ETYMOLOGY
from debat (debate, a controversy or discussion + -ous
EXAMPLE
“…Appetytes of auaryce be to them so amerous
Abusyon and arrogaunce ben of one affynyte
Aduenture and angre ben aye so debatous.
Faynynge estate of counterfet auctoryte
Adulacyon of aduenture mayst thou not auaunt the
As a lyer in goodnes in thyne araye doest appere
Englande may wayle that euer it came here…”
From: Here Begynneth a Treatyse of this Galaunt
By John Lydgate (attributed name), ?1510
ETYMOLOGY
from the female forename Dowsabel (also Dowsabell, Dousabella);
probably from Anglo-Norman and Old French douce (quiet, sedate, prudent) + ‑abel (in the female forenames Amabel, Isabel, Mirabel);
perhaps originally used as the name of a character in a lost romance
EXAMPLE
“…With thinking on the booties, Dol., brought in
Daily, by their small parties. This deare houre,
A doughtie Don is taken, with my Dol.;
And thou maist make his ransome, what thou wilt,
My Dousabell: He shall be brought here, fetter’d
With my faire lookes, before he sees thee; and throwne
In a downe-bed, as darke as any dungeon…”
From: The Alchemist
By Ben Jonson, 1612
ETYMOLOGY
of uncertain origin;
possibly from drug (n.) + ‑le
EXAMPLE
“…The Bunsellers or Cake-bakers were in nothing inclinable to their request; but (which was worse) did injure them most outragiously, calling them pratling gablers, lickorous gluttons, freckled bittors, mangie rascals, shiteabed scoundrels, drunken roysters, slie knaves, drowsie loiterers, slapsauce fellows, slabberdegullion druggels, lubbardly lowts, cosening foxes, ruffian rogues, paultrie customers, sycophant-varlets, drawlatch hoydons, flouting milksops, jeering companions, staring clowns, forlorn snakes, ninnie lobcocks, scurvie sneaksbies, fondling fops, base lowns, sawcie coxcombs, idle lusks, scoffing Braggards, noddie meacocks, blockish grutnols, doddi-pol-jolt-heads, jobernol goosecaps, foolish loggerheads, slutch calf-lollies, grouthead gnatsnappers, lob-dotterels, gaping changelings, codshead loobies, woodcock slangams, ninnie-hammer flycatchers, noddiepeak simpletons; Turdie gut, shitten shepherds, and other such like defamatory epithetes...”
From: The Works of the Famous Mr. Francis Rabelais
Translated by Thomas Urquhart, 1653
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin delitigare (to scold to exhaustion; to dispute wholeheartedly)
EXAMPLE
“…Were our author to change sides (which fanatics oftenest do), we should in all likelihood find him delitigating just as copiously and as loudly against his present idol; perhaps somewhat after this fashion – “He has debauched his visual taste by the use of stimulant colours…”
From: The Athenaeum: Journal of Literature, Science, and the Fine Arts
“Modern Painters: their Superiority in the Art of Landscape Painting”
By a Graduate of Oxford, February 10, 1844
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin deosculari (to kiss warmly or affectionately),
from de- (in the sense of down to the bottom) + osculari (to kiss)
EXAMPLE
The young couple deosculated, and vowed never to break up.
ETYMOLOGY
from daughter + -ling
EXAMPLE
“…“Mrs. Bretton,” said he: “what am I to do with this daughter or daughterling of mine? She neither grows in wisdom nor in stature. Don’t you find her pretty nearly as much the child as she was ten years ago?”…”
From: The Little Countess – Villette
By Charlotte Brontë, 1853
ETYMOLOGY
from discord + -ful
EXAMPLE
“…Thus as they marched all in close disguise,
Of fayned loue, they chaunst to ouertake
Two knights, that lincked rode in louely wise,
As if they secret counsels did partake;
And each not farre behinde him had his make,
To weete, two Ladies of most goodly hew,
That twixt themselues did gentle purpose make
Vnmindfull both of that discordfull crew,
The which with speedie pace did after them pursew…”
From: The Second Part of The Faerie Queene
By Edmund Spenser, 1596
ETYMOLOGY
n. 1. a playful expansion of daffodilly. (from daffodil + -y);
n. 2: so called in Yorkshire from the slight similarity of the Greek name Daphne with Daffodil
EXAMPLE
“…Herbes, branchis & flowers for windowes & potts
• 1 Bayes, sowe or set in plants in Ianuarie.
• 2 Batchelers buttens,
• 3 Botles, blewe, red & tauney,
• 4 Collembines.
• 5 Campions.
• 6 Daffadondillies.
• 7 Eglantine, or swete bryer.
• 8 Fetherfewe.
• 9 Flower armour, sowe in Maye.
• 10 Flower deluce,
• 11 Flower gentil, whight & red.
• 12 Flower nyce.
• 13 Gelyflowers, red, whight & carnacions, set in Spring, & Heruest in potts, payles or tubs, or for sommer in bedds.
• 14 Holiokes, red, whight & carnacions.
• 15 Indian eye, sowe in Maye, or set in slips in March.
• 16 Lauender, of al sorts…”
From: Fiue Hundreth Points of Good Husbandry
By Thomas Tusser, 1573
ETYMOLOGY
irreg. formed on Latin demulcere (to stroke down, to soothe caressingly) + -ate
EXAMPLE
“…Gallantry, sir, (said he, turning to me) or the exalted science of demulceating the amiable reservedness, and overcoming the attractive pudicity, of the gentler sex, by the display of rare and excellent endowments, was a discipline worthy of the accomplished chevaliers of these most memorable eras …”
From: Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
Volume I, April – September, 1817
Fragment of a Literary Romance
ETYMOLOGY
compound of dumble (similar to bumble) + dor (a buzzing flying insect)
EXAMPLE
“…I thank you for your poetry. What is the burnie-bee? Is it not the humble-bee, or what we call the ‘dumbledore‘ – a word whose descriptive droning deserves a place in song?…”
From: A Memoir of the Life and Writing of William Taylor
By John Warden Robberds, Sir Robert Southey, 1799
Lexicophilia 