Daily Word Quiz
 
HIPSY-DIPSY
a) a lame person
b) a castigation; a slap on the buttocks
c) a horse-drawn vehicle
d) a thing of very little value
 
Answer below.
  
Today's Featured Word
DUBITATIVE
 
ADJ.
inclined or given to doubt; expressing doubt or hesitancy;
doubting, uncertain ...1727
 
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin dubitativus doubtful, from dubitare to doubt
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1727 - "Conjunctions dubitative, those which express some doubt, or suspension of opinion..."
From: Cyclopaedia: Or An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences
By: Ephraim Chambers, 1727
 
EXAMPLE
"...turning his head on one side in a dubitative manner..."
 From: Adam Bede
By: George Eliot, 1859
 

Daily Word Quiz Answer
 
HIPSY-DIPSY
​b) a castigation; a slap on the buttocks ...1881 Sc. & N. Eng. dial.
 

Daily Word Quiz
 
DUNDUCKITY
a) of long continuance, lasting, enduring
b) somewhat ill, indisposed
c) of an undecided, dull colour
d) bewildered, confused
 
Answer below.
 
 Today's Featured Word
LIMMER
 
ADJ.
knavish, scoundrelly, roguish, rascally ...1500-20 Sc. & N. Eng. dial.
 
NOUN
1. a rogue, a rascal, a knave, a scoundrel
...1456 obs. exc. Sc. & N. Eng. dial.
2. an unchaste, loose, or immoral woman; a mistress, a prostitute
...1566 Sc. & N. Eng. dial.
3. a sarcastic or contemptuous term for any female ...1720 Sc.
4. a malevolent or mischievous woman ...1752 Sc.
5. a wild, undisciplined girl; a bold, impudent girl or woman;
a jade, a hussy ...1786 Sc.
6. a mischievous boy ...1880 Sc.
 
ETYMOLOGY
Old Scot. lymmar a rogue
of obscure origin;
connection with 'limb' possible
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1456 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...As gif ane unworthy lymmare that settis nocht for honour bot for pillery, had tane a blynd man..."
 From: The Buke of the Law of Armys
By: Sir. G. Haye, 1456

 
Daily Word Quiz Answer
 
DUNDUCKITY
c) of an undecided, dull colour ...19C Eng. dial.

Daily Word Quiz
 
BLUE-PIPE
a) the lilac
b) a bullet
c) illegal whisky
d) a deep hole in a river
 
Answer below.
  
Today's Featured Word
CONCLUDENT
 
ADJ.
that 'concludes' a question or an opponent; conclusive,
decisive, convincing; final, certain ...1571 obs.
 
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin concludentem, pr. pple. of concludere to conclude
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1571 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...and then I thought, when I read it, that his arguments were never concludent, but always I found more in the conclusion..."
From: Letters to Archbishop Grindal
Letter LXVII to Archbishop Parker, Aug. 28, 1571

 
Daily Word Quiz Answer
 
BLUE-PIPE
​a) the lilac ...1597 obs.

Daily Word Quiz 

WARM-POCKETED
a) having an excitable temperament
b) intoxicated with alcohol
c) rich, well-to-do
d) lewd, lascivious, wanton

Answer below.

Today's Featured Word
SHARE-PENNY

NOUN
one who would shear a penny; a mean person of the worst kind;
a niggard, a miser ...1606 obs. rare

ETYMOLOGY
from share (vb.) to cut into parts; to cut off (obs.)

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1606 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...for Ile goe neere to cosen olde father share-penny of his daughter."
From: Wily Beguiled, 1606


Daily Word Quiz Answer

WARM-POCKETED
c) rich, well-to-do ...1899 Eng. dial.

Daily Word Quiz
 
SHOGGY
a) shaky, insecure
b) shameful, disgraceful
c) dishonest, cheating
d) infatuated, obsessed with
 
Answer below.
 
 Today's Featured Word
NIGNAY
also NIGNAW, NIGNOY, NIG-NYE
 
NOUN
1. a knickknack, a trinket, a trifle; a trifling, useless thing or proceeding;
an unnecessary ornament or frill, a gewgaw ...a1689 Sc.
 
2. a quarrelsome hypercritical person; one who picks faults ...1920 Sc.
 
VERB
to trifle, to fuss about, to work without result; to hum and haw, to be undecided, to vacillate; to do what is useless; to show reluctance ...1880 Sc.
 
