COCKALL NOUN a person regarded as the pre-eminent or perfect example of a particular type or category; the paragon ...1602 obs. rare ETYMOLOGY from cock (n. the most dominant, pre-eminent, or chief person or thing) + -all FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1602 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...I haue had foure husbands my selfe. The first I called, Sweete Duck; the second, Deare Heart; the third, Prettie Pugge: But the fourth most sweete, deare, prettie, all in all: he was the verie cockeall of a husband. What, Ladie? your skinne is smooth, your bloode warme, your cheeke fresh, your eye quick..." From: Antonios Reuenge - John Marston
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IMBECILITATE VERB to make weak or feeble; to deprive of strength ...1647 obs. ETYMOLOGY from imbecility (n. mental or intellectual deficiency or weakness) + -ate FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1647 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...What was the violent pursuing of Members but a stinking condition'd kinde of physicall fighting with the whole body by way of imbecillitating?..." From: An Outcry Against the Speedy Hue & Cry after Generall Massey, Col, Poyntz and many other renowned reformadoes, etc. BOBBISH ADJ. 1. well, in good health and spirits; lively, cheerful; often used with 'pretty' ...1730 Eng. dial. & sl. 2. conceited, foppish ...Bk1880 Eng. dial. ETYMOLOGY of unknown origin; for (1.) possibly from 'bob' (adj. ? lively, nice), or from 'bob' (vb. to move up and down like a buoyant body in water, to bob up and down with energy and good humour) FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1730 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...Arthur to Doll Is grown bobbish and uxorious; While both she and Huncamunca tipple, talking tawdry; Even Mr. Sol, So tifted out, so glorious, Glitters like a beau in a new birth-day embroidery." From: Tom Thumb - Kane O' Hara DOCTILOQUENT ADJ. speaking learnedly ...1656 obs. rare ETYMOLOGY from Latin doctus learned + loquent-em, present participle of loquī to speak FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1656 - Doctiloquent (dictiloquus) that speaks learnedly. From: Glossographia, or, A Dictionary Interpreting all such Hard Words of whatsoever language now used in our refined English tongue with etymologies, definitions and historical observations on the same - Thomas Blount EXAMPLE "...Written in a spirit of conservation, Aestheticism and the Canadian Modernists is doctiloquent in a manner no longer quite fashionable...." From: Journal of Canadian Poetry, 1989 TROBELLION NOUN a whirlwind; a whirling storm ...a1500 obs. ETYMOLOGY a variant of 'tourbillion' (n. a whirling, a whirling storm) FIRST DOCUMENTED USE a1500 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...and ther ye sholde haue sein tentes and paviliouns reverse to the grounde, ffor Merlin by crafte made soche a trobellion a-rise that ther lefte nother tente ne pavilon stondinge..." From: Merlin, or The Early History of King Arthur: A Prose Romance - Edited by Henry Benjamin Wheatley NICK-O-FIDGE NOUN a term of endearment for a small child or baby ...1608 Eng. dial. rare ETYMOLOGY of unknown origin FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1608 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...As for the Male-content, I make him the Nicka-fidge here (running from one faction vnto another) as I did the Flyer in the former. Who also here doth at last meet with Mediocrity; and so (after some debatement) become an honest man ..." From: Errour on the Left Hand Through a Frozen Security - Henoch Clapham JOULTER ADJ. clumsily stupid ...1854 rare ETYMOLOGY deduced from joulter-head (jolter-head - a stupid head, a stupid person, a blockhead) FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1854 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...He seems to have a collection of these puns (and where or how he gets even them is a puzzle), stowed away in his joulter jaws, which he instantly shoots out upon you," added the doctor, "as I have seen a baboon do, pelting the company with his cheek preserved quids, after he had learnt the tobacco accomplishment ..." From: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Oct. 1817-1905 July, 1854 - Letter to Eusebius. Riddles. CONCUPITIVE ADJ. vehemently desirous; characterized by desire or longing; of the nature of concupiscence ...1651 obs. rare ETYMOLOGY from Latin concupīt- participial stem of concupĕre, concupiscĕre to desire FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1651 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...Now the subject of the passions of the soul, is the concupitive power of the soul, and is divided into concupiscible, and irascible, and both respect good and bad, but under a different notion. For when the concupiscible power respects good, and evil absolutely; Love or Lust, or on the contrary, hatred is caused..." From: Three Books of Occult Philosophy - Henricus Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim Translated out of the Latin into English by J.F. ERRABUND ADJ. erratic, random, prone to err ...1835 rare ETYMOLOGY from Latin errābundus wandering to and fro, wandering about, from errāre FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1835 - see EXAMPLE below EXAMPLE "...while I have listened and looked on like a spectator at a game of blind-man's-buff, or at a blindfold boat-race, have you, with your errabund guesses, veering to all points of the literary compass, amused the many-humoured yet single-minded Pantagruelist, the quotationipotent mottocrat, the entire unit, the single and whole homo, who subscribes himself ..." From: The Doctor, &c - Robert Southey SPROTTLE NOUN the action of a person seeking to regain his balance when falling; a helpless struggle ...Bk1904 Eng. dial. VERB 1. to struggle helplessly or ineffectually; to sprawl; to kick about helplessly; to struggle to rise after a fall, etc. ...1829 Eng. dial. 2. to hoe roughly; to loosen weeds with a hoe ...Bk1904 Eng. dial. ETYMOLOGY possibly a variant of either spartle (vb. to move the body or limbs in a sprawling or struggling manner), or sprattle (vb. to scramble, to struggle) FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1829 - Sprottle, to struggle with inefficacious vehemence. From: The Hallamshire Glossary - Joseph Hunter EXAMPLE "...The prisoner was drawing a knife across her throat, and said, "My Wilfred and me is going home together." The child was sprottling, and she ran out and called for assistance..." From: The Sheffield & Rotherham Independent Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England 18 Nov 1876, Sat - Page 3 |
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