Word of the Day: MUNDICIDIOUS


ETYMOLOGY
from Latin mundus (world) + –cidious from –cida (killer)


EXAMPLE
“…Since I knew what to feare, my timerous heart hath dreaded three things: a blazing starre appearing in the aire: a State Comet, I mean a favourite rising in a Kingdome, a new Opinion spreading in Religion: these are Exorbitancies: which is a formidable word: a vacuum and an exorbitancy, are mundicidious evils…”

From: The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America
By Rev. Nathaniel Ward, 1647

Word of the Day: OPEN-TAIL


ETYMOLOGY
from open + tail (posterior extremity)


EXAMPLE
“…Kate still exclaimes against great Medlers,
A busie-body hardly she abides,
Yet she’s well pleas’d with all Bum-fiddlers,
And hir owne Body stirring still besides:
I muse her  stomacke  now so much should faile,
To loath a Medlar, being an Open-taile…”

From: The Scourge of Folly,
By John Davies, 1611

Word of the Day: COLLACHRYMATE


ETYMOLOGY
adj.: from Latin collacrimatus, pa. pple. of collacrimare;
vb. : from Latin collacrimat- ppl. stem of collacrimare, from col- (together) + lacrimāre (to shed tears, weep), from lacrima (tear)


EXAMPLE
“…A tormentor would collachrymate my case, and rather choose to have been tortured himself than torment me with ingratitude as thou dost…”

From: Christs teares ouer Ierusalem,
By Thomas Nashe, 1593

Word of the Day: THRASONIZE


ETYMOLOGY
from Latin Thrason-, Thraso Thraso, braggart soldier in the comedy Eunuchus by Terence


EXAMPLE
“…Warres austere God, with stout Achilles lance,
And wrinkled browes, doth Thrasonize it, rage:
Cornuted Phoebe, in her coach, doth prance:
Bacchus with grapes, doth stretch it on the stage:
Whiles this cup-saint, too lavish and profuse,
Embrews his temples in their liquid juice…”

From: ‘Ixions Wheele’ in Follie’s Anatomy,
By H. Hutton, 1619

Word of the Day: CYPRIAN


ETYMOLOGY
from Latin Cyprius (of Cyprus) + -an;
in French cyprien


EXAMPLE
“…Shall Curio streake his lims on his dayes couch,
In Sommer bower? and with bare groping touch
Incense his lust, consuming all the yeere
In  Cyprian dalliance, and in Belgick cheere?
Shall Faunus spend a hundred gallions,
Of Goates pure milke, to laue his stallions,
As much Rose iuyce? O bath! ô royall, rich
To scower Faunus, and his salt proude bitch!
…”

From: The Scourge of Villanie
By John Marston, 1598

Word of the Day: POTHERY


ETYMOLOGY
from pother (disturbance, turmoil, bustle; noise, tumult) + -y


EXAMPLE
“…Meer Heat and Cold are very different things from that Pothery and Sultry, that Frosty and Congealing Weather, which alternately in Summer and Winter, at the Line and the Poles we usually now feel….”

From: A New Theory of the Earth
By William Whiston, 1696

Word of the Day: CHARITATIVE


ETYMOLOGY
from Old French charitatif-ivecaritatif-ive, medieval Latin caritativus (charitable)


EXAMPLE
“…And  for  that  this  only  controversy  is  the  cause  of  this visitation,  I  do  mean  that  it  shall  be  merely  charitative,  and not  to  burden  the  clergy  of  any  procurations  as  yet;  and withal  not  to  trouble  your  lordship  much  longer  about  this matter  there,  than  you  shall  be  occasioned  otherwise  to  tarry for  the  speeding  of  the  visitation  of  the  church…”

From: The Remains of Edmund Grindal, 1843

Word of the Day: OBEDIBLE


ETYMOLOGY
from Latin oboedire (to obey) + -bilis (-ble)


EXAMPLE
“…though Spirits have nothing material in their nature which that fire should work upon, yet by the judgment of the Almighty Arbiter of the world, justly willing their torment, they may be made most sensible of pain, and, by the obedible submission of their created nature, wrought upon immediately by their appointed tortures; besides the very horrour which ariseth from the place whereto they are everlastingly confined?…”

From: Contemplations upon the Remarkable Passages in the Life of the Holy Jesus
By Joseph Hall, 1623