ETYMOLOGY
from piss (vb.) + bed (n.),
from its diuretic property;
so French pissenlit (dandelion, bed-wetter)
EXAMPLE
“…Rosecampany; Maudlen, and Cost,
And London touft so red:
Agrimony and Lyons tooth,
That Chyldren call Pysbed…”
From: The Courte of Vertu
By John Hall, 1565
ETYMOLOGY
of uncertain origin
From the Oxford English Dictionary:
The form appears to suggest a French origin (compare pigeon n.), but French forms are first attested significantly later than the English word: compare †vigeon kind of West Indian duck (1667), †vingeon kind of duck observed in Madagascar (1690), kind of West Indian duck (1767 or earlier), Eurasian wigeon (Buffon 1783, also as †gingeon), American wigeon (J. Latham 1785), and it is even possible that the French word was borrowed < English.
PRONUNCIATION
WIJ-uhn
EXAMPLE (for n. 2)
“…Such as you shall like too: what say you to this young Gent. He is the widgen that wee must feed vpon…”
From: The Miseries of Inforst Mariage
By George Wilkins, 1607
ETYMOLOGY
from gutter + lane
EXAMPLE
“…All goeth down Gutter-lane (A small Lane in the City otherwise Guthurum lane.) Appliable to great Gluttons and Drunkards…”
From: Anglorum Speculum
By George Sandys, 1684
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin monti-, mons (mountain) + vagantem, pres. pple. of vagari (to roam) + -ant
EXAMPLE
“…Downward he speeds to mingle in the fray
As headlong rolls the torrent of the hills
When wintry storms montivagant outpour
Their pluvious treasures from the deep purloined…”
From: Rogvald: An Epic Poem
By John Fitzgerald Pennie, 1823
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin nequient-, nequiens, present participle of nequire (to be unable)
EXAMPLE
I am, and probably always will be, nequient in the musical arts.
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin utibilis, from utor (to use, employ)
EXAMPLE
“…Proposals by the Utible Society, for the Insurance on Marriages, by a weekly Dividend,
at the office, next door to the blue boar, over-against the half moon tavern in Aldersgate street…”
(Book title)
From: Example book title (above), ?1711
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin cruentus (bloody) + -ous
EXAMPLE
“…Thus a cruell and most cruentous civill war began which lasted neer upon foure yeers without intermission, wherin there happen’d more battailes, sieges and skirmishes, then passed in the Netherlands in fourescore yeers, and herein the Englishmen may be said to get som credit abroad in the world, that they have the same blood running in their veines (though not the same braines in their sculls) which their Ancestors had, who were observed to be the activest peeple in the field, impatient of delay, and most desirous of battaile then any Nation…”
From: A Venice Looking-Glasse
By J.B.C., 1648
ETYMOLOGY
from cormorant (a greedy or rapacious person)
EXAMPLE
“…There would be many money-cormorants, and their profit great….”
From: The Scales of Commerce and Trade
By Thomas Willsford, 1660
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin pedestr-, pedester, also pedestris (going on foot), in prose, prosaic
(from pedes a person who goes on foot
(from ped-, pēs (foot) + -es (after eques) + -ter + -al
PRONUNCIATION
puh-DESS-tree-uhl
EXAMPLE
“…For, the formall esteemed causes (which are pedestriall, equestriall, or nauti∣call) stand either at the disposition of the efficient; or pretend perfection and vse from the finall…”
From: An Essay of the Meanes Hovv to Make our Trauailes, into Forraine Countries,
the More Profitable and Honourable
By Sir Thomas Palmer, 1606
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin ardelio, from ardere (to burn, be eager or zealous)
EXAMPLE
“…we run, ride, take indefatigable pains, all up early, down late, striving to get that which we had better be without, (Ardelion’s busybodies as we are) it were much fitter for us to be quiet, sit still, and take our ease…”
From: The Anatomy of Melancholy
By Robert Burton, 1624
Lexicophilia 