Tag: 1600 – 1699

Word of the Day: ACCUSANT

ETYMOLOGY
from French accusant (n. person who accuses), (adj. that accuses)

PRONUNCIATION
uh-KYOO-zuhnt

EXAMPLE
“…The whole Councell beeing afterward called together, they gaue them-selues to the vnderstanding of the matter. As for the crime and the punishment, was of the accusant called vpon in these wordes: The Iudgement of death is due to this man, because hee hath done this or that. But the Defendant repelled it, with these wordes. The Iudgement of death is not due this man, because hee hath not done it, or because hee hath doone it righteously …”

From: A Defence of the Government Established in the Church of Englande
By John Bridges, 1587

Word of the Day: MACROBIAN

ETYMOLOGY
formed on Greek.µακρόβιος (long-lived (from µακρός (long) + βίος (life)) + -an

PRONUNCIATION
muh-KROH-bee-uhn

EXAMPLE
“…Nor did we think it more reasonable to doubt of the Transmogrification of the Macrobian Children into Swans, or that of the Men of Pallene in Thrace into Birds, as soon as they have bath’d themselves in the Tritonie Lake. After this the Devil a word we could get out of him but of Birds and Cages…”

From: The Fifth Book of The Works of Francis Rabelais, M.D.
Translated by Peter Anthony Motteux, 1694

Word of the Day: BIBITORY

ETYMOLOGY
from modern Latin bibitorius, from  bibit- ppl. stem of bibere (to drink)

EXAMPLE
“…The verdict does not favour total abstinence, though it is decidedly against bibitory indulgence. It was clear from the close study of the patient – who was so well-formed and healthy that hey may be regarded corporeally as a typical man – that alcohol was not necessary to him…”

From: The Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Chronicle
Volume 229, 1870
Notes and Incidents

Word of the Day: PISH

ETYMOLOGY
an imitative or expressive formation

EXAMPLE
“…Hoe! God, be here! on their bald, burnt, parchment pates. Pish, pish! what talke you of olde age or balde pates? Men and women that haue gone vnder the south pole, must lay of theyr furre night-caps in spyght of their teeth, and become yeomen of the vineger bottle…”

From: Pierce Penilesse, His Supplication to the Diuell
By Thomas Nashe, 1592

Word of the Day: VAGE

ETYMOLOGY
adj,: apparently from Italian vago

EXAMPLE
“…no doubt but better parts, finer colours, purer lights proportionably combined, cause a more excellent beautie, shew, and lustre: as the siner gold, the richer stones (if art bee correspondent) the more vage and beautifull iewell…”

From: The Passions of the Minde in Generall
By Thomas Wright, 1604

Word of the Day: TETTY

ETYMOLOGY
for adj.: of obscure origin
for n.1.: from teat () + -y 

EXAMPLE
“…but if they loose, though it be but a trifle, two or three games at tables, or a dealing at Cards for 2d a game, they are so cholericke and tetty that no man may speake with them, and breake many times into violent passions, oaths, imprecations, and vnbeseeming speeches, little differing from mad men for the time…”

From: The Anatomy of Melancholy
By Robert Burton, 1621

Word of the Day: STREPITATE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin strepitat-, ppl. stem of strepitare (to make a repeated noise),
frequentative of strepere (to make a noise)

EXAMPLE
“…It’s yet, I say, to be mentioned to Uncle Harcourt, who’ll blow a stout gale, I know, enough to wreck some of us, when it is mentioned. He’ll strepitate finely, to use one of his own great words…”

From: Farquhar Frankheart; Or, Incidents in the Introduction of Methodism into Yorkshire
By Farquhar Frankheart, 1860

Word of the Day: LIBENTIOUSLY

ETYMOLOGY
as if from libentious (from Latin libentia, from libentem, libens (willing)) + -ous + -ly

EXAMPLE
“…Most-what by Women, sillie Girles, youths, firie-wits, Ambitious,
By great, by needy Mal-Contents, by Credulous, and Vitious,
Work Romes Committees, & from flesh to fare much more delicious
Penance their Puples: whitest Sons these Seedsters and Seditious.
And, that for them libentiously Fooles-Catholike should erre,
Pensions, Canonizing at least, on Rome-wrights they conferre…”

From: A Continuance of Albions England
By William Warner, 1606