Tag: 1600 – 1699

Word of the Day: KUMBIX

ETYMOLOGY
from Greek kimbix (tightfisted person)

EXAMPLE
“… for hee that saith unto a rich and great monied man, that he will be his broker, and helpe him to some usurers of whom he may take up mony at interest; or unto a sober person, who drinketh nothing but water, that he is a drunkard, or hath taken his wine too liberally; or he that calleth a liberall man, well knowen to spend magnificently, and ready to pleasure all men, a base mechanicall kumbix, and a pinching peni-father; or he who threatneth a famous advocate or counsellor at the barre, who hath a great name for lawe and eloquence in all courts of plea, and besides for policie and government is in high authoritie, that he will bring him to a non-sute, or overthrow him judicially, he (I say) ministreth matter of good spirit and laughter unto the partie whom he seemeth so to chalenge or menace. …”

From: The Philosophie, Commonlie called, The Morals
By Plutarch
Translated by Philemon Holland, 1603

Word of the Day: CUMATICAL

ETYMOLOGY
from Greek κῡµατ- (wave) + -ic + -al. after Latin cumatilis (sea-coloured, blue)

EXAMPLE
“… A Prince blew.
Crimson, i.e. Scarlet.
Cumatical colour, i.e. blew.
Flesh colour, a certain mixture of red white.
Gangran colour, i.e. divers colours together, as in a Mallards, or Pigeons neck. …”

From: The Compleat Gentleman: fashioning him absolute in the most necessary and commendable qualities, concerning mind, or body, that may be required in a person of honor.
By Henry Peacham, 1661
An Exposition of Colours

Word of the Day: FIRE-FLAUGHT

ETYMOLOGY
from fire (n.) + flaught (a flash; a flash of lightning)

EXAMPLE (for n. 1.)
“… Bot lo, onon, a wonder thing to tell!
Ane huge bleys of flambys braid doun fell
Furth of the clowdis, at the left hand straucht,
In maner of a lychtnyng or fyre flaucht,
And dyd alicht rycht in the sammyn sted
Apon the crown of fair Lavinias hed; …”

From: The Æneid of Virgil
Translated by Gavin Douglas, a1522

Word of the Day: BY-WIPE

ETYMOLOGY
from by- + wipe (sarcastic reproof or rebuff)

EXAMPLE (for n. 1.)
“… Wherefore should ye begin with the devil’s name, descanting upon the number of your opponents? Wherefore that conceit of Legion with a by-wipe? Was it because you would have men take notice how you esteem them, whom through all your book so bountifully you call your brethren? We had not thought that Legion could have furnished the Remonstrant with so many brethren. …”

From: Animadversions upon the Remonstrants Defence Against Smectymnuus
By John Milton, 1641

Word of the Day: MEDISANCE

ETYMOLOGY
from French medisance, from mesdisant present participle of mesdire (to speak evil), from mes- (mis-) + dire (to say)

EXAMPLE
“… Let every one then make this good use of the respect and difference which is given to their persons or conditions; the taking upon them to discredit this so pernitious fashion of receiving (as justifyable Presents from their observers) the desamation of their brother; for when this humour of Medisance springeth in the head of the company, it runnes fluently into the lesse noble parts; but when it riseth first but in the inferior and dependent persons, it requireth a force of wit and ingeniosity to raise and diffuse it upward, which capacity is not very familiar: …”

From: Miscellanea Spiritualia: or, Devout Essaies
By Walter Montagu, 1648

Word of the Day: RORULENT

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin rorulentus (dewy); from ror-, ros (dew) + ‑ulentus (‑ulent)

EXAMPLE
“… Anaurus, no such River on Mount Ida, or within any part of the Trojan Territories,
Being only a Name given to any Current raised by Rain, and not sending up rorulent Steams or Vapors, as all or most Rivers do,
Yet apply’d as a Name to several Rivers, not properly, but to shew how they are qualifi’d like that unſteaming Current …“

From: The Tragedies of L. Annæus Seneca the Philosopher;
Translated by Sir Edward Sherburne, 1702

Word of the Day: VANQUISSANT

ETYMOLOGY
from obsolete French vainquissant, present participle of vainquir, a rare variant of vaincre (to conquer, overcome)

EXAMPLE
“… Full glad was Eromena to heare of such things, acknowledging her thankes to heaven for doing them in the favour of her girle. Congratulations she received not as a woman in child-bed, but as a Captaine vanquissant of a battel. Many times and often kissed shee her sweet babe, who without either crying or weeping, beheld stedfastly the faire light of the world; by no meanes possible would the sweet little one endure the swathing bands, but would with a lovely fiercenesse push them off her. …”

From: Eromena, or, Love and Revenge
Written originally in the Thoscan tongue, by Cavalier Giovanni Francesco Biondi
Translated by James Hayward, 1632

Word of the Day: PLENIPOTENT

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin plenipotens, plenipotent, from Latin pleni- (full) + potens (potent, powerful)

EXAMPLE (for adj.)
“… (being now grown by their rents and Lordly dignities, by their power over the Ministers and other liege’s, by their places in Parliament, Council, Session, Exchequer, and high Commission to a plenipotent dominion and greatness) they frame a book of Canons for ruling the Kirk and disposing upon religion at their pleasure. …”

From: The Remonstrance of the Nobility, Barrones, Burgesses, Ministers and Commons within the Kingdom of Scotland,
Church of Scotland. General Assembly, 1639

Word of the Day: BLOB-TALE

ETYMOLOGY
from blob, variant of blab (to talk indiscreetly) + tale

EXAMPLE
“… These Blob-tales, when they could find no other News to keep their Tongues in motion, laid open our Bishop for a Malignant, because he gave Entertainment at his Board, to such as carried a Grudge to the Lord Duke’s Prosperity; who, if such, came in their course to his House upon old acquaintance, but upon no factious design, that ever was proved. …”

From: Scrinia Reserata; a memorial offer’d to the great deservings of John Williams, D. D., who some time held the places of Ld Keeper of the Great Seal of England, Ld Bishop of Lincoln, and Ld Archbishop of York
By John Hacket, a1670