Category: Word of the Day – D

ETYMOLOGY
apparently  a shortened form of dedeignous (disdainous), French dédaigneux, Old French desdeignous 

EXAMPLE
“… Boste & deignouse pride & ille avisement
Mishapnes oftentide, & dos many be schent.
þe proude kyng Pharaon, þat chaced Israel, [Exempla viciorum, quibus gra|tia extin|guitur.]
Dronkeld euerilkon, & Gode’s folk went wel.
Sodom & Gomor fulle vile synne þat stank,
Boþe for euer more doun tille helle þei sank. …”

From: Robert Mannyng of Brunne, The Chronicle, c1330

ETYMOLOGY
of unknown origin

EXAMPLE
Most of Janine’s friends were aware that when she lied she had a tendency to drote.

ETYMOLOGY
from dure (to last, continue in existence) + -ful

EXAMPLE
“… Be nought dismayd that her vnmoued mind,
doth still persist in her rebellious pride:
such loue not lyke to lusts of baser kynd,
the harder wonne, the firmer will abide.
The durefull Oake, whose sap is not yet dride,
is long ere it conceiue the kindling fyre:
but when it once doth burne, it doth diuide
great heat, and makes his flames to heauen aspire. …”

From: Amoretti vi, in Amoretti and Epithalamion 
By Edmund Spenser, 1595

ETYMOLOGY
Middle English from Old French destrobler, ‑troubler, from des-, Latin dis- + trobler, troubler (to trouble)

EXAMPLE
“… Debonairly, and nothing loude,
He sayde, `I prey thee, be not wrooth,
I herde thee not, to sayn the sooth,
Ne I saw thee not, sir, trewely.’
`A! goode sir, no fors,’ quod I,
`I am right sory if I have ought
Destroubled yow out of your thought;
Foryive me if I have mistake.’
`Yis, th’amendes is light to make,’
Quod he, `for ther lyth noon ther-to;
Ther is nothing missayd nor do,’
Lo! how goodly spak this knight,
As it had been another wight; …”

From: The Book of the Duchesse
By Geoffrey Chaucer, c1369

ETYMOLOGY
possibly from dialect drumble (to talk meaninglessly or monotonously, to blather or ramble)

EXAMPLE
“… This before remēbred ſupplicatiō was attentiuely noted & much feared, amongſt ye curſed companie of drouſie dreaming Dromos, I mean Baals Baldons yt mungrel Maſſalians & cruel churchrobbers whome it touched moſt in effect, in ſo muche that the groſſe Goſpeller, Ethnike Epicures, beaſtly bellygods, wicked worldlyngs and ſpirituall ſhauelyngs, were fallen in a pelting chafe, the bloudy Biſhoppes broyled, the cullionly Cardinalles coured, the proude Priours frouned, the fat Abbots ſwet, the pore Friers curſed, the white Chanons chafed, the poore Nunnes puled like Puttockes, in concluſion, all the ſectarie Sathaniſts were ſore diſpleaſed …”

From: Polybius
The Hystories of the most Famous and Worthy Cronographer Polybius discoursing of the Warres betwixt the Romanes and Carthaginenses
Translated by C. Watson, 1568

ETYMOLOGY
noun: from Anglo-Norman desclandre, desclaundre, disclaunder, disclaundre (slander, slanderous statement, scandal, public outrage)
verb: from disclander (noun)

EXAMPLE (for vb. 1.)
“… Þis gode men with ioie inov : heore leue of him heo nome,
And þannes heo wenden sone i-nouȝ : to þe court of rome.
Þare neren heo nouȝt faire onder-fonge : for þe bischopes comen bi-fore
And desclaundreden seint thomas : þat he was fals and for-suore.
Ake naþeles þe grace heo hadden : þat to þe pope heo miȝten go.
him-sulue heo tolden in priuete : al seint thomases wo: …”

From: Laud Manuscript, c1300
In The Early South-English Legendary ; or, Lives of Saints
Edited by Carl Horstmann, 1887

ETYMOLOGY
from debate (vb.) + -ive

EXAMPLE
“… It is a wonder to behold, that in one man should appeare so many tokens of valour, as first to be the ouerthrow of so mighty a kingdome: next of the setting vp & revniting again of the same: Againe, that whersoeuer he tooke part, victory was euermore attendant vppon his actions; which was the onely cause they honored him aboue men, and little lesse than a God, they were driuen into a debatiue meditation, whether they offered him more wrong in his banishment, or more honnor in calling him home: …”

From: The Historie of Iustine Containing a Narration of Kingdomes, from the beginning of the Assyrian Monarchy, vnto the Raigne of the Emperour Augustus
Translated by G.W., 1606

ETYMOLOGY
Middle English from Old French dutus, dotus, doutous;
from modern French douteux, from doute (doubt n.)

EXAMPLE 1 ( for adj. 1)
“…no for al is moch honoure
þat he ne worþ wel sone dede
Þe eiȝt dai so is dotus 
and þat ful wel þou salt se
ful of tene and angus …”

From: Early English Poems and Lives of Saints with those of the wicked birds Pilate and Judas
Edited by Frederick James Furnivall, 1862
‘Fifteen Signs before Judgment‘, a1300

EXAMPLE 2 (for adj. 1)
“… And she said to hym: ‘My swete frend̛, yf it were possyble, soo wold I fayne doo, but it may not be. And wete it wel, that my departyng fro you is more gryeuous & doubtous a thousand tymes to me than to you, but it is the wyƚƚ & playsire of hym that can do & vndoo al thinges.’ and, with these wordes, she embraced & kyssed hym fuƚƚ tenderly, sayeng: ‘Farwel, myn owne lord & husbond̛; Adieu, myn herte, & al my joye; Farwel, my loue, & al myn wele …”

From: Melusine
By Jean d’Arras, c1500
(Published by Early English Text Society, 1895)

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin derogantem, present participle of derogare (to derogate)

EXAMPLE
“…If they could foresee future things, they would bragge themselues equall to God: But Secret things belong to GOD, reuealed to vs. The other is both arrogant in man, and derogant to God. And Greg. sayes well: If such a Starre be a Mans Destenie, then is Man made for the Starres, not the Starres for Man. The Diuels know not future euents: and will these boast it? …”

From: The Sacrifice of Thankefulnesse
A sermon preached at Pauls Crosse
By Thomas Adams, 1616

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin dubitabilis, from dubitare (to doubt)

EXAMPLE
“…Has my goodneesse,
Clemency, loue, and fauour gracious rays’d thee
From a condition next to popular labour,
Tooke thee from all the dubitable hazards
Of Fortune her most vnsecure aduentures?
And grafted thee into a branch of honour,
And dost thou fal from the top bough by the rottennes
Of thy alone corruption, like a fruite
That’s ouer-ripned by the beames of fauour,
Let thy owne weight reward thee, I haue forgot thee, …”

From: A Game at Chæss as it was acted nine dayes to gether at the Globe on the banks side
By Thomas Middleton, 1625