Word of the Day: FUSTY-RUSTY

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

Word of the Day: FOREMOTHER

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

Word of the Day: FLOCK-PATED

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

Word of the Day: FOGGISH

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

Word of the Day: FEROCIENT

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

Word of the Day: FORCELY


ETYMOLOGY
from force (n.) + -ly


EXAMPLE (for adv.)
“…Luke we the fische that swimmis in the se,
Luke we in eirth all kynd of bestyall,
The foulis fair sa forcelie thay fle,
Scheddand the air with pennis grit and small;
Syne luke to man that he maid last of all
Lyke to his image and his similitude;
Be thir we knaw that God is fair and gude.
…”

From: The morall fabillis of Esope the Phrygian
Translation by Robert Henryson
The Preiching of the Swallow. a1500

Word of the Day: FIDDLE-FACED


ETYMOLOGY
from fiddle (n.) + faced (adj.)


EXAMPLE
“…And would any but such like, sick-brained, corky-noddled, flea-lugg’d piper framed, fiddle faced, wagtailed fellows, saucy, and idle, lazy, lubbert, leeped, nasty, foul clacking, and a meer outside, a pinned up bacon, a stitched together stand-bra, can scarce put on her own cloaths, and can do nothing else but stand like a statue, with her gogling eyes, and black patches, and when they are off is ashamed to be seen in public, for fear they prove a scare crow…”

From: John Thompson’s Man
Or. A short survey of the difficulties and disturbances That may attend a married Life, c1785