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

Word of the Day: MALADIOUS

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

Word of the Day: SMICKER

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

Word of the Day: CLAPPERDUDGEON

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