ETYMOLOGY
from Old Norse svangr, related to svangi (swange, groin), from swaŋgw-, perhaps identical with swaŋgw-, grade-variant of swiŋgw- (to swing – to scourge, whip, flog, beat)
EXAMPLE
“… Þe hungri in god he made stronge,
And þe riche he lette al swonge.
Þe folk of Israel haþ vndurfonge
Þe child þat heo abide longe; …”
From: The minor poems of the Vernon MS
Published for the Early English Text Society, 1892-1901
La estorie del Euangelie, a1300
ETYMOLOGY
from Greek σκωπτικός, from σκώπτειν (to mock, jeer)
EXAMPLE
“… Againft these Books, the ‘Learned employed their Learning, and the Witty employed their Wit. Celsus, Porpbyrius, Jamblichus, Hierocles, and other Philosophers, endeavoured to dispute them out of the world, Symmachus and Libanius, and other Rhetors to declaim them away. Julian and Lucian and other Scoptick wits, endeavoured to jeer and droll away the credit of them. …”
From: Sermon Against the Anti-scripturists
By Seth Ward, 1670
ETYMOLOGY
of uncertain origin;
possibly from slaw, Scots variant of slow
EXAMPLE
“… Quod scho, “My clype, my unspaynit gyane,
With moderis mylk yit in your mychane,
My belly huddrun, my swete hurle bawsy,
My huny gukkis, my slawsy gawsy,
Your musing waild perse and harte of stane,
Tak gud confort, my grit heidit slawsy,
Fow leis me that graceless gane. …”
From: The Poems of William Dunbar
Edited by Priscilla Bawcutt, 1998 (Association for Scottish Literary Studies nos. 27 and 28)
Composed a1513
ETYMOLOGY
of unknown origin;
possibly a variant or alteration of shanny-brained;
from shanny (bashful, shy) + brained
EXAMPLE
“… But while I take this shay-brain’d course,
And like a fool run to and fro,
Master, perhaps, may sell the horse!
Therefore this instant home I’ll go. …”
From: Wild Flowers; or, Pastoral and Local Poetry
By Robert Bloomfield, 1806
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin semisomnis, semisomnus, (from semi- + somnus (sleep) + -ous
EXAMPLE
“… ‘‘ Time sadly overcometh all things,” says Sir Thomas Brown, ‘‘and is now dominant, and sitteth upon a sphinx, and looketh unto Memphis and old Thebes; while his sister Oblivion reclineth semisomnous on a pyramid, gloriously triumphing, making puzzles of Titanian inscriptions, and turning old glories into dreams. History sinketh beneath her cloud. …”
From: The Superhuman Origin of the Bible: inferred from itself
By Henry Rogers, 1873
ETYMOLOGY
coined by Jonathan Swift as the name of an imaginary animal of approximately human size mentioned in Gulliver’s Travels
EXAMPLE
“… It now began to be known and talked of in the neighbourhood, that my master had found a strange animal in the field, about the bigness of a splacknuck, but exactly shaped in every part like a human creature; which it likewise imitated in all its actions; seemed to speak in a little language of its own, had already learned several words of theirs, went erect upon two legs, was tame and gentle, would come when it was called, do whatever it was bid, had the finest limbs in die world, and a complexion fairer than a nobleman’s daughter of diree years old. …”
From: Gulliver’s Travels
By Jonathan Swift, 1726
ETYMOLOGY
from shit + breech
EXAMPLE
“… Reverend Alderman Atkins (the shit-breech) his speech,: to Mr. Warner the venerable Mayor of London, the wise aldermen, and most judicious Common-Councell men, in relation to the present affaires in Kent, Essex, and Surrey, concerning the Scots invasion, and His Majesties interest. Published for the honour of my Lord Mayor and Common-Councell men. …”
From: Title
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin salarium (salary) + -ate
EXAMPLE
“… The Sanhedrim of Israel being the Supream, and a constant Court of Judicature could not choose but be exceeding gainful. The Senate of the Bean in Athens, because it was but annual, was moderately salariated, but that of the Areopagites being for life bountifully; what advantages the Senators of Lacedemon had, where there was little mony or use of it, was in honour for life. …”
From: The Common-Wealth of Oceana
By James Harrington, 1656
ETYMOLOGY
irregular from Stentor (a Greek warrior in the Trojan war, ‘whose voice was as powerful as fifty voices of other men’) + -ic
EXAMPLE
“… And to chain up the tongues of five hundred cackling gossips he held, and with great reason, an exploit worth recording. Indeed he appears to have taken the most effectual method with them, that is, to out-clamour them: For thus he measures out his own Stentoronic voice. …”
From: The Doctrine of Grace: or, the Office and Operations of the Holy Spirit vindicated from the Insults of Infidelity, and the Abuses of Fanaticism
By William Warburton, 1763
ETYMOLOGY
Latin, from Greek σκολόπενδρα (skolopendra) (centipede)
EXAMPLE (for n. 3.)
“… I have bought it gentlemen, and you in a mist
Shall see what I paid for it, thou hast not drunke yet:
Nere feare the reckning man, more wine , you varletts,
And call your Mistris, your Scolopendra
If we like her complexion, we may dine here. …”
From: The Gamester
By James Shirley, 1633
PRONUNCIATION
skol-oh-PEN-druh
Lexicophilia 