Tag: 1600 – 1699

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: MORBULENT

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin morbus (disease) + -ulent

EXAMPLE
“… they should apply such medicines as are suitable, and in such a Proportion as is most proper to assist Nature in the Discharging of the Malignant and Morbulent Matter; but never to clog and hinder its Motions by too many and useless doses. …”

From: The History of the Works of the Learned,
Or, An Impartial Account of Books Lately Printed in all parts of Europe.
Done by Several Hands, Volume VI
The Works of the Learned, for February 1704

Word of the Day: PIGRITIOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin pigritia (laziness, sluggishness, sloth) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“… Now if Stercus and Ʋrina can bee pickt out of the vanities of Cornelius Agrippa, it shal be thrown upon the purple robes of the Physician, by the ignorant or impudent. For Science hath no enemy but ignorance, nor is vilified among any except pigritious and impudent persons. Then let the ignorant prattle, still the Physitian shall be the instrument of all common good in a Republique, and if no valetudinarie man of any condition bee able to effect any solid good, either to his King, Countrie, or selfe, as he is not, and the power of restoring and healing him, bee given principally to the Phisician …”

From: The Tree of Humane Life, or, The Bloud of the Grape
By Tobias Whitaker, 1638

Word of the Day: ILLICENTIOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from il- + licentious (overstepping customary limits)

EXAMPLE
“… The Ciuile law, which is an abridgement, derogating many illicentious customes which grew by peruersnesse and corruptnesse of nature, and is termed Peculiar, vsed by one kind of people, called the the Imperiall Law. …”

From: Consuetudo, vel lex mercatoria, or The Ancient Law-merchant
 By Gerard de Malynes, 1622

Word of the Day: GULIST

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin gula (gullet, appetite, gluttony) + -ist

EXAMPLE
“… He that sell’s himselfe to the custome of disloyalty to his Creator, become’s ignorant of his offence; and, instead of correction, prove’s unskilfull in the knowledge of his sinne. The gluttonous satiety of our swelling Gulists, argue’s their necessity of offending by forgetfulnes: and their own abundance barr’s them frō the just weighing of the poverty of the distressed. The common drunkard cannot be taken with a due thanks-giving for that superfluity which he corrupt’s, from whence many thirstie soules might sucke a reasonable supply for necessity. …”

From: The Honor of Chastity
By John Featley, 1632

Word of the Day: LEGIFEROUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin legifer (law-giving); (from legi-, lex (law) + -fer (bearing, bringing)) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“… When both joynd issue to Entertaine the King
(Your Royall Grandfather of blessed memory)
Then did the issues of the Schollars braine
Put Ignoramus on’s Legiferous straine …”

From: Ignoramus. Or, The Academical Lawyer
By Ferdinando Parkhurst, 1662
in The Prologues and Epilogues of the Restoration 1660-1700
By Pierre Danchin, 1981

Word of the Day: TARDIGRADE

ETYMOLOGY
from French tardigrade (slow-paced) or from Latin tardigradus (walking slowly); from Latin tardus (slow) + -gradus (stepping, going)

EXAMPLE (for adj. 1)
“… Once more a cruelly long passage fell to my lot. The Deborah proved a marine hackney-coach of the most tardigrade order. But it could not be helped; so, like Diogenes, I resolved to be satisfied with my tub, and as for sunshine, I found it within and without! …”

From: Our Antipodes:
Or, Residence and Rambles in the Australasian Colonies.
By Lt. Colonel Godfrey Charles Mundy, 1852

Word of the Day: FROBLY-MOBLY

ETYMOLOGY
of unknown origin

EXAMPLE
“… If people felt but indifferently well, they said they were frobly-mobly; if they had swollen faces, they spoke of boun muns; if they were ready to faint, they said coath. …”

From: All The Year Round:
A Weekly Journal
Conducted by Charles Dickens, Jun.
Volume IV. From June 4, to November 26, 1870
‘In the Provinces ‘

Word of the Day: THINKATIVE

ETYMOLOGY
from think (vb.) + -ative, chiefly after talkative

EXAMPLE
“… They have not known I say, that the knowledge of Observation, doth not introduce an understanding into the essential thingliness of a thing, but erecteth only a thinkative knowledge: For otherwise, the understanding should perceive causes that are before in essence. Then also they have been deceived by the simplicity of the Water, which simpleness they have confounded with the unity of knowledge to us unknown. …”

From: Oriatrike or, Physick Refined
By Jean Baptiste van Helmont
Translated by J. Chandler, 1662

Word of the Day: ILL-LOOKING

ETYMOLOGY
from ill (adj.) or (adv.) + looking, present participle of look (vb.)

EXAMPLE
“… That gawdy eare-wrig, or my lord your patron,
Whose pensioner you are. — I ‘le teare thy throat out,
Sonme of a cat, ill-looking hounds-head, rip up
Thy ulcerous maw, if I but scent a paper,
A scroll, but halfe as big as what can cover
A wart upon thy nose, a spot, a pimple,
Directed to my lady: it may prove
A mysticall preparative to lewdnesse. …”

From: The Broken Heart
By John Ford, 1633