ETYMOLOGY
some editors suggest “elf-skin” is a misprint for “eel-skin”
EXAMPLE
“… Zbloud you starueling, you elfskin, you dried neatstongue, you buls-pizzel, you stockefish: O for breath to vtter what is like thee, you tailers yard, you sheath, you bowcase, you vile standing tuck. …”
From: William Shakespeare, The Complete Works
Edited by Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor, 1986
The history of Henrie the Fourth. 1604
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin solivagus, from solus + vagari (to wander)
EXAMPLE
“… Other creatures live free and independent upon one another, except the young ones of some Creatures, while they can seek their Food and Preservation; and are either Solivagous and Hurtful, as Foxes, Wolves and Tigers, &c. or live promiscuously in Herds and Flocks, and are innocent Creatures as Sheep, Goats, &c. whereas Men live in Dependency one upon another, so as no Man can subsist of himself; …”
From: A Detection Of The Court and State Of England During The Four Last Reigns
and the Inter-Regnum.
By Roger Coke, 1697
The Reign of King Charles II. A. D. 1661
ETYMOLOGY
from lady + -kin
EXAMPLE
“… .In the time of Ieremie the land mourned for oathes, in our time it is to be wondred, that the land sinkes not to hell under the burden of this sinne: there is hardly one of an hundred that makes conscience of all oathes: they haue pettie oathes (as they account them) and coyne strange Gods to sweare by, the Masse, Ladikin, or Lakin, and much like grosse profanenesse they continually use without feare or wit: yet is cursing as ordinary as swearing, and drunkrnnesse comes not behind any of them, how generall it is, and how it hath, and doth infect, witnesse the ruine of many families, the pining and leane cheekes of many wiues and children, and the loathsome stinke of it in every corner. ..”
From: The Way to Blessednes a Treatise or Commentary, on the First Psalme
By Phineas Fletcher, 1632
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin credulus (ready to believe or trust) + -ist
EXAMPLE
“… the couetous Bashaw of Aleppo, the gouernor of those parts, are contented to beare with things euen contrary to the lawes of their Alcheron, impugning altogether the Godhead and incarnation of Christ: as the Iews against his pouerty and humiliation: & for great sums of mony, & annuall entrado, suffer stil diuers friers & religious persons to entertain pil∣grims, trauellers, ignorant deuotists, superstitious papists, and simple credulists, with impudent, lying, & deceitfull relicks …”
From: The Secretaries Studie Containing New Familiar Epistles
By Thomas Gainsford, 1616
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin pharmacopola, (from Greek ϕαρµακοπώλης (pharmakopoles) (dealer in drugs)) + -ist
EXAMPLE
“… That Science then, which enables men to look thorow the shop of medicine, the topick tabernacle of naturall powers, and teaches to unlock bodies that are shut, and to draw forth their hidden vertues, is not peculiar to the family of Pharmacopolists, nor truly is the Pharmaceutick part a hand-maid to it (as is the talk of ignorants) but is a powerfull Tecmarsis of naturall history.…”
From: Matæotechnia Medicinæ Praxeōs, The vanity of the craft of physick, or, A new dispensatory wherein is dissected the errors, ignorance, impostures and supinities of the schools in their main pillars of purges, blood-letting, fontanels or issues, and diet, &c., and the particular medicines of the shops
By Noah Biggs, 1651
ETYMOLOGY
from pleni- (full) + lunary (pert. to the moon), after Latin plenilunium (full moon)
EXAMPLE
“… whereunto if we adde the two Aegyptian dayes in every moneth, the interlunary and pleniluary exemptions, the Eclipses of Sunne and Moone, conjunctions and oppositions Planeticall, the houses of Planets, and the site of the Luminaries under the signes, (wherein some would induce a restraint of Purgation or Phlebotomy) there would arise aboue an hundred more; …”
From: Pseudodoxia Epidemica, or, Enquiries into very many received tenents and commonly presumed truths;
By Thomas Browne, 1646
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin sorbillat-, past participial stem of sorbillare (to sip)
EXAMPLE
She began to sorbillate her hot tea slowly to avoid burning her tongue.
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin versatilis (versatile) + -ous
EXAMPLE
“… But the grounds of Diuinity in this point in hand, are farre more demonstratiue and certaine, than that of Copernicus his Philosophy. For he can finde no certaine demonstration of the heauens motion, but that he can stoppe with his versatilous wit; no more then my braine, earthy as it is, can be moued to beleeue his earths motion. …”
From: Truth’s Triumph ouer Trent: or, The Great Gulfe betweene Sion and Babylon
By Henry Burton, 1629
ETYMOLOGY
from by- + dweller
EXAMPLE
“… Their number encreasing, and doings outragious, Sir Edmund Windam Knight, at that time high Shiriffe of the Shire, made proclamation among them in the Kings
name to depart, which if they did not foorthwith, he pronounced them Traitors, but had not his Horse beene the swifter, he had beene either taken or slain, thereupon their terror began to be fearefull, & themselues to be furnished with weapons, Armour, and Artillery, daily brought them in abundance by the By-dwellers, besides store of victuals to maintaine their Campe. ….”
From: The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of ye Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. Their originals, manners, warres, coines & seales…
By John Speed, 1611
ETYMOLOGY
from tawdry, with Latin ending -um
EXAMPLE
“… Young Woman, young Woman, this is no time to think of Trifles, and gew gaws; the best dress is that of Repentance, let your Conscience be clean and neat within, and no matter for Lace and Tawdrums; dress up your Soul I say. …”
From: The Revenge, or, A Match in Newgate a Comedy
Usually attributed to writer, Aphra Behn, 1680
Lexicophilia 