Category: Word of the Day – M

ETYMOLOGY
from merry (adj.) + thought (n.)
‘The name alludes to the custom of two persons pulling the furcula of a fowl until it breaks; according to the popular notion, the one who gets the longer (in some districts, the shorter) piece will either be married sooner than the other, or will gain the fulfilment of any wish he may form at the moment.‘

EXAMPLE
“…Fetherstone. O youle make her sicker then.
Greeneshield. I warrant you; would all women thought no more hurt then thou doost now, sweet villaine, Kate, Kate.
Kate. I longd for the merry thought of a phesant.
Greeneshield. She talkes in her sleepe….”

From: North-ward Hoe
By Thomas Dekker & John Webster, 1607

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin monti-, mons (mountain) + vagantem, pres. pple. of vagari (to roam) + -ant

EXAMPLE
“…Downward he speeds to mingle in the fray
As headlong rolls the torrent of the hills
When wintry storms montivagant outpour
Their pluvious treasures from the deep purloined…”

From: Rogvald: An Epic Poem
By John Fitzgerald Pennie, 1823

ETYMOLOGY
from cormorant (a greedy or rapacious person)

EXAMPLE
“…There would be many money-cormorants, and their profit great….”

From: The Scales of Commerce and Trade
By Thomas Willsford, 1660

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin mentition-, mentitio (lying, falsehood),
from mentit-, past participial stem of mentiri (to lie)+ -iō (-ion)

EXAMPLE
From childhood, she has never been good at mentition. Her face always turned bright red when she tried.

ETYMOLOGY
possibly from maum (mellow, soft, esp. over-ripe) + –ish 

EXAMPLE
“…but she fed more vpon fancie, than glutted hir selfe with any cates there presente: more vpon daintie deuices, than any parcell of repast: for this meate forsooth was mawmish, & this melancholie: this dish would driue hir to drincke, and this cause hir to drie…”

From: Narbonus The Laberynth of Libertie
By Austin Saker, 1580

ETYMOLOGY
of obscure origin: perhaps originally a name of some bird  
(From Murray’s N.E.D.: “the suggestion that it is from meek (adj.) is untenable”)

EXAMPLE
“…He shuld be no cowarde, no maycocke, ne fearfull persone that dare no thyng enterprise….”

From: Here Begynneth a Deuout Treatyse in Englysshe, called the Pylgrimage of Perfection,
By William Bonde, 1526

ETYMOLOGY
from Greek µονοϕάγος (monofagos) (that eats alone) + -ize

EXAMPLE
“…you who make us fight for every cabbage at the greengrocer’s, and prestige in its favour, that whereas the glutton might sometimes munch and monophagize in solitude, leading the life of a wolf or of a lion, those who drank generally drank together, and, as it was always said and supposed, to each other’s health and prosperity…”

From: Prose Halieutics
Or, Ancient and Modern Fish Tattle
By the Rev. C. David Badham, 1854
Chapter XXII. Opsophagy

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin morigeratus, past participial stem of morigerari (to to be obedient or compliant), from morigerus

EXAMPLE
“…Certaynely in the auncient tyme, whan thou were peopled with ryght and trewe Romayns, and not as thou arte nowe with bastarde chylderne, than the armies, that wente froo Rome, were as well disciplyned and morigerate, as the schooles of the philosophies, that were in Grece…”

From: The Golden Boke of Marcus Aurelius,
By Antonio de Guevara, 1546

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin mundus (world) + –cidious from –cida (killer)

EXAMPLE
“…Since I knew what to feare, my timerous heart hath dreaded three things: a blazing starre appearing in the aire: a State Comet, I mean a favourite rising in a Kingdome, a new Opinion spreading in Religion: these are Exorbitancies: which is a formidable word: a vacuum and an exorbitancy, are mundicidious evils…”

From: The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America
By Rev. Nathaniel Ward, 1647

ETYMOLOGY
of uncertain origin; possibly imitative

EXAMPLE
“…for there is no more sullen beast, than a he drab. Ile make him pull his powting croscloath over his beetle browes for melancholie, and then my next booke, shall be Martin in his mubble fubbles…”

From: Pappe with a Hatchet: 
Being a Reply to Martin Mar-prelate 
By John Lyly, 1589