Tag: 1600 – 1699

Word of the Day: SESQUIHORAL

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin sesquihora (an hour and a half)

EXAMPLE
“…but the greater part of those that were commissionated with the Scot-Ecclesiastical approbation) their rancour and spleen being still more and more sharpned against the English Nation, they in their tedious pharisaical prayers before Supper, and Sesquihoral Graces upon a dish of Skink, and leg of Mutton, would so imbue the mindes of the poor swains (on whose charge they were) with vaticinations of help from heaven…”

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

Word of the Day: TONITRUATE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin tonitruare (to thunder)

EXAMPLE
“…I cannot fulminate or tonitruate words,
To puzzle intellects; my ninth lassaffords
No Lycophronian buskins, nor can strain
Garagantuan lines to gigantize thy vein;
Nor make a jusjurand, that thy great plays
Are tierra-del-fuegos or incognitas;
Thy Pegasus, in his admir’d career,
Curvets no caprioles of nonsense here…”

From: Panegyric to James Shirley’s Grateful Servant, (preface verses)
By Thomas Randolph, 1630

Word of the Day: POCULENT

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin poculentus (drinkable, suitable for drinking),
from poculum (a cup, a drinking vessel) + -lentus (-lent), after vinolentus (addicted to drinking wine)

EXAMPLE
“…As for radish and tarragon, and the like, they are for condiments, and not for nourishment. And even some of those herbs which are not esculent, are notwithstanding poculent; as hops, broom, &c…”

From: Sylva Sylvarum
By Francis Bacon, 1626

Word of the Day: DORMIOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin dormire (to sleep) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“…and the busie Bell-man bounced twice at the door, and as well the Champion as Soto began to grow dormious, which occasioned the Host to petition their present departure to bed, which (with heavie heads heaven knows) they went to…”

From: Don Zara del Fogo: a Mock-Romance
By Samuel Holland, 1656

Word of the Day: HYPEROCHALITY

ETYMOLOGY
from Greek ὑπέροχος (eminent, distinguished) + -al + -ity

EXAMPLE
“…correspondent to the Iron-Age of Prelats, so plague the Metropoliticality of York and Canterbury, and the Hyperocality of all the other Prelats, as I will never leave them, till I have sent them to the place where the two Fulmina Belli, Alexander the Great cries Mustard and Green Sauce, and where Julius Caesar plays Plato’s Ratcatcher…”

From: The Letany of Doctor Bastwick
By John Bastwick, 1637

Word of the Day: SPITTER-SPATTER

ETYMOLOGY
from spatter (to scatter or disperse in fragments)

EXAMPLE
“...Or when the court removes, or what’s a clock,
Or where’s the wind (or some such windy mock)
With such fine scimble, scemble, spitter-spatter,
As puts me clean besides the money-matter?
Thus with poor mongrel shifts, with what, where when?…”

From: A Kicksey Winsey: Or, A Lerry Come-Twang
By John Taylor, 1619

Word of the Day: AMBIFARIOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin ambifarius two-sided, of double meaning + -ous

EXAMPLE
“…The Bridegroom, with his Bride is brought,
To Bed with various Turn of Thought;
By Ruth, with ambifarious Jest:
To please them both, she thinks it best…”

From: Poems on Various Subjects,
By Thomas Sadler, 1766
The Unfortunate Batchelor, Or Wife’s Resentment