Tag: 1700 – 1799

Word of the Day: SMUSS

ETYMOLOGY
from muss (a game in which small objects are thrown down to be scrambled for; a scramble);
the verb muss occurs in Lincolnshire dialect ( to scramble for, to take forcibly and by surprise)

EXAMPLE
“… because this their Cadet, from his very Cradle, had shewed so strong a Propension to hoarding, that being but five or six Years old, he denied himself the Enjoyment of such Knicknacks as were given him, and would scramble for and smuss those of other Children, his Play-fellows; yet was he so very careful and saving of his own, that he let his Fruit and Sweatmeats spoil and grow mouldy rather than he would eat them. …”

From: Histoire du Prince Titi,
A.R. The history of Prince Titi, a royal allegory
By Themiseul de Saint-Hyacinthe
Translated by Eliza Stanley, 1736

Word of the Day: HUNDRED-LEGS

ETYMOLOGY
from hundred + legs

EXAMPLE
“… They have also lizards three or four feet in length, and in great numbers; and also creatures called centipedes, or hundred legs, very venomous and troublesome. …”

From: The Beauties of Nature and Art
Displayed in a Tour Through the World
Volume X, 1774
Chapter I. Of South America
Sect. II. Animals

Word of the Day: FAM

ETYMOLOGY
short for famble;
for n. 4.: shortened from family

EXAMPLE (for n. 1.)
“… Jenny being very genteely dressed, he observed a Gentleman who was a very Rum Muns, (that is, a great Beau) who had a very Glim Star, (that is, a Ring) upon his Feme, (that is, Hand} which she longed to make, so giving the Hint to her Companions to Bulk the Muns forward, (that is, Push) they pushed him quite in; …”

From: Select trials at the Sessions-House in the Old-Bailey, for murder, robberies, rapes, sodomy, coining
From the year 1720, to this time. 1742
The following is a particular Account of the Transactions of the Life of Mary Young, alias Jenny Diver, &c. &c. &c.

Word of the Day: RHINOCERICAL

ETYMOLOGY
from rhinoceros + -ical

EXAMPLE (for adj. 1.)
“… Cheat. My lusty rustic, learn and be instructed. Cole is, in the language of the witty, money. The ready, the rhino ; thou shalt be rhinocerical, my lad, thou shalt.

Belf. Admirable, I swear ! Cole ! ready ! rhino ! rhinocerical ! Lord, how long may a man live in ignorance in the country. — And how much cole, ready, and rhino, shall I have? …”

From: The Squire of Alsatia. A comedy
By Thomas Shadwell, 1688

Word of the Day: MAGIRIST

ETYMOLOGY
from Greek µάγειρος (cook) + -ist

EXAMPLE
“… As no inhabitable Corner of the Earth ever was without a sufficient Medicinal Produce of it’s own for it’s Inhabitants, so the respective Natives never wanted a competent Number of their own, that made it their Business, to cultivate those several natural Physical Productions, and even to Carry on their Intelligence further therewith, so as to dive deeper into the Knowledge of all the Medicinals; that they could come any way to be acquainted with, or to know the Use of. And such were call’d at first variously pro re nata, as Magists, Magirists, Opsonarians, Caterers, Carvars, Nurserists, Geoponists, Hygeisys, Prophylactists, Remedists, Aliptists, Gymnastists, Unguentarians, Emplastrists, Veterinarians, Hippo-Jatrists, Mulomedicists. Operators, Herbalists, Botanists, Anatomists, Naturalists, Physicists, Medicinists, Myropolists, Ropopolists, …”

From: Athenæ Britannicæ; or, a critical history of the Oxford and Cambridge writers and writings
By Myles Davies, 1716

Word of the Day: BEFF

ETYMOLOGY
n. 1. possibly a variant of baff (a blow with anything flat or soft)
n. 2. possibly a variant of baff (a big, clumsy person)
vb. possibly a variant of beft (to strike, to give blows)

EXAMPLE (for n. 1.)
“… Ye shak your head, but o’ my fegs,
Ye’ve set auld Scota on her legs;
Lang had she lien wi’ beffs and flegs,
Bumbaz’d and dizzie,
Her fiddle wanted strings and pegs,
Wae’s me, poor hizzie. …”

From: Aberdeen Journal, June 1768
The Poems of Beattie
By James Beattie

Word of the Day: GRIZZLEDEMUNDY

ETYMOLOGY
from grizzle (to grin or laugh [Eng. dial.]) + ???

EXAMPLE
“… Bed-blonket akether! Ha! zey zitch a word more, chell cotton thy wastecoat. Chell thong tha, chell gi’ tha zitch a strat in tha chups, ya grizzledemundy. …”

From: The Gentleman’s Magazine
Volume 16, 1746
An Exmoor Scolding; In the Propriety and Decency of Exmoor Language, between two Sisters

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: CACODOX

ETYMOLOGY
from Greek κακόδοξος (kakodoxos) (of the wrong opinion)

EXAMPLE
“… But that Cacodox Alastor has not only abandon’d the true Principles of Reason and Religion, as identify’d with those of the Protestant Reformation and Church of England, but also those of their fore-Fathers of High-Church …”

From: Athenæ Britannicæ: or, A Critical History of the Oxford and Cambridge writers and writings
By Myles Davies, 1716