ETYMOLOGY
from bread + wright (a workman, artificer)
EXAMPLE
“… And her wrigteleslike holden in bond.
Quað ðis bred wrigte liðeð nu me.
me drempte ic bar bread lepes ðre. …”
From: Genesis and Exodus, composed c1250;
Joseph and his Brethren
in: Selections from early Middle English, 1130-1250
By: Joseph Hall, 1920
ETYMOLOGY
vb.: from Old French troillier, truillier, treuiller, from Middle High German trüllen
EXAMPLE (for vb.)
“… Thus with treison and with trecherie · þow troiledest hem boþe,
And dudest hem breke [here] buxomnesse · þorw false by-heste;
Thus haddest þou hem oute · and hyder atte laste. …”
(Thus with treason and with treachery · thou troiledest them both,
And diddest them break their buxomness · through false byhest;
Thus haddest thou them out · and hither at the last.)
From: The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman
By William Langland, 1393
ETYMOLOGY
apparently originally from cock (an edible bivalve mollusc found on the coasts of Britain, probably a cockle, obs.) + bell
EXAMPLE (for n. 2)
“… My beard had sometimes yce on it as big as my little finger, my breath turning into many cock-bells as I walked…”
From: The Bargrave MS. Diary, 1645
in A Dictionary of the Kentish Dialect and Provincialisms in use in the County of Kent
By William Douglas Parish, & William Francis Shaw, 1887
ETYMOLOGY
from Anglo-Norman orguillous, orgeillus, orgoilous, orgullous,
orgulous, orgulus, orgilous, orgillus and Old French orguillus,
orgoillus, orguilleus, orgueilleux;
from orgueil (pride, haughtiness) + ‑ous
EXAMPLE 1 (for adj. 1.)
“… yet habbeþ manitime maked of watere wyn; gostliche. wanne þurch his grace maked of þo euele manne good man. of þe orgeilus umble. of þe lechur chaste. of þe niþinge large. and of alle oþre folies; so ha maket of þo watere wyn. þis his si signefiance of þe miracle. …”
From: An Old English miscellany containing a bestiary, Kentish sermons, Proverbs of Alfred, religious poems of the thirteenth century
Edited by Richard Morris, 1872
EXAMPLE 2 (for adj. 1)
”…I was banished from my own country, and was dishonoured, and with hard labour gained I what I have got ; and now I stand in the King’s favour, and he asketh of me my daughters for the Infantes of Carrion. They are of high blood and full orgullous, and I have no liking to this match ; but if our Lord the King adviseth it we can do no other-wise: …”
From: Chronicle of the Cid
By Robert Southey, 1808
ETYMOLOGY
from Old French beau (fine, good_ + pre (father), or, in sense 2, per, peer (equal, peer):
From OED: In Old French, beau père was politely used in addressing every one whom one called ‘father’; i.e. one’s own father, a ‘father’ in the church, a god-father, a step-father, a father-in-law, an elderly man occupying a fatherly position in one’s regard; about the 16th or 17th century, this use of beau became obsolete, and beau-père was retained as a distinctive term for ‘father-in-law’ and ‘step-father’ as distinct from a real father. In English the use appears to have been much more limited.
EXAMPLE
“… Tho he hadde his tale itold and ymaked al his wise,
He sat adoun and the Bischop of Cicestre gan arise. “Beau pere,” he seide to the Pope: “me thinȝth hit
faith to the,
“To desturbi thing that falleth: to harm of communeaute; …”
From: The Life and Martyrdom of Thomas Beket, c1300
Edited by J.H. Black, 1848
ETYMOLOGY
from jape + worthy
EXAMPLE
“… or ellys what difference is þer bytwixe þe prescience. and þilke iape-worþi
dyuynynge of Tiresie þe diuino ur þat seide …”
From: Chaucer’s translation of Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiae, c1374
ETYMOLOGY
from Anglo-French repruce, variant of reproche (reproach)
EXAMPLE
“… Þou settest us repruse [MS depruse.] to our neȝburs, vndernimyng [Here an e follows, but is dotted out.] and scorne to hem þat ben in our cumpas. …”
From: The Earliest Complete English Prose Psalter, c1350
Preface, introduction, notes, and glossary, by Karl D. Bülbring, 1891
ETYMOLOGY
Middle English: in sense adj. 1, from broth (impetuous, violent, wrathful) + -ly;
sense adj. 2, possibly a derivative of brothel
EXAMPLE (for adj. 1)
“… þan said Isaac tille him, “ert þou his mayntenour?
Fulle broþely & brim he kept vp a trencheour,
& kast it at Statin, did him a schamfulle schoure.
His nese & his ine he carfe at misauentoure. …”
From: Peter Langtoft’s Chronicle, (as illustrated and improv’d by Robert of Brunne), 1330
ETYMOLOGY
apparently a shortened form of dedeignous (disdainous), French dédaigneux, Old French desdeignous
EXAMPLE
“… Boste & deignouse pride & ille avisement
Mishapnes oftentide, & dos many be schent.
þe proude kyng Pharaon, þat chaced Israel, [Exempla viciorum, quibus gra|tia extin|guitur.]
Dronkeld euerilkon, & Gode’s folk went wel.
Sodom & Gomor fulle vile synne þat stank,
Boþe for euer more doun tille helle þei sank. …”
From: Robert Mannyng of Brunne, The Chronicle, c1330
ETYMOLOGY
from most (greatest in size, bulk, etc.) + what (pronoun); probably after somewhat (adv.)
EXAMPLE (for adv. 2.)
“… The parentes and freindes with whom I haue to deale, be mostwhat no latinistes: and if they were, yet we vnderstand that tounge best, whervnto we are first borne, as our first impression is alwaie in English, before we do deliuer it in Latin. …”
From: Positions vvherin those primitiue circumstances be examined, which are necessarie for the training vp of children, either for skill in their booke, or health in their bodie,
By Richard Mulcaster, 1581
Lexicophilia 