Tag: 1600 – 1699

Word of the Day: DUPLE

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

Word of the Day: VIRIPOTENT

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)

Word of the Day: SWAG-BUTTOCKED

ETYMOLOGY
from swag (to move heavily from side to side or up and down) + buttock

EXAMPLE
“… Mag. Look you heare then.
Fra. O see, see — dat is de gross english Douck, for
de swagbuttock’d-wife of de Pesant.
Mag. How like you this then? There’s a Reverence
I warrant you. …”

From: Five new playes, (viz.) The Madd Couple Well matcht. Novella. Court begger. City witt. Damoiselle
The Damoiselle, Or The New Ordinary
By Richard Brome, 1653

Word of the Day: FERINE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin ferinus, from fera (wild beast)

EXAMPLE (for adj. 1)
“… Secondly there are brutish and unnaturall Desires, which the Philosopher calleth ferine and inhumane, instancing in those barbarous Countries, where they use to eat mens flesh and raw meat; and in the Woman who ripped up Women with childe that shee might eat their young ones: …”

From: A Treatise of the Passions and Faculties of the Soule of Man
By Edward Reynolds, 1640

Word of the Day: COVER-SLUT

ETYMOLOGY
from cover (to put or something over an object, with the effect of hiding from view or protecting) + slut (an untidy, dirty, or slovenly woman; a woman who is habitually careless, lazy, or negligent with regard to appearance, household cleanliness, etc.)

EXAMPLE
“… But as it is a sad thing that the grace of God pretended, should be used as a pander unto wantonness, so it is no less hateful, that the providence of God should be misapplied as a cover-slut of idleness, ignorance, and unconscionableness: for who knowes not that our life is so in Gods hand, as it is ordinarily preserved ro lost by the use or want of things proper thereto? even hunger if self would be certainly mortal, if not appeased by meat appropriated thereto by the appointment of God. …”

From: Natures explication and Helmont’s vindication.
Or A short and sure way to a long and sound life.
By George Starkey, 1658

Word of the Day: AMPUTE

ETYMOLOGY
from French amputer, from Latin amputare (to remove by cutting off)

EXAMPLE
“… The Blood of Christ, as purging away the guilt of sin, was represented in Circumsion as to be shed; but it is represented in Baptism as already shed, and applyed to the party baptized. The body of sin was represented in Circumcision under the notion of a superfluity to be amputed and cut off: ‘Tis represented in Baptism under the notion of a defilement or pollution, which is removed by washing. But the use of the one and the other in general was and is the same, namely to represent to the mind that way, and those means, by and through which the soul hath remission of sin, peace which God, and is brought to future Salvation. …”

From: An essay to revive the primitive doctrine and practice of Infant-Baptism
By Joseph Whiston, 1676

Word of the Day: NOCTIVAGANT

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin noctivagant-, noctivagans, present participle of noctivagare (to wander or roam about at night)

EXAMPLE
“…How should this make vs mourne like Doues, and groane like Turtles? The wilde Swallowes, our vnbridled Youngsters sing in the warme Chimneyes: the lusfull Sparrowes, noctiuagant Adulterers, sit cherping about our houses; the filching Iayes, Secret theeues, rob our Orchards; the Kite and the Cormorant, deuoure and hoord our fruits: and shall not among all these, the voyce of the Turtle be heard on our land, mourning for these sinfull rapines? …”

From: The Diuells Banket
By Thomas Adams, 1614

PRONUNCIATION
nock-TIV-uh-guhnt

Word of the Day: VERSIPELLOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin versipellis, from vers-, vertere (to turn) + pellis (skin)

EXAMPLE
“… The power, indeed, is in the witch, and not conferred by him; but this versipellous or Protean impostor – these are his words – will not suffer her to know that it is of her own natural endowment, though for the present charmed into somnolent inactivity by the narcotic of primitive sin. …”

From: The House By The Churchyard
By Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, 1863
Chapter V. How the Royal Irish Artillery Entertained some of the Neighbours at Dinner

Word of the Day: DEBLATERATE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin deblaterare transitive (to prate of, blab out), from de- + blaterare (to prate)

EXAMPLE
“… Robert Louis Stevenson, the traveler and author, writes: I conceived a great prejudice against missions in the South Seas, and I had no sooner come there than that prejudice was first reduced and then annihilated. Those who deblaterate against missions have only one thing to do, to come and see them on the spot. They will see a great deal of good done, and I believe, if they be honest persons, they will cease to complain of mission work and its effect. …”

From: What is a Christian and A Talk on Books,
By Henry Drummond, 1891
Thomas E. Watson “exposed”; an examination of his “Foreign missions exposed”.

Word of the Day: PERCULSIVE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin perculs-, past participial sterm of percellere (to upset, strike with consternation) + -ive

EXAMPLE
“… But grant that ONELY bee an alleuiating particle, yet it is so by comparison: and so is an OATH, a tryall of more ease, both to body and minde then are those other meanes by Rackes and tortures (vsuall in the Inquisition:) for as the peines are vnsufferable to flesh and blood, so haue they a very perculsiue force euen vpon the Soule, Nam & innocentes cogit mentiri door, saith the Stoicke, because in so many streights, of terrour, payne, hope, feare, nihil veritati loci relinquitur, as the Orator well obserued, (let Aelian speake of the Egyptians courage or insensiblenes what he will): men will say any thing (though most vnture) for ease and release from such pangs. …”

From: An Answer to a Catholike English-man
By William Barlow, 1609