Tag: 1600 – 1699

Word of the Day: PEDESTRIAL

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

Word of the Day: ARDELIO

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

Word of the Day: ARGUITIVE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin arguit- ppl. stem of arguere + -ive, as if from Latin arguitivus (attacking or accusing)

EXAMPLE
“…But, as it is, the only knowledge of God to which the mind of man can naturally attain, is arguitive, being deduced from his cognitions of the creature; and therefore in the enunciation of the Thesis, the direct measure of the human intellect is restricted to finite Being…”

From: The Metaphysics of the School
By Thomas Harper, 1879

Word of the Day: IMMEMORIOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from im- + memorious

EXAMPLE
“…And we like wretches, carelesly oreseene
Neglecting all continuance of our good,
Of our owne birth haue immemorius beene,
And quite forgot the Nephewes of our blood,
And of neere kin are growne meere strāgers rather,
Almost forgetting we had all one father…”

From: Svvord and Buckler, or, Seruing-Mans Defence
By William Basse, 1602

Word of the Day: FROST-BRAINED

ETYMOLOGY
from frost + brained

EXAMPLE
“…MARTIANUS: Madam, we all have so importund him
Laying unto his judgement every thing
That might attract his sences to the crowne;
But he, frost-braind, will not be obtaind
To take upon him this Realmes government…”

From: No-Body and Some-Body, 1606
“Printed for John Trundle, and are to be sold
at his shop in Barbican, at the signe of No-body.”

Word of the Day: NOVANTIQUE

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin novus (new) + antique

EXAMPLE
“…yet as they will not counterbalance the weight of those other arguments that militate on the contrary side, so they will without any difficulty be answered by the assertors of this Novantique philosophy…”

From: Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality
By Ralph Cudworth, a1688

Word of the Day: IMAGINOUS

ETYMOLOGY
? from Latin imago, imaginem (image) + -ous,
or ? from imagine (vb.) + -ous

PRONUNCIATION
uh-MAJ-uh-nuhss

EXAMPLE
“…I oft haue heard there is a kind of cure
To fright a lingring Feuer from a man
By an  imaginous feare, which may be true,
For one heate (all know) doth driue out another,
One passion doth expell another still,
And therefore I will vse a fainde deuice
To kindle furie in her frozen Breast,
That rage may fire out griefe, and so restore her
To her most sociable selfe againe…”

From: Monsieur D’Oliue
By George Chapman, 1606