MATAEOLOGY

Daily Word Quiz

GO FOR THE BIG SPIT
a) to make every effort to succeed
b) to flaunt, to behave immodestly
c) to use foul language
d) to vomit
 
Answer below.

Today's Featured Word

MATAEOLOGY
 
NOUN
a vain, useless, or unprofitable discourse;
foolish words, nonsense ...1656
 
ETYMOLOGY
from Greek mataiologia idle or foolish talk
from mataios vain + -logia discourse
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1656 - Blount Glossographia
Mateologie (mataeologia) vain enquiry, or over curious search
into high matters an mysteries.
 
EXAMPLE
"...The sapience of our forefathers and the defectiveness
of our dictionaries are simultaneously illustrated by the
bead-roll of mataeology embodied in the extract here following."
 
From: Modern English
By: Fitzedward Hall, 1873
 
SOURCES
• A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles,
James Murray, 1887-1933
• A Supplementary English Glossary,
O. Davies, T. Lewis, 1881
• The American Encyclopaedic Dictionary, 
Robert Hunter, 1895
• Dictionary of Early English,
Joseph Shipley, 1955

Daily Word Quiz Answer

GO FOR THE BIG SPIT d) to vomit ...1960 Aust. sl.
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