ETYMOLOGY
from Greek γελαστικός (gelastikos), from γελᾶν (to laugh)
EXAMPLE
“…or even exempt it from his unexcepting Censure and Undutiful Reflection against that Right Reverend Father of our Church, not without a Gelastick deference to so great a name, no more than without as high a Conception as possibly conceivable of the unappearing performances of so learned a Prelate…”
From: Athenae Britannicae:
Or, A Critical History of the Oxford and Cambridge Writers and Writings
By Myles Davies, 1716
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin ubique (wherever, anywhere, everywhere) + -arian
PRONUNCIATION
yoo-buh-KWAIR-ee-uhn
EXAMPLE (for adj. 1)
“…Tho’ detestable the place,
Mean the lodgings, small and base,
Tho’ the crowded hoy pours forth
Company of little worth,
Coach or chariot, tho’ there’s none,
Rattling thro’ the fishing town,
Yet, Maria, yet, my fair,
Happiness shalt find us here:
Happiness our friend shall be,
Ubiquerian deity!…”
From: The Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Chronicle
Volume XXXII, 1762
Happiness Every Where
Occasioned by a fair Lady’s condemning the Author’s choice of Margate, for a Place of Entertainment
ETYMOLOGY
from snuff + -y
EXAMPLE
“…I’m sure she makes a very Tarquinius Sextus of me, and all about this Serenade,—I protest and vow, incomparable Lady, I had begun the sweetest Speech to her—though I say’t, such Flowers of Rhetorick—’twou’d have been the very Nosegay of Eloquence, so it wou’d; and like an ungrateful illiterate Woman as she is, she left me in the very middle on’t, so snuffy I’ll warrant…”
From: Sir Patient Fancy
By Aphra Behn, 1678
ETYMOLOGY
from sober + the plural of side
EXAMPLE
“…I am sorry you have been again out of luck with a horse; but do not despair. I have got a sober sides on trial for a week past, but really & truly cannot make time to put him to the proof, & he stands idle in my stable, but hope as I have often, very often hoped before that I shall have more time the next week…”
From: The Selected Letters of Josiah Wedgwood, Feb, 1779
Edited by Anne Finer and George Savage, 1965
ETYMOLOGY
of uncertain origin;
perhaps from Scots mirl (to speckle, to spot),
with reference to the pattern seen before the eyes when in a state of dizziness + -igo
PRONUNCIATION
MUR-luh-gohz
EXAMPLE
“…Sure Major Weir, or some sic warlock wight,
Has flung beguilin’ glamer o’er your sight;
Or else some kittle cantrup thrown, I ween,
Has bound in mirlygoes my ain twa ein,
If ever aught frae sense cou’d be believ’d
(And seenil hae my senses been deceiv’d),
This moment, o’er the tap of Adam’s tomb,
Fu’ easy can I see your chiefest dome:
Nae corbie fleein’ there, nor croupin’ craws,
Seem to forspeak the ruin of thy haws,
But a’ your tow’rs in wonted order stand,
Steeve as the rocks that hem our native land….”
From: The Poems of Robert Fergusson
By Robert Fergusson, 1785
The Ghaists: A Kirk-yard Eclogue
ETYMOLOGY
from boast (vb.) + -ive
EXAMPLE
“…Of acid blood, proclaiming Want’s disease
Amidst the bloom of shew. The scanty stream,
Slow-loit’ring in its channel, seems to vie
With Vaga’s depth; but should the sedgy pow’r,
Vain-glorious, empty his penurious urn
O’er the rough rock, how must his fellow streams
Deride the tinklings of the boastive rill…”
From: The Poetical Works of William Shenstone, 1768
By William Shenstone, a1763
ETYMOLOGY
for adj.: of obscure origin
for n.1.: from teat () + -y
EXAMPLE
“…but if they loose, though it be but a trifle, two or three games at tables, or a dealing at Cards for 2d a game, they are so cholericke and tetty that no man may speake with them, and breake many times into violent passions, oaths, imprecations, and vnbeseeming speeches, little differing from mad men for the time…”
From: The Anatomy of Melancholy
By Robert Burton, 1621
ETYMOLOGY
from merry (adj.) + thought (n.)
‘The name alludes to the custom of two persons pulling the furcula of a fowl until it breaks; according to the popular notion, the one who gets the longer (in some districts, the shorter) piece will either be married sooner than the other, or will gain the fulfilment of any wish he may form at the moment.‘
EXAMPLE
“…Fetherstone. O youle make her sicker then.
Greeneshield. I warrant you; would all women thought no more hurt then thou doost now, sweet villaine, Kate, Kate.
Kate. I longd for the merry thought of a phesant.
Greeneshield. She talkes in her sleepe….”
From: North-ward Hoe
By Thomas Dekker & John Webster, 1607
ETYMOLOGY
from piss (vb.) + bed (n.),
from its diuretic property;
so French pissenlit (dandelion, bed-wetter)
EXAMPLE
“…Rosecampany; Maudlen, and Cost,
And London touft so red:
Agrimony and Lyons tooth,
That Chyldren call Pysbed…”
From: The Courte of Vertu
By John Hall, 1565
ETYMOLOGY
compound of dumble (similar to bumble) + dor (a buzzing flying insect)
EXAMPLE
“…I thank you for your poetry. What is the burnie-bee? Is it not the humble-bee, or what we call the ‘dumbledore‘ – a word whose descriptive droning deserves a place in song?…”
From: A Memoir of the Life and Writing of William Taylor
By John Warden Robberds, Sir Robert Southey, 1799
Lexicophilia 