Category: Word of the Day – F

ETYMOLOGY
from fair (adj.) + -some

EXAMPLE
“… Weel, man, tho’ I’m no just every man’s dog that whistles, on me, I see we maun pit our shouthers to the wheel thegither, if it is ainly to mettle up the King no to be sae muckle hoodwinked by yon’ upstart Lord : that the royal Jamie should be sae come ower by a fairsome face an’ a saucy tongue aye gars me think there maun be glamour in the world yet — an’ if ever I saw ane that has the look o’ a witch wife, it wad be my opinion leddy Buckingham has an ower uncanny glint in her eye. …”

From: The Prophecy
By Rachel Evelyn Butler, 1862

ETYMOLOGY
of unknown origin

EXAMPLE
“… croaking of Ravens, screeching of Owls, whicking of Pigs, gushing of Hogs, curring of Pigeons, grumbling of Cushet-doves, howling of Panthers, curkling of Quails, chirping of Sparrows, crackling of Crows, nuzzing of Camels, wheening of Whelps, buzzing of Dromedaries, mumbling of Rabets, cricking of Ferrets, humming of Wasps, mioling of Tygers, bruzzing of Bears, sussing of Kitnings, clamring of Scarfes, whimpring of Fullmarts, boing of Buffalos, warbling of Nightingales, quavering of Meavises, drintling of Turkies, coniating of Storks, frantling of Peacocks, clattering of Mag-pyes, murmuring of Stock-doves, crouting of Cormorants, cigling of Locusts, charming of Beagles, guarring of Puppies, snarling of Messens, rantling of Rats, guerieting of Apes, snuttering of Monkies …”

From: The Third Book of the Works of Mr. Francis Rabelais, Containing the Heroick Deeds of Pantagruel the Son of Gargantua,
By François Rabelais
Translated by Thomas Urquhart & Peter Anthony Motteux, 1693

ETYMOLOGY
n. of unknown origin
vb. diminutive or frequentative of frab (to harass, worry)

EXAMPLE (for n.)
“… And those more refined Arians, how near they were to the Truth, or how near they might be understood to have come to the Truth, and that it might be proved to be rather a frabble of words than a distinct disagreement of senses, it were too operose a matter to declare here. How much some Fathers have cryed out against the over-much curiosity of Definitions by Councils, History will teach us. …”

From: Paralipomena Prophetica containing several supplements and defences of Dr Henry More his expositions of the Prophet Daniel and the apocalypse
By Henry More, 1685

ETYMOLOGY
from flisk (to move or dance about in a frolicsome way, to frisk) + -y

EXAMPLE
“… An’ nane can nature’s charms enjoy, or manage weel the day’s employ,
Wha ay gang donarin nidy noy
To houſes flisky,
An bletherin’ gie douse fock annoy,
Whan ramm’d wi Whisky…”

From: Poems Pastoral, Satirical, Tragic, and Comic
By John Learmont, 1791
The Condemnation of Whisky

ETYMOLOGY
of obscure origin;
possibly from frample (to put in disorder)

EXAMPLE
“… This is the laund that bigs the winds; winds big the cloods; 
the cloods, the weit, the weit, the grun; an antrin steer 
o syle an rain. Thon frimple-frample watter rowin 
frae Kenmore tae Dundee is cried the River Tay. …”

From: Wild Mushrooms: Writings
By Kate Armstrong, 1993

ETYMOLOGY
aphetic form of Old French enfaunt, enfant (infant); 
The shortened form has not been found in French, but Italian has the corresponding fante (boy, servant, foot-soldier), whence German fant

EXAMPLE
“… The eiȝt day the fawnt shal be circumcidid. …”

From: Bible (Wycliffite, early version) Leviticus 12:3

ETYMOLOGY
from flisk (vb. to move about in a frolicsome way);
Jamieson gives also Fliskmahaigo with similar sense; 
the unmeaning endings may have been suggested by the place-names Dalmahoy and Lesmahago

EXAMPLE
“… Now only think what a man my brother is, Mr. Blattergowl, for a wise man and a learned man, to bring this Yerl into our house without speaking a word to a body! And there ‘s the distress of thae Mucklebackits – we canna get a fin o’ fish; and we hae nae time to send ower to Fairport for beef, and the mutton’s but new killed; and that silly fliskmahoy, Jenny Rintherout, has taen the exies, and done naething but laugh and greet, the skirl at the tail o’ the guffa, for twa days successfully; and now we maun ask that strange man, that’s as grand and as grave as the Yerl himsell, to stand at the sideboard! …”

From: The Antiquary Volume 3
By Sir Walter Scott, 1816

PRONUNCIATION
flisk-muh-HOY

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin florulus from flōr-, flōs (flower)

EXAMPLE
They decorated the dining room with florulous wallpaper and florulent-patterned chairs.

ETYMOLOGY
from fire (n.) + flaught (a flash; a flash of lightning)

EXAMPLE (for n. 1.)
“… Bot lo, onon, a wonder thing to tell!
Ane huge bleys of flambys braid doun fell
Furth of the clowdis, at the left hand straucht,
In maner of a lychtnyng or fyre flaucht,
And dyd alicht rycht in the sammyn sted
Apon the crown of fair Lavinias hed; …”

From: The Æneid of Virgil
Translated by Gavin Douglas, a1522