Tag: 1880 – 1889

Word of the Day: PLISKY

ETYMOLOGY
of obscure origin

EXAMPLE (for n. 1.)
“… They ‘re fly’d at the heart, it’l be a black Bargain for poor Scotland: for the Engleses are owr auld farren for us, and there’s little Ground to think, they ‘ll gee
us a seen Vantage wee their will, they neer liked us sae well; and its naе forgotten yet, the foul Plisk they play’d us about our Caledonia Business; …”

From: The Scottish Antiquary Or Northern Notes and Queries
Volume XII, January 1898
A Copy of a Letter from a Country Farmer To His Laird, a Member of Parliament, 1706

Word of the Day: QUISBY

ETYMOLOGY
of uncertain origin;
possibly from quiz (n.) + -by

EXAMPLE
“… Alibi. What wou’d I do then?
Air. Aye, Sir, what wou’d you do then?
Soph. Cou’dn’t he push a little feeble old quisby like you down into a chair?
Alibi, How, pray?
Soph. Shew him how, Robin?
Air. Why there – (puts him into a chair) Just that way
Alibi. Well, now Old Quisby’s down in the chair – what wou’d he do then?…”

From: The Toy
By John O’Keeffe, 1789

Word of the Day: JIMJAMS

ETYMOLOGY
a reduplicated term, of which the elements are unknown;
from the mid 16th century – in the singular, originally denoted a knickknack or small article

EXAMPLE (for n. 1)
“… Andy Collins, an Irishman, who has lived alone in his cabin, about a mile below us, for a year or more, has been a hard drinker ever since we have known him. He bought his rum by the gallon and kept soaked all the time. Tuesday night he had a bad attack of the jim-jams, and his nearest neighbor, O’Neil, heard him yelling and shrieking like all possessed. …”

From: The Diary of a Forty-Niner
By Chauncey Canfield, 1906
Chapter XVI, February 1, 1852

Word of the Day: RUMBUSTICAL

ETYMOLOGY
possibly an alteration of rumbustious (boisterous, unruly);
or perhaps an alteration of obsolete English robustic (robust, robustious), 
from robust + -ic + -al

EXAMPLE
“… I will, your worship: but I am glad his honour, the Major, is not to be jocum tenus for your worship, he’s so much upon the roguish order with the women, now and ten. I did not care to mention it to your worship before; but as true as I’m alive he was a little rombustical to our Bridget, no longer ago than last Sunday was se’night, as she was coming home from church. …”

From: The Flitch of Bacon; a comic opera
By Henry Bate Dudley, 1779

Word of the Day: CHURLY

ETYMOLOGY
from churl +  -y

EXAMPLE
“… But all this while, the shop where Jonah sleeps,
Is tost, and torne, and batter’d on the deeps,
And well-nigh split upon the threatning Rock,
With many a boystrous brush, and churley knock.
God help all desp’rate voyagers, and keepe
All such, as feele thy wonders on the deepe. …”

From: Divine poems: containing the History of -Jonah. Ester. Job. Samson.; Sions – sonets. Elegies.
By Francis Quarles, 1638

Word of the Day: BUBBLY-JOCK

ETYMOLOGY
from bubbly (full of bubbles) + the Scots male forename Jock 

EXAMPLE (for n. 1.)
“… there was the turkey, whom the poetical Scott calls the bubbly-jock, gobbling in the distance, with a melodious gurgle as of an oboe played softly; …”

From: With Harp and Crown, A Novel
By Walter Besant and James Rice, 1800

Word of the Day: TROIL

ETYMOLOGY
vb.: from Old French troillier, truillier, treuiller, from Middle High German trüllen

EXAMPLE (for vb.)
“… Thus with treison and with trecherie · þow troiledest hem boþe,
And dudest hem breke [here] buxomnesse · þorw false by-heste;
Thus haddest þou hem oute · and hyder atte laste. …”

(Thus with treason and with treachery · thou troiledest them both,
And diddest them break their buxomness · through false byhest;
Thus haddest thou them out · and hither at the last.)

From: The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman
By William Langland, 1393