Category: Word of the Day – T

ETYMOLOGY
from Greek θεσµός (thesmos – law); (from root θε– (to lay down)) + –ϕιλ-ος (-phil ) + -ist

EXAMPLE
“… To shut out any light that may be usefull in Gods house, is with the Jews to make it a denne: as they would do, that would shut out the Ceremonies out of the Church: for, take away Ceremonies out of the Church, and take away the light that is in it. Surely this is spoken in Ceremony, by way of complement to his Bishop, that great Thesmophilist: Have we no other candle in our candlestick but ceremony? …”

From: A Discourse of Proper Sacrifice
By Edward Dering, 1644

ETYMOLOGY
from French tardigrade (slow-paced) or from Latin tardigradus (walking slowly); from Latin tardus (slow) + -gradus (stepping, going)

EXAMPLE (for adj. 1)
“… Once more a cruelly long passage fell to my lot. The Deborah proved a marine hackney-coach of the most tardigrade order. But it could not be helped; so, like Diogenes, I resolved to be satisfied with my tub, and as for sunshine, I found it within and without! …”

From: Our Antipodes:
Or, Residence and Rambles in the Australasian Colonies.
By Lt. Colonel Godfrey Charles Mundy, 1852

ETYMOLOGY
from think (vb.) + -ative, chiefly after talkative

EXAMPLE
“… They have not known I say, that the knowledge of Observation, doth not introduce an understanding into the essential thingliness of a thing, but erecteth only a thinkative knowledge: For otherwise, the understanding should perceive causes that are before in essence. Then also they have been deceived by the simplicity of the Water, which simpleness they have confounded with the unity of knowledge to us unknown. …”

From: Oriatrike or, Physick Refined
By Jean Baptiste van Helmont
Translated by J. Chandler, 1662

ETYMOLOGY
from Old French tenebrus, modern French tenebreux, Provencal tenebros, 
Spanish, Italian tenebroso, from Latin tenebrosus (dark, gloomy)

EXAMPLE
“… The name of thys lady was callyd Prescience.
She neuer left Vyce, ne noon that wold hym folow,
Tyll they wer commyttyd by the diuine sentence
All to peyne perpetuell and infynyte sorow.
Ryghtwysnes went to see that no man shuld hem borow.
Thus all entretyd sharpely were they, tyll Cerberus
Had hem beshut withyn hys gates tenebrus. …”

From: The Assembly of Gods:
or, The Accord of Reason and Sensuality in the Fear of Death
By John Lydgate, c1420

PRONUNCIATION
TEN-uh-bruhss

ETYMOLOGY
perhaps the same as Tib, a shortened hypocoristic form of the female name Isabel; now rather rude or slighting (except playfully);
also with dim. -y or -ie, Tibbie, a common female name in the north

EXAMPLE
“… .Trupeny. Mary then prickmedaintie come toste me a fig,
Who shall then know our Tib Talke apace trow ye?

An. Alyface. And why not Annot Alyface as fyne as she?

Trupeny. And what had Tom Trupeny, a father or none?

An. Alyface. Then our prety newe come man will looke to be one …”

From: Ralph Roister Doister 
By Nicholas Udall, a1556

ETYMOLOGY
vb. 1: of uncertain origin
vb. 2, 3, 4: apparently from thrum (to press, to condense) + -le
vb. 5: apparently from thrum (to play on a stringed instrument) + -le

EXAMPLE (for vb.3)
“…PETER, quho was ever maist sudden, answers, and sayis: Thou art thrumbled and thrusted be the multitude, and ʒit thou speeris quha hes twitched thee, hee answers againe and he sayis, it is not that twitching that I speak of: It is ane vther kinde of twitching …”

From: Sermons vpon the Sacrament of the Lords Supper
By Robert Bruce, ?1591

ETYMOLOGY
from terrible + -ize

EXAMPLE
“…Both Camps appoach, their bloudy rage doth rise,
And even the face of Cowards terriblize;
New Martial heat inflames their mindes with ire,
Their bloud is moov’d, their heart is all on fire.
Their cheerfull limbs (seeming to march too slowe).
Longing to meet, the fatall drums out-goe;
And even already in their gesture fight:
Th’ iron-footed coursers, lusty, fresh, and light, …”

From: Du Bartas his Deuine Weekes and Workes translated
By Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas
Translated by Josuah Sylvester, 1606

ETYMOLOGY
from take (to catch the fancy or affection of; to excite a liking in; to captivate, delight, charm) + -y

EXAMPLE
“…Speaking thus, Mr. Blyth now proceeded to perform by one great effort those two difficult and delicate operations in art, technically described as “putting in taky touches, and bringing out bits of effect.” These arduous final processes, are, as all painters know, only to be accomplished through the medium of certain mystic bodily evolutions, …”

From: Hide and Seek,
By Wilkie Collins, Vol. I. 1854

ETYMOLOGY
from tom (a male cat) + -ling

EXAMPLE
“…We are promised to succeed him a Black Tomling, whom I have named Prester John – that hierarch being the most remarkable black potentate whom I could call to mind. Long live Prester John! and may he be more fortunate than his predecessors, Othello and Pulcheria. …”

From: Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey
Edited by John Wood Warter, Vol. III, 1856
Letter from R.S. to G.C.B., April 29, 1821

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin tragematopola (sweet seller) or its etymon, Greek τραγηματοπώλης (seller of sweetmeats),
from τραγήματ-, τραγήμα (dried fruits or sweetmeats eaten as dessert) + ‑ο‑ + ‑πώλης (-pole) + ‑ist 

EXAMPLE
Abby promised her children a trip to the tragematopolist’s after they’d done their chores and homework.