ETYMOLOGY
from Latin quadrivium (place where four ways meet) + -ous
EXAMPLE
“…By means of small galleries directed from the cellars of houses in the vicinity of any square or quadrivious spot, which it is likely a body of troops might occupy as a position, it will be very easy to establish and to spring mines with considerable effect…”
From: Defensive Instructions for the People
By Francis Maceroni
ETYMOLOGY
? from Celtic Cornish kwilken (a frog)
EXAMPLE
“…And yet ’tis the bestest thing as could fall ‘pon the gal. Er was lookin’ for the cheel in a month or so, they do say., Poor sawl! – so cold as a quilkin now, and the unborn baaby tu…”
From: Lying Prophets
A Novel, By Eden Phillpotts, 1896
Chapter Eight, The Destination of Joan
ETYMOLOGY
n. 1. : from quill (a small pipe or tube) + -er
n. 2. : from quill (to form into small cylindrical plaits or folds resembling a quill) + -er
EXAMPLE
“…Epi. O sir your chinne is but a quyller yet, you will be most maiesticall when it is full fledge. But I maruell that you loue Dipsas that olde Crone…”
From: Endimion, The Man in the Moone
By John Lyly, 1591
ETYMOLOGY
after French quatre (four) + voie (way)
EXAMPLE
“…Of these conduits two are speciall, the one of them standeth and is within the cemiterie or churchyard of the cathedrall church of the said citie, and is called saint Peters conduit: the other being of great antiquitie standeth in the middle of the citie, at the méeting of foure principall streets of the same, and whereof somtimes it tooke his name, being called the conduit at Quatrefois or Carfox; but now the great conduit…”
From: Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicle
By Abraham Fleming, 1587
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin quaeritāre (to search for, to seek, to ask,
from quaerere (to ask, inquire) + –itare (-itate)
EXAMPLE
“…for Carpenters seeke to the Trunk of its Tree; Dyers to its barke; Boyes to its fruit; Apothecaryes quaeritate its Medicinall use, which Mithridates knew…”
From: A Medicinal Dispensatory:
Containing the Whole Body of Physick
By Jean de Renou
Translated by Richard Tomlinson, 1657
ETYMOLOGY
obsolete or dialect form of ‘coil‘
EXAMPLE
“…I haue seene them, which haue seene such hurly burlies about a couple (that were no Fathers of the Church neither) Aristotle and Ramus, or els sake the Vniuersities, such a quoil with pro and con, such vrging of Ergoes, til they haue gone from Art togither by the eares, and made their conclusions end with a Clunchfist, right like the old description of Logicke…”
From: Plaine Perceuall, the Peace-maker of England
By Richard Harvey, 1590
ETYMOLOGY
? from quiz (a prying, inquisitive person (Eng. dial.)) + cuss (a person of a specified character)
EXAMPLE
“…A tenant complained that his landlord’s agent was a regular quizcuss…”
From: The Folk-Speech of South Cheshire
– Thomas Darlington, 1887
ETYMOLOGY
from Manx quaaltagh, qualtagh (the first person one meets after leaving the house, the first person one meets on New Year’s Day, literally ‘someone who meets or is met’),
from quaail (meeting, also action of meeting) + -agh, suffix expressing belonging, with insertion of -t-, perhaps by association with an unattested reflex of Early Irish comaltae (foster-brother, companion)
EXAMPLE
“…Again we assemble, a merry New Year,
To wish to each one of the family here,
Whether man, woman, or girl or boy,
That long life and happiness all may enjoy.
May they of potatoes and herrings have plenty,
With butter and cheese, and each other dainty,
And may their sleep never, by night or by day,
Disturbed be by even the tooth of a flea,
Until at the Quaaltagh again we appear
To wish you, as now, all a happy New Year!…”
From: An historical and statistical account of the Isle of Man
– Joseph Train, 1845
Note: A company of young lads or men generally went in old times on what they termed the Qualtagh, at Christmas or New Year’s Day, to the houses of their more wealthy neighbours; some one of the company repeating in an audible voice the following rhyme:
“Ollick ghennal erriu as blein feer vie;
Seihll as slaynt da’n slane lught thie
Bea as gennallys eu bio ry cheilley,
Shee as graih eddyr mraane as deiney
Cooid as cowryn, stock as stoyr.
Palchey phuddase, as skaddan dy-liooar;
Arran as caashey, eeym as roayrt ;
Baase, myr lugh, ayns uhllin ny soalt;
Cadley sauchey tra vees shiu ny lhie,
As feeackle y jargan, nagh bee dy mie.”
‘When this was repeated they were then invited in to partake of the best that the house could afford. (See example above for a translation.)
From: Dictionary of the Manks language, with the corresponding words or explanations in English, interspersed with many Gaelic proverbs
– Archibald Cregeen, 1835
ETYMOLOGY
– from quake + buttock
EXAMPLE
“…I rush’d into the world, which is indeed much like
The art of swimming, he that will attain to’t
Must fall plump, and duck himself at first,
And that will make him hardy and adventurous;
And not stand putting in one foot, and shiver,
And then draw t’other after, like a quake-buttock;
Well he may make a padler i’ the world,
From hand to mouth, but never a brave swimmer…”
From: (of uncertain date and authorship)
Wit at Severall Weapons, A Comedy, Act I,
W. Rowley and T. Middleton, a1627,
and in Comedies and Tragedies
Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, 1647
ETYMOLOGY
– from classical Latin quōmodocunque, a variant of quōmodocumque (in whatever way); from quōmodo (in what way) + cumque
EXAMPLE
“…whereof those quomodocunquizing clusterfists and rapacious varlets have given of late such cannibal-like proofs, by their inhumanity and obdurate carriage towards some…”
From: The Works of Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty, Knight.
Reprinted From the Original Editions, 1834
The Discovery of a Most Exquisite Jewel, 1652
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