Tag: 1600 – 1699

Word of the Day: INCAUTELOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from in- + cautelous (cautious, wary)

EXAMPLE
“…The bold Physitian, too incautelous,
By those he cures, himselfe is murdered,
Kindnes infects, pitie is dangerous,
And the poore infant, yet not fully bred,
Thear where he should be borne, lies buried,
So the darke Prince, from his infernall cell,
Casts vp his griesly Torturers of hell,
And whets them to revenge, with this insulting spell….”

From: Christs Cictorie, and Triumph in Heauen, and Earth, Ouer, and After Death
By Giles Fletcher, 1610

Word of the Day: SWITCH-TAIL

ETYMOLOGY
from switch + tail

EXAMPLE 1 (for n.1)
“…she was observed to ride forth in a Cavalcade somewhat extraordinary pleasant , viz. a good rich Velvet Saddle, and fashionable upon a sorry Horse with a Switch-Tail that us’d to carry Lime, and not Ladies; A gentile Surtout or riding-Suit; with her Shoulders warmly wrapt up in a good White Serge whittle: A pretty handsome Commode of the newest fashion, upon which was gracefully plac’d a good homely Straw Hat, with a long Pole like a Sugar Loaf, so that Cit and Bumpkin seem’d never better met or set off since the Creation …”

From: The Adventures of the Helvetian Hero, with the Young Countess of Albania;
Or, The Amours of Armadorus and Vicentina: a Novel
Unknown author, 1694

EXAMPLE 2 (for n. 2.)
“…I can look a gangster in the eye and make him change his mind, but I can’t do a thing with a woman no more. At one time I had nine big switch-tail women on my personal payroll, and they all stole from me, picked me clean. Buzzards!

From: McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon
By Joseph Mitchell, 1943

Word of the Day: KITCHENIST

ETYMOLOGY
from kitchen (n.) + -ist

EXAMPLE
“…If, notwithstanding All that hath bin said,
TOBACCONISTS will still hold on their Trade,
And by their Practice still hold vp their Name,
Though Iewes, though Diuels, better suite the same;
I’le say no more but only This, of This:
Henceforth, let none whose meaner Lot it is
To liue in Smoak; Lime-burners, Alchymists,
Brick-makers, Brewers, Colliers, Kitchenists;
Let Salamanders, Swallowes, Bacon-stitches,
Red-Sprats, red-Herings, and like Chimnie-wretches,
Think no Disparagement, nor hold them base:
TOBACCONISTS their Companie will grace,
And teach them make a Vertue of Necessitie…”

From: Tobacco Battered; & the pipes shattered
By Josuah Sylvester, 1617

Word of the Day: HIRQUITALLIENCY

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin hirquitallire (of infants: to acquire a strong voice) [from hircus (he-goat)] + -ency

EXAMPLE
“…Here it was that passion was active, and action passive, they both being overcome by other, and each the conquerour. To speak of her hirquitalliency at the elevation of the pole of his microcosme, or of his luxuriousness to erect a gnomon on her horizontal dyal, will perhaps be held by some to be expressions full of obscoeness, and offensive to the purity of chaste ears; yet seeing she was to be his wife, and that she could not be such without consummation of marriage, which signifieth the same thing in effect, it may be thought, as definitiones logicae verificantur in rebus, if the exerced act be lawful, that the diction which suppones it, can be of no greater transgression, unless you would call it a solaecisme, or that vice in grammar which imports the copulating of the masculine with the feminine gender…”

From: Εκσκυβαλαυρον (Ekskybalauron – The Jewel )
By Sir Thomas Urquhart, 1652

Word of the Day: LACHRYMATE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin lacrimat-, past participial stem of lacrimare (to weep),  from lacrima (tear)

EXAMPLE
“…Whose cruell tortures did infest her heart:
For ev’ry one did taxe this Virgins Fate,
And her sad sorrowes caus’d them Lachrymate:
Since in her passions she was so extreame,
For to her griefe she limited no meane;
Which so surprest her, that she seem’d ro bee
The very abstract of calamity…”

From: A small treatise betwixt Arnalte and Lucenda
entituled The Evill-Intreated Lover, or The Mmelancholy Knight
By San Pedro de Diego
Translation by L. Lawrence, 1639

