Tag: 1850 – 1859

Word of the Day: TAKY

ETYMOLOGY
from take (to catch the fancy or affection of; to excite a liking in; to captivate, delight, charm) + -y

EXAMPLE
“…Speaking thus, Mr. Blyth now proceeded to perform by one great effort those two difficult and delicate operations in art, technically described as “putting in taky touches, and bringing out bits of effect.” These arduous final processes, are, as all painters know, only to be accomplished through the medium of certain mystic bodily evolutions, …”

From: Hide and Seek,
By Wilkie Collins, Vol. I. 1854

Word of the Day: COCKYOLLY BIRD

ETYMOLOGY
probably from an extended form of cock (a mature male of the domestic chicken) + bird 

EXAMPLE
“…The artist’s occupation is gone henceforth, and the painter’s studio, like ‘all charms, must fly, at the mere touch of old philosophy.’ So Major Campbell prepares the charming little cockyoly birds, and I call the sun in to immortalize them. …”

From: Two Years Ago
By Charles Kingsley, 1857

Word of the Day: SACK-PANTS

ETYMOLOGY
from sack + pants

EXAMPLE
“…I left the brig at 10 ½ A.M. with but five dogs and a load so light as to be hardly felt. 
It required some suggestive incident to show us how we have gradually become assimilated in our habits to the necessities of our peculiar life. Such an incident I find in my equipment. Compare it with similar sledge outfits of last winter and you will see that we are more than half Esquimaux. It consists of —
1. One small sledge, five feet six by two.
2. An extra jumper and sack pants for sleeping.
3. A ball of raw walrus meat. This is all …”

From: Arctic Explorations:
The Second Grinnell Expedition
In Search of Sir John Franklin, 1853, ’54, ’55
Journey in Search of Hans. Tuesday Apr. 10.
By Elisha Kent Kane, 1856

Word of the Day: HODDY-DODDY

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

Word of the Day: PULCHRITUDINOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin pulchritudin-,  pulchritudo (beauty) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“…Returning to the pulchritudinous Fanny Newlove, she was reclining on a settee, listening with all her ears, to the ‘out pourings’ of a personage, whose appearance at once apprehended my attention, as indicative of anything except the clean potato …”

From: The Anglo-American Magazine
From July to December, 1854
Vol V, ‘The Purser’s Cabin’

PRONUNCIATION
pul-kruh-CHOO-duh-nuhss

Word of the Day: GYNOPHAGITE

ETYMOLOGY
from gyno– (combining form denoting female, woman) + Greek -ϕαγος (eating) + -ite

EXAMPLE
“…If our Ulysses, thus rejuvenated by his Minerva, has not fully made up his mind to make
a Penelope of Miss Jemima, all I can say is, that he is worse than Polyphemus, who was only an Anthropophagos; —
He preys upon the weaker sex, and is a Gynophagite!…”

From: My Novel
By Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1853

Word of the Day: BOKO

ETYMOLOGY
of unknown origin

EXAMPLE
“…I fell down, and they all capsized, turned turtle – heels up, nose down – every man Jack, one after the other, over each other’s legs. Never saw such a mix, A common-keeper, one of the lot, got a heavy oner on the boko for his share.’
‘Boys,’ said Mr. Hamblin, ‘who use slang come to the gallows. Boko is …’
‘Conk or boko,.’ said Nicolas the vulgar. ‘It’s all the same. Took it home in a bag made out of a picket-handkerchief.’…”

From: Time
A Monthly Miscellany of Interesting and Amusing Literature
Edited by Edmund Yates, Volume I, 1879
‘The Seamy Side’
By Walter Besant, and James Rice