Word of the Day: PHOTOGENY

ETYMOLOGY
from photo- (comb. form; relating to light) + -geny (comb. form; general sense = mode of production)

EXAMPLE
“…IMPROVEMENTS IN THE DAGUERREOTYPE. — Numerous improvements have been lately made in the beautiful art of photogeny….”

From: Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine
A Chapter on Science and Art
By Edgar Allen Poe
Volume VI, April, 1840

Word of the Day: PAPELARD

ETYMOLOGY
from French papelard, papelart
as per OED: further etymology uncertain and disputed

EXAMPLE
“…Þe zeuende boȝ of prede ys fol drede and fole ssame huane me let wel to done uor þe wordle þet me ne by yhyealde ypocrite ne papelard huer me dret more þe wordle: þanne god…”

(The seventh bough of pride is foolish dread and foolish shame, when one ceases to do well because of the world, that one be not held a hypocrite or a canter, where one dreads the world more than God)

From: Dan Michel’s Ayenbite of Inwyt : or, Remorse of Conscience, 1340
Translation from: The Ayenbite of Inwyt, A Translation of Parts into Modern English
By A.J. Wyatt

Word of the Day: PIPPIN-HEARTED

ETYMOLOGY
from pippin, from Anglo-Norman pepinpepinepopin and Middle French pepin (seed or pip of a fleshy fruit), possibly a derivative of a Romance base meaning ‘small’

EXAMPLE
“…and were put under the command of very valiant tailors and man-milliners, who, though on ordinary occasions the meekest, pippin-hearted little men in the world, were very devils at parades and court-martials, when they had cocked hats on their heads, and swords by their sides…”

From: A History of New York,
From the Beginning of the World to the end of the Dutch Dynasty
By Washington Irving, 1809

Word of the Day: PACIFICATE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin pacificat-, past ppl. stem of pacificare (to make peace, to pacify)

EXAMPLE
“…It mitigateth anger, letificateth those that bee sad, pacificateth such as are at discord. It temperateth choler, and (to conclude all in a word) it expelleth all vagrant, wandring, and imagi­nary cogitations whatsoeuer…”

From: The Secrets of Nvmbers.
According to Theologicall, Arithmeti­call, Geometricall and Harmoni­call Computation
By William Ingpen, 1624

Word of the Day: POLITIZE

ETYMOLOGY
from polity (a particular form of government or political organization),
from obsolete French politie, from Latin polītīa (state, government) + –ize

EXAMPLE
“…Matters of state we vse to politize,
Procrastinating for aduantage great,
LOVE, lingring hates, and lothes to temporize,
Delaie’s too olde, for his orewarmed heate:
Ah, doe not driue me of thus (still) in vaine,
Still for to lose tis much, once let me gaine
…”

From: Alba The Months Minde of a Melancholy Louer
By Robert Tofte, 1598

Word of the Day: PETULCOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin petulcus (inclined to butt, butting, wanton, frisky);
(from petĕre – to aim at, assail + -ulcus (suffix forming adjectives) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“…But what does the Pape or Christian Pastour do in this case When the tumult is once raised and a disorder begun in any part of his flock by som proud turbulent spirit amongst them, the Pape first whistles him and his fellow petulcous rams into order by charitable admonition which still encreases lowder by degrees…”

From: Fiat Lux:
Or, A general Conduct to a right understanding and charity in the great Combustions and Broils about Religion here in England, Betwixt Papist and Protestant, Presbyterian and Independent
By John Baptist Vincent Canes

Word of the Day: PORNERASTIC

ETYMOLOGY
from Greek πορνo- (porno- comb. form) + ἐραστής (lover) + –ic

EXAMPLE
“…We hear nothing of those petit creve vices, those pornerastic habits in high places, those Diamond-necklace scandals, those unmentionable gambols of the Porphyro-geniti, which are too often thrust before our eyes in fiction, and indeed in fact…”

From: The Fortnightly Review
Edited by John Morley,
Vol. VII New Series, January to June, 1870
The Romance of the Peerage