Category: Word of the Day – O

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin oboedire (to obey) + -bilis (-ble)

EXAMPLE
“…though Spirits have nothing material in their nature which that fire should work upon, yet by the judgment of the Almighty Arbiter of the world, justly willing their torment, they may be made most sensible of pain, and, by the obedible submission of their created nature, wrought upon immediately by their appointed tortures; besides the very horrour which ariseth from the place whereto they are everlastingly confined?…”

From: Contemplations upon the Remarkable Passages in the Life of the Holy Jesus
By Joseph Hall, 1623

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin opitulari (to bring aid, to assist), from opem (aid) + tul- (to bring)

EXAMPLE
“…The excellence of this boocke, hath therfore, incitatede, & as it vveare copellede me to vse this audacitye (in signe of gratitude, for soe manye, & innumerable benefites, vvhich next after God, of your Royall M^tye. through your continualle ayde, & opitulatione vve reape) humblelye to presente, and dedicate this verye necessarye boocke…”

From: The Frenche Chirurgerye, or All the Manualle Operations of Chirurgerye
By Jacques Guillemeau,
Translated out of Dutch into English, by A.M., 1598

ETYMOLOGY
from ornitho-  (comb. form bird) + Greek ϕίλ-ος (lover)

EXAMPLE
“…Every one asked them to dinner, and they left on the 25th. As long as he was in France he never omitted this ornithophilite excursion, which was only interrupted when he was sent on a mission to Rome, where he died as penitentiary in 1688…”

From: The Handbook of Dining
Or How to Dine Theoretically Philosophically and Historically Considered,
By Leonard Francis Simpson, 1859

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin opiparus (richly furnished, sumptuous),
from opem (wealth, means) + parāre (to prepare, furnish, equip) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“…With sweet odours and perfumes, generous wines, opiparous fare, &c., besides the gallantest young men, the fairest virgins, puellae scitulae ministrantes, the rarest beauties the world could afford, and those set out with costly and curious attires…”

From: The Anatomy of Melancholy
By Democritus Junior (Robert Burton)
The Cure of Melancholy. Memb. IV. Exercise Rectified of Body and Mind

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin obacerat-, past participial stem of obacerāre (to contradict),
probably from ob- (ob-) + a second element of uncertain origin

EXAMPLE
He coughed loudly in the hopes of obacerating the hysterical, babbling woman.

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin obgannire (to speak menacingly, to mutter or growl) + -ate

EXAMPLE
As the night went on, and the more wine she consumed, she started to ramble and obganiate herself.

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin opifer (help-bringing),
from opem (help) + -fer

EXAMPLE
“…I heard that a hardy little band tried to read it through , but fell asleep after having read the opiferous leaves of the first chapter . I speak not of the puffs , profusely given to it by generous friends , interested or stipended parties…”

From: Critical Dialogue Between Aboo and Caboo On A New Book:
Or A Grandissime Ascension
Edited by E. Junius (A.E. Rouquette), 1880