ETYMOLOGY
of obscure formation; probably an arbitrary formation based on such words as nick-nack, etc.
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
a1689 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...He was not for the French nig nayes,
But briskly to his brethren says;
Good gentlemen, we may not doubt..."
From: A Collection of Several Poems and Verses
By: William Cleland, a1689

 
Daily Word Quiz Answer
 
SHOGGY
​a) shaky, insecure ...1866

Daily Word Quiz
 
RYE-MOUSE
a) a field mouse
b) illegal whisky
c) a timid person
d) a bat
 
Answer below.
 
Today's Featured Word
JOLLOCK
 
ADJ.
jolly, fat, hearty, and healthy ...1824 Sc.
 
VERB
to jolt, to bump ...19C Eng. dial.
 
ETYMOLOGY
For adj: a nonce variant of jolly with substitution of 'ock' for 'y'
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
? 1824 as below
 
EXAMPLE
"...And bicker through the glens sae deep,
Fu' jollock, blythe, and swankie,
Right cheels that day."
 From: Cannlesmas Day
'Written by a youth of 15'
In: The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopaedia
By: John Mactaggart, 1824
 
 
Daily Word Quiz Answer
 
RYE-MOUSE
​d) a bat ...1777 Eng. dial.

Daily Word Quiz
 
NICEBICE
a) a dainty, fine, or fashionable girl or woman
b) a cigarette
c) the testicles
d) the nape of the neck
 
Answer below.
 
Today's Featured Word
EMPOVER
 
VERB
to impoverish, to make poor ...1474 obs. rare
 
ETYMOLOGY
from Old French enpoverir to impoverish
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1474 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...How torne they the lawe and statutes at their plesure how ete they the peple how empouere they the comynte."
 From: The Game and Playe of the Chesse
By: William Caxton, 1474
 

Daily Word Quiz Answer
 
NICEBICE
​a) a dainty, fine, or fashionable girl or woman ...1595 obs. rare
 

Daily Word Quiz
 
KANAKALAND
a) Hawaii
b) Queensland, Australia
c) New Guinea
d) Cook Islands
 
Answer below.
  
Today's Featured Word
ALACRIATE
 
VERB
to make cheerful and lively; to excite; to rouse to action;
to encourage; to embolden ...1657 obs. rare
 
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin alacris active, lively, cheerful + -ate
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1657 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...and all to allacriate the spirit of Man."
From: A Medicinal Dispensatory: Containing the Whole Body of Physick
Composed by: the Illustrious Renodaeus
Translated and Revised by: Richard Tomlinson, 1657
 

Daily Word Quiz Answer
 
KANAKALAND
b) Queensland, Australia ...L19 Aust. sl.
 

Daily Word Quiz
 
IMPERDIBLE
a) impudent, saucy
b) not capable of being lost or destroyed
c) characterized by imperfection, imperfect
d) unskilled, ignorant
 
Answer below.
  
Today's Featured Word
PARVANIMITY
 
NOUN
smallness of mind, meanness, narrow-mindedness;
also, an instance of this, or a person characterized by it ...a1691
 
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin parvus small + animus mind:
a suggested antithesis to magnanimity
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
a1691 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...They will justly esteem your parvanimity so great that you deserve derision for so poorly fearing it."
From: A Discourse Against Customary Swearing
By: Robert Boyle, a1691

 
Daily Word Quiz Answer
 
IMPERDIBLE
​b) not capable of being lost or destroyed ...1661 obs. rare

Daily Word Quiz
 
GRACILIOUS
a) grieved, sorrowful
b) excellent, first-rate
c) slender, thin, lean
d) highly skilled or capable
 
Answer below.
 
 Today's Featured Word
MAVORTIAN
 
ADJ.
warlike, martial ...1557 obs.
 
NOUN
a warrior ...1598 obs.
 
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin Mavortius of Mars, from Mavortem (Mavors - Mars) + -an
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1557 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...Mauortian moods, Saturnian furies fell.
Of tragicall turmoyls the haynous hell?"
From: Tottel's Miscellany: Songes and Sonettes
by Henry Howard, Sir Thomas Wyatt and Nicholas Grimald
'Of N. Ch.' by Nicholas Grimald, 1557
 

Daily Word Quiz Answer
 
GRACILIOUS
​c) slender, thin, lean

Daily Word Quiz
 
ANCLIFF
a) a luncheon
b) an outhouse, a privy
c) an accident, a disaster
d) the ankle
 
Answer below.
  
