Tag: 1500 – 1599

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

Word of the Day: LEAN-WITTED

ETYMOLOGY
from lean (adj.) + witted (having wit)

EXAMPLE
“… A lunatike leane-witted foole,
Presuming on an agues priuiledge,
Darest with thy frozen admonition
Make pale our cheeke, chasing the royall bloud
With furie from his natiue residence.
Now by my seates right royall maiestie,
Wert thou not brother to great Edwards sonne,
This tong that runnes so roundly in thy head,
Should runne thy head from thy vnreuerent shoulders. …”

From: The Tragedie of King Richard the Second 
1st Quarto
By William Shakespeare, 1597

Word of the Day: CLIBBY

ETYMOLOGY
formed from Old English clibbor (sticky, adhesive); 
related to Old English clifian (to cleave, adhere)

EXAMPLE
“… Which tother spying well, hotly pursues his poynt,
And each proffred resistance, chops off ioynt by ioynt,
Threatning, insisting, striking, wounding, reuelling,
Till meeke disarm’d stilnes proclaim’d his conquering:
Then clibbie ladder gainst his battered flanck hereares,
And vp it him, and he it vp, slow scaling beares. …”

From: A Herrings Tayle
By Richard Carew, 1598

Word of the Day: LIRIPOOP

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin liripipium, leropipium, (explained in glosses as ‘tippet of a hood’, ‘cord’, ‘shoe-lace’, and ‘inner sole-leather of shoes’); 
no plausible etymology has been found; connection of the latter part with French pipe (pipe (n.)) is not unlikely;
the form loripipium, which suggests Latin lorum strap, is likely an etymologizing corruption

EXAMPLE (for n. 3)
“… I say againe, my horses:
Are ye so hot? have ye your private pilgrimages?
Must ye be Jumping-Jone? Ile wander with ye:
Ile jump ye, and Ile joggle ye: my horses;
And keep me this young Lirry-poope within dores,
I will discover, dame. …”

From: Comedies and Tragedies
By Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, 1647
The Pilgrim

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