Tag: 1600 – 1699

Word of the Day: CALENT

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin calens, calentem present participle of calere (to be hot)

EXAMPLE
“… The Lion also is a signification of the Sun, for the hairs of his mane do resemble the streaming beams of the Sun, and therefore this constellation is styled with the same Epithets that the Lion and the Sun are, as heat-bearing, aestive, ardent, arent,
calent, hot, flammant, burning, Herculean, mad, horrible, dreadful, cruel, and terrible. It is feigned of the Poets, that this Lion was the Nemaean Lion slain by Hercules, which at the commandment of Juno was fostered in Arcadia, and that in anger against Hercules after his death, she placed him in the heavens. …”

From: The History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents describing at large their true and lively figure, their several names, conditions, kinds, virtues …
By Edward Topsell, 1607

Word of the Day: NUGATORIOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin nugatorius (frivolous, insignificant, worthless) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“… The tenet of the Catholick Church concerning Angels and Devils, that they are invisible spirits created of God in their own distinct substances separate from men, is nugatorious: that the Angels are only qualities and motions which God inspires into men, that the Devils are nothing but only boggles in the night to terrifie men arising from mens imaginations. …”

From: Anabaptism, the true fountaine of Independency, Brownisme, Antinomy, Familisme, and the most of the other errours, which for the time doe trouble the Church of England, vnsealed
By Robert Baillie, 1647

Word of the Day: SCOLOPENDRA

ETYMOLOGY
Latin, from Greek σκολόπενδρα (skolopendra) (centipede)

EXAMPLE (for n. 3.)
“… I have bought it gentlemen, and you in a mist
Shall see what I paid for it, thou hast not drunke yet:
Nere feare the reckning man, more wine , you varletts,
And call your Mistris, your Scolopendra
If we like her complexion, we may dine here. …”

From: The Gamester
By James Shirley, 1633

PRONUNCIATION
skol-oh-PEN-druh

Word of the Day: PREVIANT

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin praeviant-, praevians, present participle of præviare (to go before), 
from præ-, (pre-) + viare to travel

EXAMPLE
“… Thirdly, and most especially, because that God oftentimes pardoning the ignorance, which men have of Himselfe and the creature, doth so enlighten the heart with His Holy Spirit, that it is suddenly framed without any previant knowledge, to faith and obedience. …”

From: A Treatise Concerning the Trinitie in Unitie
By Alexander Gil, 1601

Word of the Day: OFFENCEFUL

ETYMOLOGY
from offence (n.) + -ful

EXAMPLE
” …Now will I let the little squire shift and cleanse himselfe without me, that he may be longer about fetching the Prouost, and in the meane time will I take my Masters sute (of which the little squire tooke note) and put it on my sweet heart Francischina, who shall presently come and sup ply my Masters place, with his Mistris; for the little squire amaz’d with his late affrights and this suddaine offencefull spectacle of his daughter, tooke no certaine note who it was that accosted her; for if he had, he would haue blam’d me for my Master, only the colour of his garment sticks in his fancie, which when he shall still see where he left it, he will still imagine the same person weares it, and thus shall his daughters honour and my Masters be preseru’d with the finest sugar of inuention. …”

From: May-Day A VVitty Comedie
By George Chapman, 1611

Word of the Day: INNOCENTIOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin innocentia (innocence)

EXAMPLE
“… To conclude, hee read vnto her so strict and austere a Lecture, concerning her base and debosht life, that from an impudent Strumpet, hee wrought her to be a repentant Conuertite. Her Brasen forhead melted at his fierie zeale, and all those skales of Immodestie (like a Maske plucked off) fell from her face, and shee appeared to him in her former simple and innocentious life. When further questioning with her of her birth and countrey, shee freely confessed vnto him, That shee was borne in the North countrey, her father a gentleman, once of faire Reuenue; but being impouerished by peeuish Suites in Law, her mother first, and hee (whether by age, or griefe, shee knew not) soone after died. …”

From: Γυναικεῖον [Gynaikeion]: or, Nine Bookes of Various History Concerninge Women
By Thomas Heywood, 1624

Word of the Day: MALEVOLO

ETYMOLOGY
from Italian malevolo, from Latin malevolus (enemy, foe, ill-wisher)

EXAMPLE
“… We had many pamphlets commended daily unto us, The integrity of a parliament; how that it could have no sinister end: as if a multitude could be void of knaves to contrive, and of fools to concur in mischief. Many plots were discovered daily against our religion and our laws, in which ye Machiavels of Westminster, ye Malevolos might have claimed the chiefest livery, as Beelzebub’s nearest attendants in that kind: but they must be fathered still upon our old justicers; and indeed they can do little, that cannot bely an enemy. …”

From: The British Bellman
Printed in the Year Of the Saints Fear. 1648

Word of the Day: TORY-RORY

ETYMOLOGY
Probably a reduplication (with consonant variation) of Tory (n.), perhaps after roary (loud, noisy, roaring)

EXAMPLE (for adj. 2.)
“… ‘Tis strange two of such different Tempers should so well agree: Methinks you look like two as roaring, ranting, tory rory Sparks as one would wish to meet withall. …”

From: Friendship in Fashion A Comedy
By Thomas Otway, 1678

Word of the Day: CHILD-GREAT

ETYMOLOGY
from child + great (big)

EXAMPLE
“… Swines-Bread, sovsed, doth not onely speed
A tardy Labour; but (without great heed)
If ouer it a Child-great Woman stride,
Instant abortion often doth betide.
The burning Sun, the banefull Aconite,
The poysonie Serpents that vnpeople quite
Cyrenian Desarts, neuer Danger them
That wear about them th’ Artemisian Stem. …”

From: Du Bartas his Deuine Weekes and Workes
By Guillaume de Saluste Du Bartas
Translated by Joshua Sylvester, 1605

Word of the Day: KELDER

ETYMOLOGY
from Dutch kelder a (cellar)

EXAMPLE
“… Angell of light, und darknesse too, I doubt,
Inspir’d within, and yet posses’d without.
Majestick twilight in the state of grace,
Yet with an excommunicated face.
Charles and his Mask are of a different mint,
A Psalme of mercy in a miscreant print.
The Sun wears Midnight, Day is beetle-brow’d,
And Lightning is in Keldar of a cloud. …”

From: The Character of a London-Diurnall with Severall Select Poems
By John Cleveland, 1647
“The Kings Disguise“