ETYMOLOGY
from Greek ἰδιωτικόν, neut. sing. of ἰδιωτικός (idiōtikos – private, unprofessional, ordinary);
taken in the sense of peculiar to oneself
EXAMPLE
“…The one Idea which gives the Tone to each play not seldom implied in the Titles, which deserve to be mentioned as an Idioticon of Shakespears…”
From: Coleridge’s Lectures 1808–19: On Literature, 1987
ETYMOLOGY
n. 1. a playful expansion of daffodilly. (from daffodil + -y);
n. 2: so called in Yorkshire from the slight similarity of the Greek name Daphne with Daffodil
EXAMPLE
“…Herbes, branchis & flowers for windowes & potts
• 1 Bayes, sowe or set in plants in Ianuarie.
• 2 Batchelers buttens,
• 3 Botles, blewe, red & tauney,
• 4 Collembines.
• 5 Campions.
• 6 Daffadondillies.
• 7 Eglantine, or swete bryer.
• 8 Fetherfewe.
• 9 Flower armour, sowe in Maye.
• 10 Flower deluce,
• 11 Flower gentil, whight & red.
• 12 Flower nyce.
• 13 Gelyflowers, red, whight & carnacions, set in Spring, & Heruest in potts, payles or tubs, or for sommer in bedds.
• 14 Holiokes, red, whight & carnacions.
• 15 Indian eye, sowe in Maye, or set in slips in March.
• 16 Lauender, of al sorts…”
From: Fiue Hundreth Points of Good Husbandry
By Thomas Tusser, 1573
ETYMOLOGY
from snug + -ery
EXAMPLE
“…“Here you will be quite to yourselves,” said Lady Clonbrony; “let me establish you comfortably in this, which I call my sanctuary – my snuggery – Colambre, that little table! …”
From: The Absentee
In Tales of Fashionable Life
By Maria Edgeworth, 1812
ETYMOLOGY
alteration of gobble
EXAMPLE
“…A dinner nice the oad folks have,”
At race-time, ollis ‘ood, –
That day, they had a toad-in-hole,
A dish that’s deadly gud
But when oad Styles to goffle it,
Bargun, he soon ded cry out: –
“Missus! I thinks as how, taa-day,
“Yow’ve put the meller’s eye out!…”
From: John Noakes & Mary Styles:
Or, “An Essex Calf’s” Visit to Tiptree Races
By Charles Clark, 1839
ETYMOLOGY
from quarter + cleft (n. and adj. split asunder)
EXAMPLE
“…It is the fashion to talk of Lord Ellenborough in contemptuous terms, as a mere nincompoop, or quartercliff, or what else you will, that implies feebleness of intellect and deficiency of talents; but those who so describe him either mistake his character, or wilfully misrepresent it…”
From: Fraser’s Magazine for Town and Country
Vol. IV. August, 1831 to January 1832
Parliamentary Eloquence, No. IV, House of Lords, by Oliver Yorke
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin plenus (full) + loquentia (talking)
PRONUNCIATION
plen-I-luh-kwuhns
EXAMPLE
“…Mr. Emerson, writing to his friend Carlyle, August 6, 1838, thanking him for his “friendliest seeking of friends for the poor oration” (“The American Scholar”) says: I have written and read a kind of sermon to the Senior Class of our Cambridge Theological School a fortnight ago; and an address to the Literary Societies of Dartmouth College, for though I hate American pleniloquence, I cannot easily say No to young men who bid me speak also. … The first, I hear, is very offensive. I will now try to hold my tongue till next winter…”
From: The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Nature addresses and Lectures
Notes, 1838
ETYMOLOGY
variant of rampageous, after adjectives ending in -acious
EXAMPLE
“…In the main street of Ipswich, on the left-hand side of the way, a short distance after you have passed through the open space fronting the Town Hall, stands an inn known far and wide by the appellation of the Great White Horse, rendered the more conspicuous by a stone statue of some rampacious animal with flowing mane and tail, distantly resembling an insane cart-horse, which is elevated above the principal door…”
From: The Pickwick Papers
By Charles Dickens, 1836
ETYMOLOGY
from silly (adj.) + -kin
EXAMPLE
“…In every small band, or knot of young thieves, there will always be found one or two sillikins, as they denominate those whom they can persuade to be foremost in any undertaking, by taunts of cowardice and threats of dissolving partnership…”
From: Fraser’s Magazine for Town and Country
Volume VI, August to Decemeber, 1832
The Schoolmaster’s Experience in Newgate
ETYMOLOGY
from smart (sharp physical pain) + -ful
EXAMPLE
“…What kind harted husband: can se his kind wife,
In like carefull case, without wo at his hart.
What naturall father can se: for his life,
His naturall childerne, in dread quake and start.
Without his hart smarting, in most smartfull smart.
I thinke, ye thinke none: and euin so thinke I.
Meruell not then: though the spider be toucht nie…”
From: The Spider and the Flie
By John Heywood, 1556
ETYMOLOGY
as if from Latin fremescentem, pr. pple. of fremescere,
freq. vb. from Latin fremere (to roar)
EXAMPLE
“… The tide advances; Syndic Roederer’s and all men’s straits grow straiter and straiter. Fremescent clangor comes from the armed Nationals in the Court; far and wide is the infinite hubbub of tongues …”
From: The French Revolution: A History
By Thomas Carlyle, 1837
Lexicophilia 