Tag: 1500 – 1599

Word of the Day: SPLENDICANT

ETYMOLOGY
from present pple. of Latin splendicare to shine

EXAMPLE
“…and yet cast into a curious desire to vnderstand and knowe what should be the reason and cause that the purple humiditie in the touch of hir bodie, in the smoothnes of hir hand should be as white as pure milke: and by what meanes that nature had bestowed in hir faire bodie the fragrant sweetnes of Arabia. And by what industrie in hir starrie forehead pampynulated with threds of gold aptly disposed, she had infixed the fairest part of the heauens, or the splendycant Heraclea…”

From: Hypnerotomachia: The Strife of Loue in a Dreame
By Francesco Colonna
Translated by Robert Dallington, 1592

Word of the Day: SUSPECTUOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin suspectus (u-stem) (suspect n.) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“…I thynke as our Cytezens be suspectuous and full of coniectoures; so dyd hee feare the comodyte of the place, and woulde eschewe the occasyon …”

From: The goodli history of the moste noble and beautyfull Ladye Lucres of Scene in Tuskane, and of her louer Eurialus verye pleasaunt and delectablevnto ye reder
By Pope Pius II, 1553

Word of the Day: EXSUPERATE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin ex(s)uperat- ppl. stem of ex(s)uperare, 
from ex- + superare (to rise above), from super (above)

EXAMPLE
“…And if bewtie breed such blisfulnesse
Euamouring both God and man
Good Lady let no wilfulnesse
 Exuperate  your bewtye then
To slaye the hertes that yeld & craue
ladye ladye
The graunt of your goodwil to haue
My deare ladye…”

From: The Panges of Loue and Louers Fittes
By William Elderton, 1559

Word of the Day: DECURTATE

ETYMOLOGY
adjective: from Latin decurtatus, pa. pple. of decurtare (to cut off, curtail)
verb: from participial stem of Latin decurtare + -ate

EXAMPLE
“…hee sendes for his Barber to depure, decurtate, and spunge him, whome hauing not paide a twelmonth before, he now raines downe eight quarter angels into his hande…”

From: Lenten Stuffe
By Thomas Nashe, 1599

Word of the Day: BELLIBONE

ETYMOLOGY
possibly a corruption of French belle bonne or belle et bonne (fair and good);
if not a humorous perversion of bonnibel (fair maid, bonny lass)

EXAMPLE
“…PERIGOT. The while my Flock did feed thereby,
WILLY. The while the Shepherd self did spill:
PERIGOT. I saw the bouncing Bellibone;
WILLY. Hey ho Bonnibel!
PERIGOT. Tripping over the Dale alone,
WILLY. She can trip it very well…”

From: The Shepheardes Calender
VIII: August
By Edmund Spenser, 1579

Word of the Day: FLAMFEW

ETYMOLOGY
corruption of French fanfelue, from medieval Latin famfalūca (bubble, lie),
apparently from Greek πομϕόλυξ (bubble)

EXAMPLE
“…In brest of the Godesse Gorgon was cocketed hardlye,
With nodil vnioyncted, by death, light vital amoouing.
Voyd ye fro theese flamfews, quoa the God, set a part the begun wurck…”

From: Thee First Foure Bookes of Virgil his Aeneis
Translated intoo English heroical verse by Richard Stanyhurst, 1582

Word of the Day: EVITATE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin evitatus, pa. ppl. of evitare (to shun),
from e– out + vitare (to shun)

EXAMPLE
“…So after the sayd father had informed himselfe of all that is sayde, and of many other thinges more, which is left out for to euitate tediousnes, till such time as of them may bee made a particular historie, hee departed from Goa and Cochin towardes Portingall, and passed by the Ilandes of Maldiuia which are many, & all are inhabited with Moores, nigh vnto the which they doe enter the poole Antartico, crossing the equinoctiall from the coast of Arabia, from thence they sayled with a faire winde till they came right against the Iland of sainct Lorenso, which is very great, for that it hath two hundreth seuentie and fiue leagues of longitude, and fourescore and tenne of latitude…”

From: The Historie of the Great and Mightie Kingdome of China
By Juan González de Mendoza
Translated out of Spanish by Robert Parke, 1588

Word of the Day: SNAPHANCE

ETYMOLOGY
From OED: Of Continental origin, representing Dutch and Flemish snaphaan (in Kilian snap-haen ), Middle Low German snaphân , Low German snapphân , German schnapphahn (†-han ),
from snappen , schnappen (snap v.) + haan, hahn (cock).
It is not quite clear whether the sense is ‘snapping cock’ or ‘cock-snapper’ (i.e. cock-stealer).
In English the second element may have been confused with the personal name Hans; but Heyne (in Grimm’s Dict.) cites an early example of German schnaphons.

EXAMPLE
“…Fyrste to make this realme a praye to al venturers, al spoylers, all snaphanses, all forlornehopes, all cormerauntes, all rauenours of the worlde, that wyll inuade this realme…”

From: A Sermon of Cuthbert Tonstall, Bishop of Durham,
Preached on Palm Sunday, 1539, Before King Henry VIII;
By Cuthbert Tunstall