ETYMOLOGY
from malady (ill health, sickness, disease) + -ous;
or from French maladieux
EXAMPLE
“… Fro that tyme forth my sone began
To werke myracle gloriouse
He kyst oute feendis of many a man
Dume defe blynd lame all maladiouse
He made hem hole that to hym wan
And taught hem to be vertuouse
Vnto the temple went he than
Droue oute marchaunts of godds house …”
From: De Arte Lacrimandi (Harley MS.), a1450
Edited by Robert Max Garrett, 1909
ETYMOLOGY
from Old English smicer (possessing charm and attractive; beautiful)
EXAMPLE 1 (for adj. 1)
“… Þatt wollde ben effninng wiþþ Godd
Abufenn alle shaffte,
Þurrh whatt he fell off heffne dun
Inntill niþ hellepine,
& warrþ till atell defell þær
Off shene & smikerr enngell. …”
From: The Ormulum (Burchfield transcript), c1175
EXAMPLE 2 (for vb. 1)
“…Humph. This will not pass; for, though I’m stuft in the head, yet I can blow my Nose as well as another to smell things out. No, no, I see I may make love long enough before you smicker at me. You may e’en keep your Portion, I shall find my Land in the old Place. …”
From: The Man’s the Master, a comedy
By Sir William D’Avenant, 1668
ETYMOLOGY
apparently from clapper (the tongue of a bell) + dudgeon (hilt of a dagger):
the origin of the appellation is unknown.
John P. Collier (writer and scholar) suggests ‘from his knocking the clapdish (which beggars carried) with a knife or dudgeon’.
EXAMPLE
“… A pallyarde
These Palliards be called also Clapperdogens, these go with patched clokes, & haue their Morts with them, which they cal wiues and if he goe to one house to aske his almes, his wife shal goe to another, for what they get, as bread, cheese, malte, and well, they sel the same for redy money, for so they get more, and if they went together, although they be this deuided in the daie, yet they mete iompe at night. …”
From: A Caueat for Commen Cursetors vvlgarely called uagabones
By Thomas Harman, 1567
Note: the obsolete adjective definition is a general sense.
In mathematics, it is applied to the proportion of two quantities one of which is double of the other;
in music, it is applied to ‘time’ or rhythm having two beats in the bar.
ETYMOLOGY
Adj. and n.: from Latin duplus (double), from duo (two) + -plus, from root ple- (to fill);
Vb.: from Latin duplare (to double), from dupl-us (duple)
EXAMPLE (for vb.)
“… She mixd of Quick-silver a deadly weight,
That dupled force his murder hasten might.
Then while those baneful pots betwixt them strov,
The helpful swaying the hurtfuls bane out drov. …”
From: Enchiridium epigrammatum Latino-Anglicum:
An epitome of essais,
Englished out of Latin by Robert Vilvain, 1654
ETYMOLOGY
from Old French tenebrus, modern French tenebreux, Provencal tenebros,
Spanish, Italian tenebroso, from Latin tenebrosus (dark, gloomy)
EXAMPLE
“… The name of thys lady was callyd Prescience.
She neuer left Vyce, ne noon that wold hym folow,
Tyll they wer commyttyd by the diuine sentence
All to peyne perpetuell and infynyte sorow.
Ryghtwysnes went to see that no man shuld hem borow.
Thus all entretyd sharpely were they, tyll Cerberus
Had hem beshut withyn hys gates tenebrus. …”
From: The Assembly of Gods:
or, The Accord of Reason and Sensuality in the Fear of Death
By John Lydgate, c1420
PRONUNCIATION
TEN-uh-bruhss
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin periculosus (dangerous, full of danger), from periculum (danger, peril) + –osus (-ous)
EXAMPLE
“… That Saturn the enemy of life, comes almost every seventh year, unto the quadrate or malevolent place; that as the Moon about every seventh day arriveth unto a contrary sign, so Saturn, which remaineth about as many years, as the Moon doth daies in one sign, and holdeth the same consideration in years as the Moon in daies; doth cause these periculous periods. Which together with other Planets, and profection of the Horoscope, unto the seventh house, or opposite signs every seventh year; oppresseth living natures, and causeth observable mutations, in the state of sublunary things. …”
From: Pseudodoxia Epidemica,
Or, Enquiries Into Very Many Received Tenents, and Commonly Presumed Truths.
By Thomas Brown, 1650
Chapter XII Of the great Climacterical year, that is, Sixty three.
PRONUNCIATION
puh-RICK-yuh-luhss
ETYMOLOGY
? from bunger (? for bungler) + -ly
EXAMPLE (for adj.)
“… I saw her conferring with no worseman then Master Snagge. The bungerliest vearses they were that euer were scande, beeing most of them bought and cut off by the knees out of Virgill, and other Authors. …”
From: Haue vvith you to Saffron-vvalden. Or, Gabriell Harueys hunt is vp.
By Thomas Nashe, 1596
ETYMOLOGY
adj. 1: from Latin viripotent-, viripotens, from vir (man, husband) + potens (able)
adj. 2: from Latin viripotent-, viripotens, from vires (strength)
EXAMPLE
“… The king thus hauing vanquished and ouercome the Welshmen, placed garisons in sundrie townes & castels, where he thought most necessarie, and then returned to London with great triumph. Thither shortlie after came ambassadours from the emperour, requiring the kings daughter affianced (as before you haue heard) vnto him, and (being now viripotent or mariable) desired that she might be deliuered vnto them. …”
From: The first and second volumes of Chronicles. [vol. 3 (i.e. The Third Volume of Chronicles)] comprising 1 The description and historie of England, 2 The description and historie of Ireland, 3 The description and historie of Scotland:
First collected and published by Raphaell Holinshed, William Harrison, and others: now newlie augmented and continued (with manifold matters of singular note and worthie memorie) to the yeare 1586. by Iohn Hooker aliàs Vowell Gent and others.
Henrie the first, yoongest sonne to William the Conquerour. (Book Henry I)
ETYMOLOGY
irregular from jolly (adj.) + -ment
EXAMPLE
“… And therein sate a Ladie fresh and faire,
Making sweet solace to her selfe alone;
Sometimes she sung, as loud as larke in aire,
Sometimes she laught, that nigh her breth was gone,
Yet was there not with her else any one,
That might to her moue cause of meriment:
Matter of merth enough, though there were none
She could deuise, and thousand waies inuent,
To feede her foolish humour, and vaine iolliment. …”
From: The Faerie Queene
By Edmund Spenser, 1590
ETYMOLOGY
back formation from manqueller (a murderer), from man + queller (a person or thing who subdues someone or something)
EXAMPLE
“… At which wordes kyng Edward sayd nothyng, but with his hād thrust hym from hym (or as some say, stroke him with his gauntlet) whom incontinent, they that stode about, whiche were George duke of Clarence Rychard duke of Gloucester, Thomas Marques Dorset, and Williā lord Hastynges, sodaynly murthered, & pitiously manquelled. The bit ternesse of which murder, some of the actors, after in their latter dayes tested and assayed by the very rod of Iustice and punishment of God. …”
From: The vnion of the two Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre [and] Yorke
By Edward Hall, 1548
Lexicophilia 