Tag: 1500 – 1599

Word of the Day: HICKET

ETYMOLOGY
an earlier form of hiccup, another being hickock, both apparently with a diminutive formative -et, -ock

EXAMPLE
“… And it is good to caste cold water in the face of him that hath the hicket, and to threaten him, and so put him in feare, and to anger hym, or els to prouoke hym to heauynesse, for by these thinges the naturall heat is reuoked and fortified within, and causeth the hicket to cease. …”

From: A new booke entyteled The Regiment of Lyfe: with a syngular Treatise of the pestilence
By Jean Goeurot
Translated by Thomas Phaer, 1544

Word of the Day: PRITTLE-PRATTLE

ETYMOLOGY
reduplicated extension of prattle (to talk in a foolish, childish, or inconsequential way)

EXAMPLE (for vb.)
“… they are poore honest folkes, and haue here an honest company at their mariage, now they lacke wyne, I pray you helpe, She was not long in bibble bable, with saying she wist not what, but sayth at one word, helpe for it is nede. She doth not, as our Papistes do, whiche prittle prattle a whole day uppon their Beades, saying our Ladyes Psalter. But she only sayth, they haue no wyne; helpe. etc. …”

From: Frutefull Sermons
A Sermon Preached by Hugh Latymer, a1552

Word of the Day: COINQUINATE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin coinquinat- participial stem of coinquinare (to defile all over),
from co- (together) + inquinare (to defile)

EXAMPLE
“... For the wele publyke
Of preesthode in this case
And alwayes to chase
Suche maner of sysmatykes
And halfe-heretykes
That wolde intoxicate
That wolde conquinate
That wolde contemminate
And that wolde vyolate
And that wolde derogate
And that wolde abrogate
The churche hygh estates…”

From: Colyn Cloute
By John Skelton, a1529

Word of the Day: PASSANCE

ETYMOLOGY
from passant (passing by or along, going, proceeding; travelling, journeying)

EXAMPLE
“… Thus passed they their passance, and wore out the wéerie way with these pleasant discourses, & prettie posies, where after their tedious toyle, they came to their Inne, where Phemocles coulde neither eate meate for ioy, nor sléepe in his bedde for the pleasure he cōceiued of his trauell. ..”

From: Narbonus The Laberynth of Libertie
By Austin Saker, 1580

Word of the Day: SUDATE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin sudat-, past participial stem of sudare (to sweat)

EXAMPLE
“… Take five Wallenuttes with their shelles, glowe them in the fyere then proiecte them in a gobblet with oulde wine, cover the same least the vigor therof exhalate. Drincke then the Wine as warm as you may, & then rest theron, and cause yourselfe to be well deckede, because you might sudate, and it will helpe. …”

From: The Boock of Physicke
By Oswald Gaebelkhover
Translated by A.M., 1599

Word of the Day: COCKLEBELL

ETYMOLOGY
apparently originally from cock (an edible bivalve mollusc found on the coasts of Britain, probably a cockle, obs.) + bell

EXAMPLE (for n. 2)
“… My beard had sometimes yce on it as big as my little finger, my breath turning into many cock-bells as I walked…”

From: The Bargrave MS. Diary, 1645
in A Dictionary of the Kentish Dialect and Provincialisms in use in the County of Kent
By William Douglas Parish, & William Francis Shaw, 1887

Word of the Day: BELAMOUR

ETYMOLOGY
from French bel (fair) + amour (love)

EXAMPLE (for n. 1)
“… Loe loe how braue she decks her bounteous boure,
  With silken curtens and gold couerlets,
  Therein to shrowd her sumptuous Belamoure,
  Yet neither spinnes nor cardes, ne cares nor frets,
But to her mother Nature all her care she lets. …”

From: The Faerie Queene
By Edmund Spenser, 1590