Word of the Day: GLEESOME

ETYMOLOGY
from glee (n.) + -some

EXAMPLE
“… This Smith was a quaint sire,
As merry as Bird on brier.
Iocund and
gleesome at euery sith,
His countenance aye, buxome and blith,
His face full coaly and full black,
Hued like vnto a Colliers sacke,
Or as if it had been soile in the mier,
Full of wrinkles was his cheeks with the fier
…”

From: The Merry Tales of the Cobler of Canterburie
Anonymous, 1590

Word of the Day: ALLEVE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin adlevareallevare (to lift up, raise, relieve, lighten),
from ad– + levare (to raise )

EXAMPLE
“… there was a plat devised by me and penned by Mr. Southwell, for the winter garrison in such season as th’ enemy could not keep the field, to th’ intent his Majesty’s charges might be aleived, and the victual spared until the year should open: at which time it was thought his Majesty would resolve with what numbers his pieces might be defended. …”

From: The Works of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
And of Sir Thomas Wyatt, The Elder
Edited by George Frederick Nott, 1815
Letter XXVI. The Earl of Surrey to Mr. Secretary Paget, 15 March, 1544

Word of the Day: BATIE-BUM

ETYMOLOGY
apparently shortened from baty bummill (a lazy or feckless person; an idler), perhaps by association with bum (the buttocks)

EXAMPLE
“… For cozy skoug and rest;
Sae did that Abbey people a’
Effrey’t flee to the Frater-ha’,
Canon, and monk, and dean, and prior,
And
batie-bum, and beggin’ freir,
A congregation wode wi’ fear,
Though fat, in dulesome dreiry cheir:
…”

From: Papistry Storm’d
Or, The Dingin’ Down O’ The Cathedral
By William Tennant, 1827

Word of the Day: DOG-BOLT

ETYMOLOGY
of origin uncertain

EXAMPLE (for n.1.)
“… And as for Ser John Hevenyngham, Ser John Wyndefeld, and othere wurchepfull men ben mad but here doggeboltes, the which I suppose wull turne hem to diswurchep here-after…”

From: Paston Letters and Papers of the fifteenth century
Edited by Norman Davis, Richard Beadle, and Colin Richmond, 2004
Letter from Margaret Paston to John Paston, 1465

Word of the Day: LETIFICATE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin laetificat-, participial stem of laetificare (to make glad),
from laetificus (gladdening), from laetus (joyful)

EXAMPLE
“… There is nothing that doeth comfort the heart so much beside God, as honest myrth and good companie. And wine moderately taken, doeth letificate and doeth comforte the hearte, and good bread doeth confyrme and doeth stablyshe a mannes heart. …”

From: The Breuiary of Helthe
By Andrew Boorde, 1547

Word of the Day: RENIANT

ETYMOLOGY
from French reniant, pres. pple. of renier (to deny, renounce)

EXAMPLE
“… No helpe to me wardes is shapen: howe shal than straungers in any wyse after socoure loke, whan I that am so privy yet of helpe I do fayle? Further maye I not but thus in this prison abyde: what bondes and chaynes me holden, lady, ye se wel yourselfe? A renyant forjuged hath not halfe the care. But thus syghyng and sobbyng, I wayle here alone, and nere it for comfort of your presence, right here wolde I sterve. …”

From:
The Testament of Love
By Thomas Usk, 1388
In The workes of Geffray Chaucer newly printed. 1532

Word of the Day: LIP-LICK

ETYMOLOGY
from lip + lick

EXAMPLE
“… Thee gay boy kindlye playing, thee knowne lads phisnomye taking:
That when Queene Dido shal col the, and smacklye bebasse thee,
When quaffing wynebols, when bancquets deyntye be serued,
When she shal embrace thee, when
lyplicks sweetlye she fastneth;
That then thow be suer, too plant thy poysoned hoat looue.
…”

From: Thee first foure bookes of Virgil his Aeneis
Translated intoo English heroical verse by Richard Stanyhurst, 1582

Word of the Day: TIRELING

ETYMOLOGY
apparently from tire (to diminish, give out, come to an end, obs.) + -ling

EXAMPLE
“… So as they gazed after her a while,
Lo where a griesly Foster forth did rush,
Breathing out beastly lust her to defile:
His
tyreling iade he fiercely forth did push,
Through thicke and thin, both ouer banke and bush
In hope her to attaine by hooke or crooke,
That from his gorie sides the bloud did gush:
Large were his limbes, and terrible his looke,
And in his clownish hand a sharp bore speare he shooke.
…”

From: The Faerie Queene
By Edmund Spenser, 1590

Word of the Day: RIB-BASTE

ETYMOLOGY
from rib (n.) + baste (to beat or thrash)

EXAMPLE
“… A good Pay-master (answered Sancho) will neuer grudge to giue wages; I thinke to curry or so be-labour my selfe, that without endangering my life, my lashes shall bee sensible vnto me, and therein must the substance of this miracle consist. And immediately Sancho stripped himselfe bare from the girdle vpward, and taking the whip in his hand, began to ribbe-baste and lash himselfe roundly; and Don Quixote to number the strokes. When Sancho had giuen himselfe seuen or eight stripes, hee thought he had killed himselfe; so that pawsing awhile, hee said to his Master, that he was very much deceiued, and would therfore appeale, forsomuch as euery whip-lash did in lieu of a piece of three Blanks, deserue halfe a Ryall. …”

From: The second part of The History of the Valorous and Witty Knight-Errant, Don Quixote of the Mançha
Written in Spanish by Michael Cervantes
Translated by Thomas Shelton, 1620

Word of the Day: NIPPITATE

ETYMOLOGY
variant of nippitatum (of unknown origin)

EXAMPLE (for n.)
“… Beside thiz in the field a good Marshall at musters: of very great credite & trust in the toun heer, for he haz been choze Alecuner many a yeere, when hiz betterz haue stond by: & euer quited himself with such estimation, az yet too the tast of a cup of Nippitate, hiz iudgement will be taken aboue the best in the parish, be hiz noze near so red. …”

From: A Letter: whearin, part of the entertainment vntoo the Queenz Maiesty, at Killingwoorth Castl, in Warwick Sheer
By William Patten, 1578