Tag: 1600 – 1699

Word of the Day: BY-DWELLER

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

Word of the Day: TAWDRUM

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

Word of the Day: FASHIONAL

ETYMOLOGY
from fashion (n.) + -al

EXAMPLE
“… I ought you a letter in verse before by mine owne promise, & now that you thinke you have hedged in that debt by a greater by your letter in verse I thinke it now most seasonable and fashionall for mee to break. At least, to write presently were to accuse my selfe of not having read yours so often as such a letter deserves from you to mee. …”

From: Poems
By John Donne, 1633
‘Letters‘, a1607

Word of the Day: MORIENT

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin morientem, present participle of mori (to die), cognate with mors (death) and mortuus (dead)

EXAMPLE
“… we see him (saith he) in our Day, by Luther, Calvin, Perkins, &c. who unmask’d him; and he adds a 6th Period, to wit, Morient, saying, If we do not, yet our Posterity shall see him die, for God saith, that his day is coming, …”

From:  A Distinct Discourse and Discovery of the Person and Period of Antichrist
By Christopher Ness, 1679

Word of the Day: GRIMALKIN

ETYMOLOGY
? Shakespeare’s Gray-Malkin, in “Macbeth,” 1605 = Gray cat

EXAMPLE
“… Your Muses, th’one a Youth, and one an Infant,
Gaue me two Panegericks at one Instant:
The first Pen, the first line it pleas’d to walke in,
Did make my Art a Rat, and like Grimalkin,
Or a kinde needfull Vermin-coursing Cat.
By Art I play, but will not care your Rat.
I thanke you that you did so soone determine,
To Anagram my Art into a Vermine,
For which I vow, if e’re you keeps a Dayrie,
Of (now and then) a Cheese I will impaire yee. …”

From: All the vvorkes of Iohn Taylor the water-poet
By John Taylor, 1630

PRONUNCIATION
grim-AL-kin

Word of the Day: BLATEROON

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin blatero, -onem (babbler), from blaterare

EXAMPLE
“… I will endeavour to lose the memory of him, and that my thoughts may never run more upon the fashion of his face, which vou know he hath no cause to brag of; I hate such blateroons:
Odi illos ceu claustra Erebi
I thought good to give you this little mot of advice, because the Times are ticklish, of committing- secrets to anv, tho’ not to — Your most affectionate Friend to serve you,
j. H. …”

From: A New Volume of Letters
By James Howell, 1647

Word of the Day: ACCLAMATE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin acclamat-, past participial stem of acclamare (to praise publicly and enthusiastically, to applaud)

EXAMPLE
“… that but for shame hee had drawne the Roman legions out of Britain, and so timorous of weapons, that Tiridates riueted his sword to the sheath thereof, for his assurance (because hee would not vnknightly yeeld to goe vngirt, though it were vpon condition, to receiue the diadem of Armenia) was now notwithstanding, with as shrill, and ioyous showts acclamated Imperator, as if in person hee had conquered Armenia by the sword….”

From: Nero Caesar, or, Monarchie Depraved
By Edmund Bolton, 1624

Word of the Day: SWEET-BREASTED

ETYMOLOGY
from sweet + breasted (breast = a person’s singing voice, obs.)

EXAMPLE
“… I like his feather well: a proper man,
Of good discourse, fine conversation,
Valiant, and a great carrier of the businesse,
Sweet breasted, as the Nightingale, or Thrush:
Yet I must tell you; you forget your selfe,
My Lord Vitellies love, and maintenance
Deserves no other Jack ith’ box, but he:
What though he gather’d first the golden fruit,
And blew your pigges-coat up into a blister,
When you did wait at Court upon his mother;
Has he not wel provided for the barne?
Beside, what profit reap I by the other?
If you wil have me serve your pleasure, Lady,
Your pleasure must accommodate my service; …”

From: Comedies and Tragedies written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, 1647
“Love’s Cure, or The Martial Maid“, a1640