Tag: 1500 – 1599

Word of the Day: DRUMBLE

ETYMOLOGY
n. 1.: ? variant of dumble, dummel (Eng. dial., a stupid, slow person)

n. 2.: a variant or alteration of dimble (a deep, shady dell, a dingle)

vb. 4.: apparently a nasalized form of drubble (to trouble, disturb), parallel to drumbly, drumly (adj.) from drubly; but possibly a back-formation from the adj.

vb. 5.: blend of drum and rumble

EXAMPLE
“…Yea but what am I, a Scholer, or a scholemaister, or els some youth.
A Lawier, a studient or els a countrie cloune
A Brumman, a Baskit maker, or a Baker of Pies,
A flesh or a Fishmonger, or a sower of lies:
A Louse or a louser, a Leeke or a Larke:
A  Dreamer, a Drommell, a fire or a sparke:
A Caitife, a Cutthrote, a creper in corners,
A herbraine, a hangman, or a grafter of horners…”

(Note: drommell is the earliest variant of drumble)

From: A New Tragicall Comedie of Apius and Virginia
By R.B., 1575

Word of the Day: NUMPS

ETYMOLOGY
of uncertain origin;
From the OED: “Perhaps originally a pet form of the male forename Humphry, as suggested by the context in … examples.”

EXAMPLE
“…to his worthie good patron, Lustie Humfrey, according as the townsmen doo christen him, little Numps, as the Nobilitie and Courtiers do name him, and Honest Humfrey, as all his friends and acquaintance esteeme him…”

From: Lenten Stuffe
By Thomas Nashe, 1599

Word of the Day: SQUIRE OF DAMES

ETYMOLOGY
from squire

EXAMPLE
“…Me, silly wretch, she so at vantage caught,
After she long in wait for me did lie,
And meant unto her prison to have brought,
Her loathsome pleasure there to satisfy;
That thousand deaths me lever were to die
Than break the vow that to fair Columbell
I plighted have, and yet keep steadfastly.
As for my name, it mistreth not to tell;
Call me the Squire of Dames, that me beseemeth well…”

From: The Faerie Queene
By Edmund Spenser, 1590

Word of the Day: MALTWORM

ETYMOLOGY
from malt + worm

EXAMPLE
“…And Kytte, my wyfe, that as her lyfe
Lovethe well good ale to seke,
Full ofte drynkythe she that ye maye se
The teares ronne downe her cheke.
Then dothe she troule to me the bolle
As a goode malte-worme sholde,
And say, “Swete harte, I have take my parte
Of joly goode ale and olde…”

From: The Poetical Works of John Skelton (1843)
Drinking Song (I Cannot Eate But Lytyll Meate)

Word of the Day: QUILLER

ETYMOLOGY
n. 1. : from quill (a small pipe or tube)  + -er
n. 2. : from quill (to form into small cylindrical plaits or folds resembling a quill) + -er

EXAMPLE
“…Epi. O sir your chinne is but a quyller yet, you will be most maiesticall when it is full fledge. But I maruell that you loue Dipsas that olde Crone…”

From: Endimion, The Man in the Moone
By John Lyly, 1591

Word of the Day: SALSIPOTENT

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin salsipotentem, a false reading for salipotentem,
from salum (salt water) + potentem (having great authority or influence)

EXAMPLE
“…whearunto he made hiz fish to swim the swifter, and hy then declared: how the supream salsipotent Monarch Neptune, the great God of the swelling Seaz, Prins of profunditees, and Soouerain Segnior of all Lakez, freshwaterz, Riuerz, Créekes, and Goolphs…”

From: A Letter whearin part of the Entertainment vntoo the Queenz Maiesty at Killingwoorth Castl in Warwik Sheer
By William Patten, a1578

Word of the Day: LACK-BRAIN

ETYMOLOGY
from lack + brain

EXAMPLE
“…Say you so, say you so, I say vnto you againe, you are a shallow cowardly hind, and you lie: what a lacke braine is this? by the Lord our plot is a good plot, as euer was laid, our friends true and constant: a good plot, good friends, and ful of expectation: an excellent plot, verie good friends; what a frosty spirited rogue is this?…”

From: Henry IV, Part I
By William Shakespeare, 1598

Word of the Day: POLITIZE

ETYMOLOGY
from polity (a particular form of government or political organization),
from obsolete French politie, from Latin polītīa (state, government) + –ize

EXAMPLE
“…Matters of state we vse to politize,
Procrastinating for aduantage great,
LOVE, lingring hates, and lothes to temporize,
Delaie’s too olde, for his orewarmed heate:
Ah, doe not driue me of thus (still) in vaine,
Still for to lose tis much, once let me gaine…”

From: Alba The Months Minde of a Melancholy Louer
By Robert Tofte, 1598

Word of the Day: DISMARRY

ETYMOLOGY
from 16th century French desmarier (‘to diuorce, vnwed, or vnmarrie’, Cotgrave),
from des- (dis-)  + marier (to marry)

EXAMPLE
“…And he was heyre to his father, and had fayre herytages, and was lykelye to enjoye more; howebeit, agaynst the yonge mannes mynde he was dismaryed, and maryed agayne to another gentylwoman, at the pleasure of the duke of Burgoyne and of the lorde de la Tremoyle…”

From: The Cronycle of Syr John Froissart
Translated out of French by Sir John Bourchier Lord Berners, 1525