ETYMOLOGY
from Latin ferinus, from fera (wild beast)
EXAMPLE (for adj. 1)
“… Secondly there are brutish and unnaturall Desires, which the Philosopher calleth ferine and inhumane, instancing in those barbarous Countries, where they use to eat mens flesh and raw meat; and in the Woman who ripped up Women with childe that shee might eat their young ones: …”
From: A Treatise of the Passions and Faculties of the Soule of Man
By Edward Reynolds, 1640
also FULGROUS
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin fulgur (lightning, a flash of lightning) + -ous
EXAMPLE
“… and, iust at thinstant, all the canons plaien
frome towne to Campe, from Camp to towne againe,
in suche ann horrid noise, and flaminge light,
as if noone daie weare wedded to midd night:
or as if th’ pitchie clowdes of fulgrous heavn
had taen their In vp, neath the spheres seaven. …”
From: John Lane’s Continuation of Chaucer’s ‘Squire’s Tale’
By John Lane, 1616
PRONUNCIATION
FUL-gyuh-ruhss
ETYMOLOGY
from fusty (adj.)
EXAMPLE
“…There is a fashion in these things, which the Doctor seems to have forgot. But what shall we say of his fusty-rusty remarks upon Henry and Emma? I agree with him, that morally considered both the knight and his lady, are bad characters, and that each exhibits an example which ought not to be followed. …”
From: The Life and Posthumous Writings of William Cowper
By William Hayley, Volume III, 1804
Letter XLVII. To the Rev. William Unwin, January, 5, 1782
ETYMOLOGY
from fore- (prefix) + mother, after forefather
EXAMPLE
“…Finallie the admirable humilitie, and inuincible patience and constancie in all aduersities and persecution euen to the death and martyrdome, of Iepthas daughter, Susanna, the mother of the seuen brethren, and women of the Machabites, and manie other: that looking in this glasse of the holie liues of their foremothers, they may christianlie conforme and adorne themselues after their good examples, and become for their rare vertues verie beautifull spouses in the fight of their spirituall bridegroome Iesus Christ: to whom, as the kings daughters, they may appeere all glorious within, …”
From: The Monument of Matrones Conteining Seuen Seuerall Lamps of Virginitie, or Distinct Ttreatises
Compiled by Thomas Bentley, 1582
ETYMOLOGY
from fool (n.) + -ify
EXAMPLE
“…But God in Justice doth so foolifie their malice, that in their opposition against our Saviour, they run most commonly into prodigious fooleries …”
From: The Acts and Monuments of the Church Before Christ Incarnate
By Richard Montagu, 1642
ETYMOLOGY
from flock (material consisting of the coarse tufts and refuse of wool or cotton, used for quilting garments, and stuffing beds, cushions, mattresses, etc.) + pated (having a head or mind of the specified kind)
EXAMPLE
“…He that would be a Scholler,
Must hate your drinks that is muddy:
But a cup of good Canary
Will make him the better to study.
O this is a good old Woman, etc.
And he that would be a Poet,
Must no wayes be flocke-pated:
His ignorance if he show it,
He shall of all Schollers be hated.
O this is a good old Woman, etc.
He that would be a Goodfellow,
Of meanes must be prepared:
If that he love drinke and Tobacco,
Or else he shall be jeared.
O this is a good old Woman, etc. ….”
From: “The Merry Old Woman”, c1640
In The Roxburghe Ballads, Ballad Society, 1869-99
ETYMOLOGY
adj. 1.: from fog (fat, bloated) + -ish
adj. 2.: from fog (cloud of small water droplets that is near ground level) + -ish
EXAMPLE (for adj. 1.)
“…He that lyueth after the rules of phisike lyueth wretchedly. As thoughe it were an happynes and felicitie, the body to be swolen and stretched out with surfettyng, to be brasted with the pleasure of the body, to waxe foggyshe with drinkyng of good ale, & to be sepulte and drowned in slepe …”
From: Declamatio in Laudem Nobilissimæ Artis Medicinæ.
= A declamacion in the prayse and co[m]me[n]dation of the most hygh and excellent science of phisyke
By Desiderius Erasmus
Translated out of Latin into English, ?1537
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin ferocientem, present participle of ferocire (to be fierce) , from ferox (fierce)
EXAMPLE
“…November 18 about four in the morning a lamentable fire seised upon the Lord Wimbletons house in the Strand, it being then the lodging of the States Lieger Ambassador, which consumed and demolisht it with all the rich furniture and utensils to the ground; so ferocient and impetuous it was, as the Ambassadour, his wife and children hardly, though half naked, escaped; all their other apparel, Jewels, money, &c. yea even the Commission it self perisht in the combustion…“
From: The Reign of King Charles
By Hamon L’Estrange, 1655
ETYMOLOGY
possible alteration of ‘fernticle’ or the synonymous dialectal ‘fan freckle‘
EXAMPLE
“…John Hewitt, a Bricklayer .. straight Hair, and Form-Speckles on his hands and Face …”
From: The London Gazette, 1666, Feb.
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin fama (fame ) + -cide
EXAMPLE
Why shouldn’t a book critic be called the famicide of the reputation of books? A movie critic the famicide of movies?
Lexicophilia 