ETYMOLOGY
from Latin dicterium (a witty saying, bon-mot), of uncertain origin
EXAMPLE
“…I took a snatch where I could get it; nay more, I railed at marriage downright, and in a public auditory, when I did interpret that sixth Satire of Juvenal, out of Plutarch and Seneca, I did heap up all the dicteries I could against women; but now recant with Stesichorus…”
From: The Anatomy of Melancholy
By Robert Burton, 1632
ETYMOLOGY
formed by compounding, from loose
EXAMPLE
“…His dam was for certain some loose clackt bitch or other; and he is so far from being tongue tyed, that he walks quite cantipodes to the precept here, see and say nothing…”
From: Confused Characters of Conceited Coxcombs:
Or, A Dish of Traitorous Tyrants
By K.W., 1661
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin parciloquium (speaking sparingly),
from parcus (sparing) + loqui (to speak)
EXAMPLE
She delivered a parciloquy to officially open the refurbished building.
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
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin mentition-, mentitio (lying, falsehood),
from mentit-, past participial stem of mentiri (to lie)+ -iō (-ion)
EXAMPLE
From childhood, she has never been good at mentition. Her face always turned bright red when she tried.
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
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
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
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
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin ante before + ambulat- ppl. stem of ambulare (to walk);
suggested by ante-ambulo (one whose business is to walk in front, an usher)
EXAMPLE
Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead.
Don’t anteambulate me, I may not follow.
Just walk beside me and be my friend.
Lexicophilia 