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)
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)
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
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
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
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin macilentus (lean),
from macies (leanness) + -lentus (-lent)
EXAMPLE
“…Þay þat haue strong vertuez, grete veynez, & brode habitude, not mych macillent, i. lene or megre…”
From: Grande Chirurgie,
Translated by Guy de Chauliac, a1425
ETYMOLOGY
from waker (unsleeping, watchful, vigilant obs.) + -ly
EXAMPLE
“…Sothely he, as a good herde, was ful wakkerly and besy vppon the kepynge of that litell flok, his byloued disciples…”
From: The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ;
an adaptation/translation of Pseudo-Bonaventure’s Meditations on the Life of Christ into English
By Nicholas Love, c1400
ETYMOLOGY
from ever adv.. + living adj.
EXAMPLE
“… to gaine pardon of the sinne to Rosemond, pittie to distressed Cleopatra, and
everliving praise to her loving Delia…”
From: Shakespeare’s Centurie of Prayse
By Clement Mansfield Ingleby, Lucy Toulmin Smith, 1879
William Clarke, 1595
ETYMOLOGY
aphetic from averty (well-advised, prudent, cautious)
EXAMPLE
“…He wes wys and rycht werty…”
From: The Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland
By Andrew of Wyntoun, c1425
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin luculentus, from luc-, lux (light)
EXAMPLE
“…Trie out the grape vnhurt, neither to ripe
Neither to sowre, as gemmys luculent,
Of soft and hard as goodly is to gripe…”
From: The Middle-English translation of Palladius De Re Rustica
Lexicophilia 