus (crisped, curled with the curling iron), 
from calamistrum (curling iron)

EXAMPLE
“…Which belike makes our Venetian Ladies at this day, to counterfeit yellow haire so much, great women to Calamistrate and curle it up, vibrantes ad gratiam crines, & quot orbibus in captivitatem flexos, to adorne their heads with spangles, pearles, and made flowres, and all Courtiers to affect a pleasing grace in this kinde…”

From: The Anatomy of Melancholy
By Robert Burton, 1628

Word of the Day: CELERIPEDEAN

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin celeripedem (swift-footed),
(from celer (swift) + pedem (foot)) + -ean

EXAMPLE
“…with a decutient shrug of his stooped shoulders, as tho to desarcinate himself of funebrous thoughts, departed at a pace very different from the celeripedean gait of pristine years …”

From: American Speech, Volume 2
Edited by Arthur Garfield Kennedy, Kemp Malone, Louise Pound, William Cabell Greet, 1927

Word of the Day: CATTER-BATTER

ETYMOLOGY
? for the first element ‘catter’ perhaps from Dutch kater (tomcat) + batter (to fight)

EXAMPLE
“…By Gemini ! you never heard such a catter- batter! The whole court-room stamping and laughing fit to split, and the ushers calling order, and the tipstaffs running, and his worship gobbling like a cailzie-cock…”

From: Blackwood’s Magazine
Volume 225, 1929

Word of the Day: CLAWBACK

ETYMOLOGY
from ‘to claw the back of‘ (to flatter, fawn upon)

EXAMPLE
“…Yea, trouble not your self sir, ye may hauke and hunt, & take youre pleasure. As for the guiding of your kingdom and people, let vs alone with it.
These flattering clawbackes ar original rotes of all mischief…”

From: The Second Sermon of Maister Hughe Latimer, which be Preached before King Edward
By Hugh Latimer, 1549

Word of the Day: CUGGER-MUGGER

ETYMOLOGY
from cugger (to hold a confidential conversation)

EXAMPLE
“…There was a great laugh at Tim’s answer; and then there was a whispering, and a great cugger mugger and coshering; and at last a pretty little bit of a voice said, “Shut your eyes, and you’ll see, Tim…”

From: Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland.
By Thomas Crofton Croker, 1859
Treasure Legends. Dreaming Tim Jarvis

Word of the Day: CLATTERFART

ETYMOLOGY
from clatter (to talk rapidly and noisily; to talk idly; to chatter, prattle, babble) + fart (a disagreeable or annoying person)

EXAMPLE
“…The Irish enimie spieng that the citizens were accustomed to fetch such od vagaries, especiallie on the holie daies, & hauing an inkling withall by some false clatterfert or other, that a companie of them would haue ranged abrode, on mondaie in the Easter weeke towards the wood of Cullen…”

From: The firste (laste) volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande
– Raphael Holinshed, Richard Stanyhurst, 1577