Tag: 1880 – 1889

Word of the Day: MICRONYMY

ETYMOLOGY
from Greek µῑκρός (small) + ὄνυµα (name), ὄνοµα, after synonymy, etc.

EXAMPLE
“…Astronomers have set an example in micronymy that anatomists might well fellow; the first asteroid discovered was named Ceres, and many of its successors have dissyllabic or, at most, trisyllabic names. This is the more noteworthy, because, in the first place, these bodies are not, and are hardly likely to become objects of popular discussion; and, secondly, each has its assigned numeric symbol, so that the professional astronomer need not employ the names at all. Now that the choice is offered, the anatomist who deliberately says aponeurosis for fascia, anfractuosity for fissure, and convolution for gyre, runs the risk of association, in the minds of others at least equally well-informed with the “penny-a-liner.” or the village orator who distinctly prefer conflagration to fire …”

From: A Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences
Edited by Albert H. Buck, 1889

Word of the Day: COCKAPERT

ETYMOLOGY
seemingly an alteration of malapert (adj.) after cock (a mature male of the domestic chicken)

EXAMPLE
for adj.

“…Which is terbox to your side: for out of dout,
Your cockapert pride: and your couetous harts.
Haue brought: more than three parts of our ils about.
Your rude rebelins disobedient parts:
Much vnto our (and much more to your own) smarts:
Kicking and wincing at euery good order,
Hath distroide good order in euery border…”

From: The Spider and the Flie
By John Heywood, 1556

for n.

“… I could tell he was cross about something. I didn’t think the blisters were enough to account for it; he’d suffered them for days without complaint. We got under the quilt and I pulled the coverlet over our heads. In the dark I could watch him but he couldn’t see me. There was a strong scent of sweet balm from the foot salve. I said, “I heard about Sire … Lackadaisy, or or Lapscallion – the cockapert who insulted you. Are you still hungry at him?…”

From: Wildfire: A Novel
By Sarah Wicklem, 2009

Word of the Day: NICELING

ETYMOLOGY
from nice (adj.) + -ling

EXAMPLES
(for n.1.)
“…Whether a man loue God purely, the pleasures of this worlde dooe trye, but muche more doeth the hurly burly of affliccions. And it is in vs, that being furnyshed with the helping ayde of God, we maye nether become tendre nycelynges through vayne pleasures, ne moued with terrible turmoylinges …”

From: The seconde tome or volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the Newe Testament
Desiderius Erasmus
Translation by Miles Coverdale et al, 1549

(for n. 2.)
“…Why, I was showing you what nicelings and delicates my father was bringing, and what I had thought to say was this: that he may have this for one, and that for the other, and many a one proud to be remembered (as I shall be if he thinks of me), but this that I know he is bringing for little Bess Hall is something worth all of these, for it is nothing less than the whole love of his heart…”

From: Judith Shakespeare: Her love affairs and Other Adventures
By William Black, 1884

Word of the Day: NUM-CUMPUS

ETYMOLOGY
dialect corruption of non compos mentis (not of sound mind)

EXAMPLE
“…Sa like a graät num-cumpus I blubber’d awaäy o ‘ the bed-
” Weänt niver do it naw moor; an ‘ Sally loookt up an ‘ she said ,
” I’ll upowd it tha weänt ; thou’rt laike the rest o ‘ the men,
Thou’ll goä sniffin ‘ about the tap till tha does it agëan.
Theer’s thy hennemy, man, an’ I knaws, as knaws tha sa well,
That, if tha seeäs ’im an’ smells ’im tha’ll foller ’im slick into Hell…”

From: The Complete Poetical Works of Alfred Tennyson, 1882
Ballads and Other Poems
‘The Northern Cobbler’

Word of the Day: PODGER

ETYMOLOGY
for n. 1. – a variant of pottinger
for n. 2, 3, 4 – from podge (anything short or thick)  + ‑er 

EXAMPLE
“…He cannot deal the knock-me-down blows of Old Brough, and if you watch your opportunity you may give him a podger. I am seldom in a cause of any consequence before him without getting into some squabble with him…”

From: Life of John, Lord Campbell, 1881,
Letter dated 9 March, 1816

Word of the Day: THEFTUOUS

ETYMOLOGY
alteration (influenced by -uous) of Middle English thiftwis,
from thifte (theft) + wis (wise)

PRONUNCIATION
THEFF-tyoo-uhss

EXAMPLE
“…It is declared, that whosoever intercommuns with Thieves, or assists them in their theftous stealings, or deeds, either in going, or coming, or gives them meat, harbour, or assistance, or trysts with them any manner of way, they shall be pursued, either Civilly, or Criminally; but this act strikes not against such as have entertained the Thief any considerable time, after the committing of the Theft, and before Letters of Intercommuning were execute…”

From: The Laws and Customes of Scotland
By Sir George Mackenzie, 1678

Word of the Day: TISTY-TOSTY

ETYMOLOGY
for int.: perhaps a mere ejaculation
for n. 2.: it has been compared with obsolete tyte tust(e) or obsolete tussemose (a nosegay)

EXAMPLE
“…And now I wil daunce, now wil I praunce,
For why I haue none other woork:
Snip snap Butter is no bone meat:
Knaues flesh is no Porke.
Hey tisty tosty an Ole is a bird,
Iack a napes hath an olde face:
You may beleeue me at one bare woord,
how like you this mery cace?…”

From: A Pleasant Enterlude, Intituled, Like Will to Like Quoth the Deuill to the Collier
By Ulpian Fulwell, 1568

Word of the Day: COB-CASTLE

ETYMOLOGY
? from cob (a big man, a great man, a leading man) + castle

EXAMPLE
“…’Twixt the wood and the castle they see at high water
The storm, the place makes it a dangerous matter;
And besides, upon such a steep rock it is founded,
As would break a man’s neck, should he’scape being drowned:
Perhaps though in time one may make them to yield,
But ’tis prettiest Cob-castle e’er I beheld…”

From: Poems on Several Occasions written by Charles Cotton, 1689
A Voyage to Ireland in Burlesque

Word of the Day: SNUFFY

ETYMOLOGY
from snuff + -y

EXAMPLE
“…I’m sure she makes a very Tarquinius Sextus of me, and all about this Serenade,—I protest and vow, incomparable Lady, I had begun the sweetest Speech to her—though I say’t, such Flowers of Rhetorick—’twou’d have been the very Nosegay of Eloquence, so it wou’d; and like an ungrateful illiterate Woman as she is, she left me in the very middle on’t, so snuffy I’ll warrant…”

From: Sir Patient Fancy
By Aphra Behn, 1678