Tag: 1700 – 1799

Word of the Day: FORE-BUTTOCKS

ETYMOLOGY
from fore- (prefix) + buttock (n.)

EXAMPLE
“…Nothing in Nature is so lewd as Peg,
Yet, for the World, she would not shew her Leg!
While bashful Jenny, ev’n at Morning-Prayer,
Spreads her Fore-Buttocks to the Navel bare.
But diff’rent Taste in diff’rent Men prevails,
And one is fired by Heads, and one by Tails;
Some feel no Flames but at the Court or Ball,
And others hunt white Aprons in the Mall…”

From: Sober Advice from Horace: to the young gentlemen about town.
As deliver’d in his second sermon.
Imitated in the manner of Mr. Pope.
…as restored by the Rev’d. R. Bentley, 1734

Word of the Day: BILINGUOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin bilinguis (speaking two languages)
from bi- (two) + lingua (tongue, language) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“…Besides this, we having a Greek translation of this history and that of Manetho, by Eusebius and others, this manuscript, like the Rosetta stone, affords a bilinguous inscription, and serves, by its considerable number of proper names, more than any other, to decide upon Champollion’s hieroglyphical system…”

From: The Literary Gazette,
and Journal of the Belles Lettres, Art, Sciences, Etc. for the year 1828.
Saturday, July 19, 1828.
Literary and Learned.
Remarks upon an Egyptian History, in Egyptian Characters, 
in the Royal Museum at Turin….
By Dr. G. Seyffarth

Word of the Day: VIDENDA

ETYMOLOGY
Latin, plural of videndum, from videre (to see)

EXAMPLE
“…In my list, therefore, of Videnda at Lyons, this, tho’ last, – was not, you see, least; so taking a dozen or two of longer strides than usual cross my room, just whilst it passed my brain, I walked down calmly into the basse cour, in order to sally forth; and having called for my bill – as it was uncertain whether I should return to my inn, I had paid it – had moreover given the maid ten sous, and was just receiving the dernier compliments of Monsieur Le Blanc, for a pleasant voyage down the Rhône – when I was stopped at the gate…”

From: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
by Laurence Sterne, 1765

Word of the Day: HIRPLE

ETYMOLOGY
of unknown origin;
the coincidence in sound and sense with Greek ἕρπειν from ἕρπω (hérpō) (to move slowly),
is noticeable.

EXAMPLE
“…The bull: the beir: the bugill: and the bair:
The wodwys: vildcat: and the wild wolfyne:
The hardbakkit hurcheoun: and the hirpland hair:
Baith otter and aip: and pennit porcupyne.
The gukit gait: the selie scheip the swyne:
The bauer bakon and the balterand brok:
The fowmart, with the fyber furth can flok…”

From: The Morall Fabillis of Esope the Phrygian
“The taill of the sone & air of the forsaid foxe”
Robert Henryson, a1500

Word of the Day: TACITURNOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin taciturnus (taciturn) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“…The Legate was more taciturnous, and seldom entered into conversation with the Embassador, who, very prudently, forbore to ask questions about China in his presence…”

From: An Historical Account of the Embassy to the Emperor of China
By Earl George Macartney Macartney, 1797

Word of the Day: AGUERRIED

ETYMOLOGY
from French aguerri, (to accustom to war) + -ed

EXAMPLE
“…But, said he, we have an army to defend us in case of an invasion; an army maintain’d in time of peace, and the best aguerried of any troops in Europe that have never seen an enemy…”

From: Letters from a Persian in England to his Friend at Ispahan
By George Lyttelton, 1735

Word of the Day: GRACILENT

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin gracilentus (slender, thin),
from gracilis (gracile, gracefully slender) + -entus

EXAMPLE
“…his old  scratch-wig  awry,  and  his  garments  sadly  bespeaking wretchedness;  we  think  we  can  see  him, with  this  outward  repulsiveness  of  appearance,  sitting down  to  give  a  gracilent  opinion  of  the  canine species…”

From: The Ladies’ Repository
A Monthly Periodical Devoted to Literature and Religion, January, 1852
“Thoughts on a Canine Subject”
By James Pummill

Word of the Day: SITIBUND

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin sitibundus (thirsty),
from Latin sitio (to be thirsty) + abundo (to abound)

EXAMPLE
“…The spas of Germany turned the tide towards Kissingen, Wildbad, and Carlsbad; and now Vichy will be the Thule of the sitibund Britishers who like to drink mineral water in good company, and now learn that they are certain to find both in perfection at Vichy…”

From:
The Mineral Springs of Vichy
By Augustus Bozzi Granville, 1859

Word of the Day: FAMIGEROUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin famigerare; formed on fama (a being much talked about, report) + gerere (to carry)

EXAMPLE
“…Renowned Sir, I made bold to beautify and embellish this worthless contemned work I am upon, with the oriental lustre of your eminent and deservedly most famigerous name: for which presumption I intended to crave your pardon, and behold! I am prevented, not with your absolution only, but with a grateful acceptance…”

From: The Whole Works of the Rev. John Lightfoot
Edited by the Rev. John Rogers Pitman, Volume XIII. 1824
Letters to and from Doctor Lightfoot. Letter XXVII.