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IRACUNDULOUS ADJ. inclined to anger, easily angered, irritable; irascible - 1765 ETYMOLOGY from Latin īrācundus (angry, enraged, furious) with diminutive formative -ulus, as in albulus, lentulus, etc. FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1765 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...LOVE is certainly, at least alphabetically speaking, one of the most A gitating B ewitching C onfounded D evilish affairs of life ---- the most E xtravagant F utilitous G alligaskinish H andy-dandyish I racundulous (there is no K to it) and L yrical of all human passions : at the same time, the most M isgiving N innyhammering O bstipating P ragmatical S tridulous R idiculous ---- though by the bye the R should have gone first -- But in short 'tis of such a nature, as my father once told my uncle Toby upon the close of a long dissertation upon the subject ---- ``You can scarce,'' said he, ``combine ``two ideas together upon it, brother ``Toby, without an hypallage...." From: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman - Laurence Sterne
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SIFFILATE VERB to whisper; to hiss softly - 1836 rare ETYMOLOGY irregularly from French siffler (to whistle, to whistle for) FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1836 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...But before Smallbones was summoned, he had time to whisper to one or two of the conspirators "He's gone." It was enough; in less than a minute the whisper was passed throughout the cutter. "He's gone!' was siffilated above and below, until it met the ears of even Corporal Van Spitter, who had it from a marine, who had it from another marine...." From: Snarleyyow; Or, The Dog Fiend - Frederick Marryat PIACULOUS ADJ. 1. requiring expiation; sinful, wicked, blameworthy - 1646 obs. 2. making expiation or atonement - 1780 rare ETYMOLOGY from classical Latin piaculum (expiatory offering, act of atonement, action which calls for expiation, sin ) + -ous (suffix) FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1646 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...The set and statary times of pairing of nails, and cutting of hair, is thought by many a point of consideration; which is perhaps but the continuation of an ancient superstition. For piaculous it was unto the Romanes to pare their nails upon the Nundinae, observed every ninth day; and was also feared by others in certain daies of the week...." From: Pseudodoxia Epidemica: Or Enquiries Into Very Many Received Tenents And Commonly Presumed Truths - Thomas Browne NOCENT ADJ. 1. harmful, injurious, hurtful - c1500 obs. 2. guilty, criminal - 1559 NOUN 1. a guilty person, a criminal - 1447 obs., often opposed to 'innocent' 2. (as 'the nocent') guilty people collectively - 1563 obs. ETYMOLOGY from Middle French nocent (adj. & n.) or its etymon classical Latin nocent-, nocēns (injurious, guilty, guilty person) uses as adjective and noun of present participle of nocēre (to hurt, to injure) FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1447 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...Thys iuge ys brouht pat he wold me Do forsakyn to ben an innocent, That he me myht makyn a nocent! Quod Almache ageyn: „knowyst not, wrecche, Hou pat my power dothe astrecche...." From: Legendys of Hooly Wummen - Osbern Bokenam (Edited by Mary Sidney Serjeantson, 1938) GIDDIFY VERB to make giddy; to daze; to confuse - 1628 ETYMOLOGY from giddy (adj.) + -fy (suffix) FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1628 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...Of endlesse Wandrings; that it leads us to That sin, sometimes, which we abhor to doe: And, otherwhile so strangely giddifies The Reason, and trhe soules best Faculties; That (as I said before) we doe not know What in our selves to like, or disallow...." From: Britain's Remembrancer - George Wither BISH NOUN 1. a bishop - 1927 humorous usage 2. a mistake, a blunder - 1937 sl. VERB 1. to 'bishop'; to administer the rite of confirmation to a person; to confirm - 1875 obs. or arch. 2. to throw - 1940 Aust. & NZ sl. ETYMOLOGY for noun 1 & verb 1 - shortened form of bishop (n. & vb.) for noun 2 - origin unknown for verb 2 - imitative FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1875 - To be bish'd...confirmed From: Notes on Quaint Words and Sayings in the Dialect of South Worcestershire - A. Porson EXAMPLE (for noun 2) "...He's a silly little boy, Lucy! He's always making bishes like this!" Monica declared...." From: The Sumner Intrigue - Frank Swinnerton (1955) MUABLE ADJ. changeable, variable; fickle; also, of a ship: unsteady - a1393 obs. ETYMOLOGY from Anglo-Norman and Middle French muable (subject to change), FIRST DOCUMENTED USE a1393 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...Here herte, here yhe is overal, And wenen every man be thief, To stele awey that hem is lief; Thus thurgh here oghne fantasie Thei fallen into Jelousie. Thanne hath the Schip