Today's Featured Word
GASTROLATROUS
 
ADJ.
belly-worshipping; gluttonous, greedy, voracious ...1694 obs.
 
ETYMOLOGY
from French gastrolatre (Cotgrave), from Greek γαστρ(ο)-, γαστήρ belly + -λατρος serving
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1694 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...so great is their Variety in figures, colours, streaks, and inimitable
shapes, I protest, the Variety we perceiv'd in the Dresses of
the Gastrolatrous Coquillons was not less."
 From: Pantagruel's Voyage to the Oracle of the Bottle
Being the fourth and fifth books of The Works of Francis Rabelais
Translated By: Peter Motteux, 1694
 
 
Daily Word Quiz Answer
 
ANCLIFF
​d) the ankle ...1790 Sc. & Eng. dial.
 

Daily Word Quiz
 
VILIACO
a) a prison inmate who has a very dirty cell
b) a vile or contemptible person; a villain
c) a brothel
d) a reef of rocks in the sea
 
Answer below.
 
Today's Featured Word
TUZZY- MUZZY
also TUZZIE-MUZZIE
 
ADJ.
dishevelled, ragged, untidy; fuzzy ...1847 Eng. dial.
 
NOUN
1. a bunch or posy of flowers, a nosegay; a garland of flowers
...c1440 obs. exc. Eng. dial.
2. the vagina ...1711 sl.
3. a burr ...1842 Eng. dial.
4. a person much wrapped up ...Bk1905 Eng. dial.
 
ETYMOLOGY
apparently a kind of reduplicated or rhyming jingle on 'tussy'
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
c1440 - TYTE TUST, OR tusmose of flowrys or othyr herbys (tytetust or
tussemose, s.) Olfactorium
From: Promptorium Parvulorum Sive Clericorum:
Dictionarius Anglo-Latinus Princeps
 
EXAMPLE
"...Servia, a nosegay; a tuzziemuzzie; a sweet posie."
From: The Nomenclater, or Remembrancer of Adrianus Junius
Translated By: John Higins, 1585

 
Daily Word Quiz Answer
 
VILIACO
​b) a vile or contemptible person; a villain ...1599 obs.
 

Daily Word Quiz
 
POWFAGGED
a) tired, exhausted
b) angry, raging
c) conceited, forward, swaggering
d) pregnant
 
Answer below.
 
 Today's Featured Word
OSCITANT
 
ADJ.
gaping from drowsiness, yawning; hence, drowsy, dull, indolent,
negligent, inattentive through drowsiness ...1625 rare or obs.
 
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin oscitantem, pr. pple. of oscitare to gape, to yawn
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1625 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...They thinke it too long a taske for so short a life, to turne ouer so
much as the Indexes of all, they growe oscitant, and will peruse none."
 From: David's Strait
By: John King, 1625
 

Daily Word Quiz Answer
 
POWFAGGED
​a) tired, exhausted ...1864 Eng. dial.
 

Daily Word Quiz
 
MALLISHAG
a) a caterpillar that devours cabbages
b) a girl who spends a lot of time at a shopping centre
c) a female ass
d) a confused heap
 
Answer below.
 
 Today's Featured Word
HERIT
 
NOUN
inheritance ...c1475 obs.
 
VERB
to inherit ...a1533 obs.
 
ETYMOLOGY
from Old French heriter to inherit
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
c1475 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...In riches herite was not in þe best,
But of good lyuyng was in-dede an set."
 From: The Romans of Partenay or of Lusignen:
Otherwise Known as The Tale of Melusine
Translated from the French of La Coudrette
 

Daily Word Quiz Answer
 
MALLISHAG
​a) a caterpillar that devours cabbages ...1777 Eng. dial.
 

Daily Word Quiz
 
FAMELICOSE
a) pert. to one's family or household
b) famous, well-known
c) often or very hungry
d) fanciful; whimsical
 
Answer below.
  
Today's Featured Word
BULLIRAGGLE
 
NOUN
a noisy quarrel, one in which opprobrious epithets are bandied
...1825 Sc.
 
ETYMOLOGY
from bullyrag (vb.) to assail with abusive language
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1825 - Suppl. to the Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language.
By: John Jamieson
 
 
Daily Word Quiz Answer
 
FAMELICOSE
​c) often or very hungry ...1730 obs. rare