ETYMOLOGY
from tom (a male cat) + -ling
EXAMPLE
“…We are promised to succeed him a Black Tomling, whom I have named Prester John – that hierarch being the most remarkable black potentate whom I could call to mind. Long live Prester John! and may he be more fortunate than his predecessors, Othello and Pulcheria. …”
From: Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey
Edited by John Wood Warter, Vol. III, 1856
Letter from R.S. to G.C.B., April 29, 1821
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin quisquiliae (waste matter, refuse, rubbish) + ‑ous
EXAMPLE
“…He knows not what to say against them; and yet something must be said. They publish too much; more than used to be published: the science is overloaded by the quisquilious matter they rake together and preserve. They publish too soon; before they have taken the requisite time for digestion …”
From: Rationale of Judicial Evidence
By Jeremy Bentham, 1827
ETYMOLOGY
the element dod is evidently the same as in dodman (a shell-snail);
hoddy-dod, hoddy-doddy, & hodman-dod, are perhaps from nursery reduplications;
but the element hoddy- appears itself to have come to be associated to mean ‘snail’ (or ? horned);
for n. 2. (a cuckold) – with reference to the ‘horns’ of a cuckold
EXAMPLE (for n. 1.)
“…My living lieth here and there, of God’s grace,
Sometime with this good man, sometime in that place;
Sometime Lewis Loiterer biddeth me come near;
Somewhiles Watkin Waster maketh us good cheer;
Sometime Davy Diceplayer, when he hath well cast,
Keepeth revel-rout, as long as it will last;
Sometime Tom Titivile keepeth us a feast;
Sometime with Sir Hugh Pie I am a bidden guest;
Sometime at Nichol Neverthrive’s I get a sop;
Sometime I am feasted with Bryan Blinkinsop;
Sometime I hang on Hankyn Hoddydoddy’s sleeve;
But this day on Ralph Roister Doister’s, by his leave…”
From: Ralph Roister Doister,
By Nicholas Udall, a1556
ETYMOLOGY
from French Sacripant, from Italian Sacripante, a character in Boiardo’s Orlando innamorato
EXAMPLE
“…He is surprised by a nymph of exquisite loveliness, who vainly assails his constancy, and who is at length seized by the supervening Itifal, a Sacripant of knighthood. The adventures in general are spun out and interrupted by flat conversations…”
From: Historic Survey of German Poetry
By William Taylor, 1829
ETYMOLOGY
from zoo– + -philist; from Greek ϕίλος (loving, dear) + ‑ist
EXAMPLE
“…A foreigner in America has recently discovered a species of animal which is likely to become as great a favourite among our female zoophilists, and may, perhaps, in future, banish the lap-dog from the drawing-room and the bed-chamber…”
From: The London and Paris Observer:
Or Weekly Chronicle of News, Science, Literature, and the Fine Arts
Volume 5, 1829
ETYMOLOGY
apparently from Old French garbouille (confused mess, confusion, disorder), of uncertain and disputed origin;
From the O.E.D.: “it is likely that this word and the related garboil v. have been associated with garble v. and garble n., and probably regarded as variants of these”
EXAMPLE
“…and after long and mature debating off the mattar, forasmuch as itt appeared the Mayor to have ben a great sturrer of this garboyle, and to be a man that att sondry tymes hadde deluded wyth delayes the sayde commissioners whereby the matter cowlde grow to none ende…”
From: Selections from the Records of the City of Oxford
Edited by Willilam H, Turner, 1880
‘1543, May 22. Decree of the Privy Councell in the matters of Difference between the University and City.‘
ETYMOLOGY
from Mallie (= English Molly (a girl,. a woman)) + fuff (something easily blown about, a puff)
EXAMPLE
“…And what for should I not be early abroad if I have business? Am I like one of your windlestrae mallifuff madams that cannot stir from their arm-chair till they are drammed up with their green-tea?…”
From: Elizabeth de Bruce
By Christian Isobel Johnstone, 1827
ETYMOLOGY
from neb (the beak or bill of a bird) + -sie -sy
EXAMPLE
“…“I’ll tell you aboot Mark,: he said next time; ‘we’ll no be disturbed again till the men want their forenoon – that’s the drop whisky, you ken. Simon’s wife’s a nebsy clatterin’ body, but for a’ that, I wish ehre were mair like her…”
From: The Red Scaur
A Novel of Manners
By P. Anderson Graham, 1896
ETYMOLOGY
from kill (vb.) + buck (the male of several animals)
EXAMPLE
“…Tharsalio. Out, you young hedge-sparrow; learn to tread
afore you be fledge!
[He kicks her out.]
Well, have you done now, lady?
Arsace.. O, my sweet kilbuck!
Tharsalio. You now, in your shallow pate, think this a
disgrace to me; such a disgrace as is a battered helmet
on a soldier’s head; it doubles his resolution. Say, shall
I use thee?
Arsace. Use me?…”
From: The Widdowes Teares
By George Chapman, 1612
ETYMOLOGY
from Greek ὀψιγαµία (opsigamia, marriage late in life),
from ὀψίγαµ-ος (late-married),
formed on ὀψέ, ὀψι– (late) + γάµος (marriage)
EXAMPLE
“…Nor is there any danger of Donald’s being flogged for opsigamy by the Highland nymphs, as the Spartans were of old. Marriage is here as much matter of course as eating and drinking; and as the sexes are more truly balanced than in Arabia, no pining damsel need sing, “Oh what will I do for a man…”
From: The Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland
By John Macculloch, 1824
Lexicophilia 