PRONUNCIATION
LACK-ruh-mayt

Word of the Day: RASCABILIAN

ETYMOLOGY
derived from rascabilia (rascals collectively)

EXAMPLE
“…Then next, I bequeath to the whole societie of these my carousing companions, as followeth: Namely, drinke, more drinke, a little more drinke, yet more drinke, then a little modicum of Bakers bread: then drinke againe, then more drinke, then yet a little more drinke, and so forth. Item, I appoint Arthur ale-man, the sole and onely Executor of this my last Testament, making Huf-cap the Hunts-man, and Small-braines the Shoomaker, my ioynt superuisers; allowing to euery of them, a full pipe of Tobacco for his paines taken that way. Witnesse hereunto, the whole Rascabilian rabblement of this our damnable Crew…”

From: Tobacco Tortured,
or, The filthie fume of tobacco refined shewing all sorts of subiects, that the inward taking of tobacco fumes, is very pernicious vnto their bodies.
By John Deacon, 1616

Word of the Day: INQUIROUS

ETYMOLOGY
from inquire + -ous

EXAMPLE
“…In our sixe dayes toile, traversing this Countrey, wee had many troubles and snarlings from these Savages; who somtimes over-laboured us with Bastinados, and were still inquirous, what I was, and whither I went; yea and enough for the Dragoman to save my life and liberty…”

From: The totall discourse, of the rare adventures, and painefull peregrinations of long nineteene yeares trauayles from Scotland, to the most famous kingdomes in Europe, Asia, and Affrica,
By William Lithgow, 1632

Word of the Day: REMORAL

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin remora (delay) + -al

EXAMPLE
“…Besides great Counsellors have their private, and their publique ends; and their private affections do oftentimes yield to their publique judgements, and make them remoral in their friends suits. And therefore noble natures will be rather thankful for good turns received, than ungrateful, that they enjoy not all their own hearts desire…”

From: Collectanea Curiosa; 
Or Miscellaneous Tracts, 
Relating to the History and Antiquities of England and Ireland,
John Gutch, 1781
An Apology for the late Lord Treasurer Sir Robert Cecill, Earl of Salisbury,
Written by Sir Walter Cope, a1625

Word of the Day: LASCIVIATE

ETYMOLOGY
irregular, from Latin lascivire, after verbs ending in -iate

EXAMPLE 1
“…A kemb’d Oration will cost both sweate, and the rubbing of the braine. And kemb’d I wish it, not frizzled, nor curl’d. Divinity should not lasciuiate, Vn-wormewooded jests I like well; but they are fitter for the Tauerne, then the Majesty of a Temple. Christ taught the People with Authoritie. Gravitie becomes the Pulpit. Demosthenes confest he became an Orator, by spending more Oyle then Wine…”

From: Resolves, a Duple Century
By Owen Felltham, 1628

EXAMPLE 2
“…But by his smile the Prophet means that the people would be reduced to such straits, that they might not lasciviate, as they had done, in their superstitions; for while the Israelites enjoyed prosperity, they thought everything lawful for them; hence their security, and hence their contempt of the word of the Lord…”

From: Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets.
By John Calvin.
Translation from the Original Latin by the Rev. John Owen, 1846

Word of the Day: AMARICATE

ETYMOLOGY
from late Latin amaricat- ppl. stem of amaricare (to make bitter, to irrritate, to anger),
from amarus (bitter) + -icare

EXAMPLE
“…But what vertue so cold I pray you is there in Opium, which shall make me sleep though unwilling, and hot enough? If the coldnesse of the vapours, why do wines after dinner provoke to sleep? whether therefore is there one identity of heat and cold to the procuring of sleep? why therefore is cold singularly attributed to Opium? why are not hot things equally reckon’d narcotick and dormitive? how doth opium amaricate? and amaritude in the schools predominating is accounted hot? Therefore it is of unavoidable necessity, that the schools should chuse one of these; to wit, either that the coldnesse of opium is not exceeding, and by consequence that Opium doth not produce sleep by his cold…”

From: Matæotechnia Medicinæ Praxeōs, The vanity of the craft of physick
By Noah Biggs, 1651