ETYMOLOGY
from shell (n.) + pad (a toad), after (Middle) Low German schildpadde,
Middle Dutch schiltpadde (Dutch schildpad), lit. ‘shield-toad’
EXAMPLE
On a beautiful sunny day in the late spring, the old fisherman spotted a large, slow-moving shellpad basking on the riverbank.
ETYMOLOGY
etymology and original form obscure; it is believed to be a combination of prink (to deck oneself) or prim and cock (a young man), implying a vain or overly confident youth
EXAMPLE
“… Acolastus: Wylt thou gold .i. any pieces of golde?
Lais.: This chayne my lyttell prycke [Latin mea mentula] .i. I wolde fayne haue this chayne (of golde) my pretye pryncockes, or my ballocke stones. …”
From: The Comedye of Acolastus
By: Gulielmus Gnapheus
Translated by: John Palsgrave, 1540
ETYMOLOGY
from smirk (vb.) + -le
EXAMPLE
“… Blinks waggish glances now and then,
And flytes upon his priests sae jolly
For heaviness and melancholy;
The friskier for the flytin’ they
Gaffaw and smirkle in their play
‘Mid sic like daffery and glaikin’,
Baith god and priest were merry-makin’,
Whan, hark! upon the gowden door,
Tirl! comes a rap, as seld before …”
From: Papistry Storm’d; or, The Dingin’ Down o’ the Cathedral
By William Tennant, 1827
ETYMOLOGY
from French riant (smiling, laughing, cheerful, pleasant to look at), use as adjective of present participle of rire (to laugh), from Latin ridere (to laugh)
EXAMPLE (for adj. 1.)
“… Whatever was austere or earnest, still more, whatever bordered upon awe or horror, his riant fancy rejected with aversion; the rigorous moral sometimes hid in these traditions, the grim lines of primeval feeling and imagination to be traced in them, had no charms for him …”
From: German Romance: Specimens of its Chief Authors
By Thomas Carlyle, 1827
Johann August Musaeus
ETYMOLOGY
origin unknown;
a connection with dod (a rounded summit or eminence (dialect)), has been suggested
EXAMPLE
“… KYNGE JOHAN. God hathe me ordeynned in this same princely estate
For that I shuld helpe such as be desolate.
SEDWSYON. Yt is as great pyte to se a woman wepe
As yt is to se a sely dodman crepe,
Or, as ye wold say, a sely goose go barefote.
KYNGE JOHAN. Thou semyste by thy wordes to have no more wytt than a coote.
I mervell them arte to Englond so unnaturall,
Beyng her owne chyld: thou art worse than a best brutall. …”
From: Kynge Johann,
By John Bale, a1563
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin nefastus (contrary to, or forbidden by divine law),
from ne- (not) + fastus (lawful for the transaction of business) (from fas – wicked act, moral offense)
EXAMPLE (for adj. 1.)
“… The day of the moneth wherein he was borne, should be adiudged and accounted for an vnluckie, dismall, and nefast day, wherevpon it shoulde not be lawfull for any iudge to sit. …”
From: Beautifull Blossomes
By John Bishop, 1577
ETYMOLOGY
of uncertain origin; perhaps Celtic
EXAMPLE
“… With fair tretie ʒit scho gart hir vpryse,
And to the burde thay went and togidder sat,
And scantlie had thay drunkin anis or twyse,
Quhen in come Gib hunter our Iolie Cat,
And bad God speid, the Burges vp with that,
And till the hole scho went as fyre on flint,
Bawdronis the vther be the bak hes hint. ….”
From: The Morall Babillis of Esope the Phrygian
By Robert Henryson, a1500
PRONUNCIATION
BAW-druhnz
ETYMOLOGY
from revel (exuberant merrymaking) + rout (a company or assemblage of persons)
EXAMPLE (for n. 1.)
“… Counter he coude (Olux) vpon a potte
An estryche fedder of a capons tayle
He set vp fresshely vpon his hat a lofte
What reuell route quod he and gan to rayle
How ofte he hadde hit Ienet on the tayle
Of felyce fetewse dnd lytell prety cate
How ofte he knocked at her klycked gate …”
From: Here begynneth a lytell treatyse named The Bowge of Courte
By John Skelton, 1499
ETYMOLOGY
adj.: from Latin dilucidatus, past participle of dilucidare (to make clear, to explain), from dilūcidus (clear, bright)
vb: from Latin dilucidat- participial stem of dilucidare (to make clear, to explain)
EXAMPLE (for vb.)
“… .For we folowe not only a standynge text of the Hebrue, with the interpretacion of the Caldee, and the Greke, but we set, also, in a pryvate table, the dyversite of redinges of all textes, with suche annotacions, in another table, as shall douteles delucidate and cleare the same; as well without any singularyte of opinions, as all checkinges and reprofes. The prynt, no doubt, shall please your good Lordship. …”
From: State papers, published under the authority of His Majesty’s Commission. King Henry the Eighth
Coverdale and Grafton to Crumwell, 1538
ETYMOLOGY
from grin (vb.)
EXAMPLE
“… Fyrst, bycause none haue ye Prophets marke but such as be godly & lament wickednesse. But many of the diuels children, grinagods and such other, be crossed, and cursed to. Then also the proportion is so farre different, that there is no likenesse betwixt them. But for the likenesse of the effect, they may be well compared together. …”
From: An Aunsvvere to the Treatise of the Crosse wherin ye shal see by the plaine and vndoubted word of God, the vanities of men disproued
By James Calfhill, 1565
Lexicophilia 