tobroke his cable, With every wynd and is muable..." From: Confessio Amantis - John Gower AMARITUDE NOUN 1. bitter feelings or sentiments; acrimony; resentment; also, the quality of being bitter to the mind or feelings; distress; anguish - 1490 rare, chiefly poetic usage 2. a being bitter to the taste; bitter taste or flavour - 1599 obs. ETYMOLOGY from Middle French amaritude (bitterness of feelings, emotional pain, bitterness of taste), from Latin amāritūdō (bitterness of taste, bitterness of expression or feelings, harshness), from amārus (bitter) + -tudo (-tude suffix) FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1490 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...y hast charged vpon my sholdres all the grete euylles y I bere & supporte. thou haste absorbed me & reclosed in the grete see of amarytude..." From: The Boke yf Eneydos Compyled by Vrygyle, Translated oute of Latyne in to Frenshe, and out of Frenshe reduced in to Englysshe by me Wyllm Caxton HUFTY-TUFTY also HUFTIE TUFTIE ADJ. swaggering, bragging - 1596 obs. NOUN 1. swagger, swaggering manners - 1633 obs. 2. 'bravery', finery - a1652 obs. ETYMOLOGY rhyming compound, from huff (n. ) and tuft (n.). (possibly in reference to tufts of feathers worn as ‘bravery’ or finery) + -y (suffix) FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1596 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...I haue a tale at my tungs end if I can happen vpon it, of his hobby horse reuelling & dominering at Audley-end, when the Queene was there : to which place Gabriell [Harvey] (to doo his countrey more worship & glory) came ruffling it out huffty tuffty in his suite of veluet..." From: Haue with You to Saffron-Walden; or, Gabriell Harueys hunt is vp - Thomas Nashe TIFFLE VERB 1. to dress up, to adorn, to deck or trick out in a trifling or time-wasting way - a1425 obs. 2. to busy oneself idly, to ‘fiddle’, to trifle; to potter about - c1440 obs. exc. Eng. dial. 3. to disorder, to disarrange, to entangle, to ravel - 1811 chiefly Eng. dial. ETYMOLOGY for verb 1. - diminutive of tiff (vb. to attire, to dress, to deck out [obs.]) FIRST DOCUMENTED USE a1425 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...And in the our of risyng tifle thee not; forsothe renne thou bifore first in to thin hous, and there clepe thou thee to answer, and there pleie thou..." From: The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, with the Apocryphal Books - John Wycliffe ROBBERACEOUSLY ADV in a manner suggestive of robbers - 1772 obs. ETYMOLOGY from robber (n.) + -aceous (suffix) + -ly (suffix) FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1772 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...It was broad daylight, but I did not know that housebreaking might not be still improving. I cried out, Who is there? Nobody answered. In less than another minute, the door rattled and shook still more robberaceously, I called again - no reply..." From: Letters Addressed to the Countess of Ossory, From the Year 1769 to 1797 - Horace Walpole DIABOLIFY VERB to portray as diabolical; to represent as a devil; to denounce as evil or wicked - 1657 ETYMOLOGY from Latin diabolus (devil n.) + -fy FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1657 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...For though they know not well what they are, yet every man takes courage enough to handle them, and let in, and let out whom they please; one faction turns them against another, the Lutheran against the Calvinist, and diabolifies him; and the Calvinist against the Lutheran, and superdiabolifies him..." From: XXX Sermons Lately Preached at the Parish Church of Saint Mary Magdalen Milkstreet, London to which is annexed, A Sermon Preached at the Funerall of George Whitmore, Knight, sometime Lord Mayor of the City - Anthony Farindon SCAMANDER NOUN devious progress - 1873 VERB to wander about, to take a a devious or winding course - 1864 ETYMOLOGY apparently from the name of the river Scamander (Σκάμανδρος Homer), in imitation of meander (vb.) FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1864 - Scamander, to wander about without a settled purpose From: The Slang Dictionary: Or, The Vulgar Words, Street Phrases, and "fast" Expressions of High and Low Society - John Camden Hotten EXAMPLE "...Isola had given up "scamandering." She spent her evenings quietly at home with her father, except when she declared a dinner at Richmond or Hampton or Greenwich necessary to dispel her dulness..." From: Sweet Anne Page - Edward James Mortimer Collins (1868) COCKATRICE NOUN 1. a mythical reptile with a lethal gaze or breath, commonly said to be hatched by a serpent (or toad) from the egg of a cockerel or rooster; later, more generally: a mythical monster combining, or resulting from the combination of, a cockerel or rooster and a serpent (occasionally, another animal) - a1382 2. a crocodile - c1450 obs. 3. a malicious, treacherous, or destructive person - 1508 rare 4. a prostitute, a whore; often used as a term of reproach or abuse for a woman - 