Tag: 1400 – 1499

Word of the Day: ACCUSANT

ETYMOLOGY
from French accusant (n. person who accuses), (adj. that accuses)

PRONUNCIATION
uh-KYOO-zuhnt

EXAMPLE
“…The whole Councell beeing afterward called together, they gaue them-selues to the vnderstanding of the matter. As for the crime and the punishment, was of the accusant called vpon in these wordes: The Iudgement of death is due to this man, because hee hath done this or that. But the Defendant repelled it, with these wordes. The Iudgement of death is not due this man, because hee hath not done it, or because hee hath doone it righteously …”

From: A Defence of the Government Established in the Church of Englande
By John Bridges, 1587

Word of the Day: EACHWHERE

ETYMOLOGY
from each + where

EXAMPLE
“…A sely synful was she þis
For al hir synne turned in to blis
She was lyuynge in cuntre þere
Whenne ihesus preched vche where
And mony a pert myracle did
Wher wiþ to men he him kid
And mony seke he ȝaf her hele
And as he coom bi o castele…”

From: Cursor Mundi (The Cursur o the World).
A Northumbrian poem of the XIVth century, a1400

Word of the Day: GLOPPEN

ETYMOLOGY
from Old Norse glupna (to be downcast);
a root of identical form appears in Old Frisian glûpa, Middle Low German glûpen (to lie in wait for), Dutch gluipen (to watch slily, to sneak), Old Swedish glupa (to gape, swallow), Swedish glupande, Danish glubende (ravenous, fierce);
whether there is any etymological connection is uncertain

EXAMPLE (for vb. 1)
“…Quen [he] þar-of son had a sight,
Al was he gloppend for þat light…”

From: Cursor Mundi
(The Cursur of the World)
A Northumbrian Poem of the XIVth Century

Word of the Day: NOSE-HOLE

ETYMOLOGY
from nose + hole

EXAMPLE
“…Whan a bodi is stinged of an Adder than shall the woūde be wasshed ther with and clowtes wet layd ther vpō I Cotton wet in the same water & put in the nose holes is good agaynst Polippus that is stynkinge flesshe in the nose…”

From: The vertuose boke of distyllacyon of the waters of all maner of herbes 
By Hieronymus Brunschwig
Translated by Laurence Andrewe, 1527

Word of the Day: DADDER

ETYMOLOGY
possibly imitative (perhaps of the chattering of teeth)

EXAMPLE
“…Full gayly was that grete lorde . girde in the myddis,
A brighte belte of ble, . broudirde with fewles,
With drakes and with dukkes, . daderande tham semede,
For ferdnes of fawcons fete, . less fawked thay were…”

From: Winnere and Wastoure 
(“Winner and Waster” is a Middle English poem written in alliterative verse around the middle of the 14th century)

Word of the Day: SLEUTHFUL

ETYMOLOGY
from sleuth (sloth, laziness obs.) + -ful

EXAMPLE
“…And he þat hauys greet egℏen̛ ys enuyous & witℏ-outen shame, sleuthful, and vnobeyssant. He þat hauys lityƚƚ eghen̛, lyk to heuenly colour, or blake, ys of sharpe vnderstondynge, curteys, and leel…”

From: Secreta Secretorum,
(a treatise which purports to be a letter from Aristotle to his student Alexander the Great on an encyclopedic range of topics, including statecraft, ethics, physiognomy, astrology, alchemy, magic, and medicine)

Word of the Day: QUAINTRELLE

ETYMOLOGY
from Middle French (queint-) cointerelle feminine of cointerel (beau, fop), from cointe (quaint)

EXAMPLE
“…It folweth nouht that thouh j be thus kembt and a litel make the queyntrelle that for swich cause j am fair I am foul old and slauery foule stinkinge and dungy…”

From: Pilgrimage of the Lyf of the Manhode,
from the French of G. de Guilleville, c1430

Word of the Day: RECUMBENTIBUS

ETYMOLOGY
a humorous use of Latin recumbentibus, ablative plural of recumbens, present participle of recumbere (recumb – to lean, recline, rest)

EXAMPLE
“…Ector sone to him gan take,
He thoght him venge of that wrake;
Ector bare his sword on hye,—
For he hadde no spere him bye,—
He ȝaff the kyng Episcropus
Suche a recumbentibus,
He smot In-two bothe helme & mayle,
Coleret and the ventayle…”

From: The Laud Troy Book;
an anonymous Middle English poem dealing with the background and events of the Trojan War, dating from around 1400

Word of the Day: FACUNDIOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin fācundia (eloquence) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“…Discrete and hardy and wonder vertuous,
And of speche ryght facundious.
And coud him wel in euery thinge demene,
But Menelay of stature was but meane…”

From: The Auncient Historie and Onely Trewe and Syncere Cronicle of the Warres Betwixte the Grecians and the Troyans 
By John Lydgate, 1430