1568 arch. rare ETYMOLOGY from Anglo-Norman and Middle French cocatrice, cocatriz, coketriz, cocadris (crocodile, mythical animal of uncertain kind, aquatic reptile, enemy of the crocodile), from Latin calcatric- , calcatrix (person who tramples upon) from classical Latin calcat-, (past participial stem of calcāre , originally ‘to tread’, in post-classical Latin ‘to tread on the heels of, track, trace out’) + -trix; apparently after ancient Greek ἰχνεύμων (ichneumon, literally ‘tracker, tracer out, hunter out’) FIRST DOCUMENTED USE a1382 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...Vp on the eddere and the kokatrice thou shalt go; and thou shalt totrede the leoun and the dragoun..." From: The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments, with the Apocryphal books, in the earliest English versions made from the Latin Vulgate FIBLING ADJ. addicted to telling little fibs - 1681 obs. ETYMOLOGY from O.E.D.: as if present participle of fibble v., from fib (n.) or fib (vb.) FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1681 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...Thus has it cost me some pains (the Labout of six dayes, not Seven dayes, I protest) to answer the Six Months Abortive Throwes of a fibling, quibbling, fribling, fumbling Arch-Deacon..." From: A Vindication of the Naked Truth, the Second Part, against the Trivial Objections and Exceptions, of one Fullwood, in a Libelling Pamphlet Leges Angliæ - Edmund Hickeringill OMISE VERB to omit - c1425 obs. rare ETYMOLOGY from Middle French omis, past participle of omettre (to omit), from classical Latin omittere (to omit) FIRST DOCUMENTED USE c1425 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...rightly so we of hym have this hope that no thynge hath he omysid by hym that tochith grace, of that, that we seke here in thys passyng lyfe, as is the communyon of Crystis feith, and comrnunycacion of his sacramentis and namly insignys of a contrite herte by penaunce..." From: The Book of the Foundation of St. Bartholomew's Church in London - Edited from the original manuscript by Norman Moore, 1886 BRAIN-SUCKER NOUN 1. a person who takes credit for or benefits undeservedly from the intellectual labour of others; a plagiarist, a parasite - 1781 2. a person who or thing which feeds on brain matter; something regarded as harmful to the intellect - 1907 ETYMOLOGY from brain (n.) + sucker (n.) FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1781 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...Ask those brain-suckers, the Booksellers...." From: A Short History of the Westminster Forum - David Turner POBBIES NOUN pieces of bread softened in milk, generally given to young children or the elderly when unwell; any food of a similar consistency - 1848 Eng. dial. ETYMOLOGY alteration of pobs (pieces of bread softened in milk) FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1848 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...The babby had been fed afore we set out, and th' coach moving kept it asleep, bless it's little heart. But when th' coach stopped for dinner it were awake, and crying for its pobbies. So we asked for some bread and milk, and Jennings took it first for to feed it; but it made its mouth like a square, and let it run out at each o' th' four corners...." From: Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life - Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell URBICARY ADJ. belonging to a city, especially Rome - 1665 obs. ETYMOLOGY from Latin urbicarius (of the city [i.e. Rome]), from classical Latin urbicus (urbic adj.) + -ārius -ary FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1665 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...And this the learned Petrus de Marcâ was so sensible of, that he saith, Ruffinus did rectissimè & ex usu recepto, very agreeably both to reason and custom, compare the Alexandrian and Roman Bishop in this, that he should have the power over the Diocese of Aegypt, by the same right that the Bishop of Rome had over the Vrbicary Diocese; or, saith he, ut Ruffinus-eligantissime loquitur, In Ecclesiis Suburbicariis, id est, in iis Ecclesiis quae decem Provin∣ciis Suburbicariis continebantur..." From: A Rational Account of the Grounds of Protestant Religion: A Vindication of the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury's Relation of a conference, &c. from the pretended answer by T.C. - Edward Stillingfleet GOATREL also GOATRILL NOUN a young goat - 1688 obs. rare ETYMOLOGY from goat + - rel (suffix forming diminutives) FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1688 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...A Goat, 1 yeare a Kid, or Goatrill, & alway after a Goat. The Wild Goat, is 1 a Fawne. And the Buck-Goat being gelt makes a Cheverell..." From: The Academy of Armory, or, A Storehouse of Armory and Blazon containing the Several Variety of Created Beings, and how Born in Coats of Arms, both Foreign and Domestick - Randle Holme |
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