1word1day | Entries tagged with archaic

candent [kan-duhnt]

adjective:
glowing from or as if from great heat

Examples:

American education has been an important topic of debate for the past few decades. However, lately it has been a candent subject in several media outlets and schools due to the increasing number of internationals who choose American colleges to pursue higher education. (Micaela Carou-Baldner, Education: Survival of the Fittest, The Current, January 2017)

Now the sky is totally dark and the colors are at their most candent and the crowd is at its most fully invested. (Adam Davies, James Turrell’s 'Skyspace' Opens at Ringling Museum, Sarasota Magazine, December 2013)

The moving floor was patterned in day and night. The low ceiling was fused where the day poured through, became a candent vapour, volatilised. (H M Tomlinson, The Sea and the Jungle)

One sun came rolling out from its fellows, an immense orb of candent sapphire. Beside it appeared a world, fit child of that luminary in size. (Abraham Merritt, The Face in the Abyss)

Was Jove that secret long, and, hearing it,
Indignant, slew him with his candent bolt. (Homer, The Odyssey)

Origin:

1570–80; Latin candent- (stem of candēns, present participle of candēre to be shining white), equivalent to cand- bright (Dictionary.com)

The earliest known use of the adjective candent is in the late 1500s. OED's earliest evidence for candent is from 1585, in the writing of John Dee, mathematician, astrologer, and antiquary. Candent is a borrowing from Latin. (Oxford English Dictionary)

sallymn

makebate, make-bate [meyk-beyt]

noun:
(archaic) a person who causes contention or discord

Examples:

Barillon was therefore directed to act, with all possible precautions against detection, the part of a makebate. (Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James II)

Trying to set you against me, the spiteful old makebate, and no one knows how long she will be here, falling on the poor lads if they do but sing a song in the hall after supper, as if she were a very Muggletonian herself. (Charlotte M Yonge, Under the Storm)

Angus answered somewhat sulkily, that "he was no makebate, or stirrer-up of quarrels; he would rather be a peacemaker." (Sir Walter Scott, A Legend of Montrose)

Origin:

The rare noun makebate comes from the common English verb make and the uncommon, obsolete noun bate 'strife, discord,' a derivative of the Middle English verb baten 'to argue, contend; (of a bird) to beat the wings' (cf. abate), a borrowing from Old French batre 'to beat.' Makebate entered English in the 16th century. (Dictionary.com)

The earliest known use of the word makebate is in the early 1500s. OED's earliest evidence for makebate is from 1529, in the writing of Thomas More, lord chancellor, humanist, and martyr. (Oxford English Dictionary)

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vilipend [vil-uh-pend]

verb:
(Archaic)
1 to regard or treat as of little value or account.
2 to vilify; depreciate.

Examples:

The fact that to the eighteenth century belong the subjects of more than half of these thirty volumes, is a proof of the fascination of the period for an author who has never ceased to vilipend it. (John Morley, Critical Miscellanies, Volume 1)

What discontent thus change in the doth move?
What wrong, (alas !), or what offence in me,
Thus maks the loath and vilipend my love ? (Sir William Mure, Dido and Aeneas)

He became a gay visitor, and such a reveller, that in process of time he was observed to vilipend the modest fare which had at first been esteemed a banquet by his hungry appetite, and thereby highly displeased my wife. (Sir Walter Scott, Waverley)

I would not willingly vilipend any Christian, if, peradventure, he deserveth that epithet. (Tobias Smollett, Humphry Clinker)

Origin:

Etymologically speaking, to define vilipend using vilify is to commit a tautology, since both derive from Latin vilis, vile or worthless, which is also obviously enough the source of English vile. Vilipend also includes the verb pendere, to weigh or estimate. To vilipend is to weigh somebody in the balance and find them not worth considering. It appeared in English in the fifteenth century and was a popular term right down into the nineteenth, though it has since dropped out of sight. (World Wide Words)

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doniferous [ion: do-nif-er-uhs]

adjective:

Bearing gifts

(click to enlarge)
Examples:

Umm.... not really, since 'the only known use of the adjective doniferous is in the mid 1600s.' (Oxford English Dictionary). But this charming fancy was on the Beastly Words website...

(click to enlarge)

Origin:

comprises the stem of donum 'gift' + -fer 'bearing' (from ferre 'to bear, carry') + -ous, an adjective suffix. In Latin the combining form of -fer was always preceded by an -i-, as seen in vociferous, odoriferous, and carboniferous. Donum is the noun from dare 'to give', do 'I give' and underlies another English borrowing, donate. It comes from PIE do- 'to give', which turns up in dat 'to give' and Greek dosis 'something given', which English borrowed for its dose. Ferre 'to bear, carry' comes from the same source as the English verb bear, PIE bher-/bhor- 'to carry, to bear (children)'. Initial bh became ph in Latin, later changing to f. In Russian this word became brat 'to take', beru 'I take'. We find the kin of this PIE word all around English, birth, burden, bier, (wheel)barrow and, of course, all the Latinate borrowings containing -fer: transfer, ferry, fertile. (alphadictionary.com, though I don't vouch for its accuracy!)

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polrumptious [puhl-rump-shuhs]

adjective:
a word from the 1800s meaning big-headed, obstreperous, and downright obnoxious.

Examples:

I'm going to make it one of my life goals to be more polrumptious. I'm sick of being seen as 'meek' or 'timid'. I'd rather annoy people with my confidence than continue to fade into the woodwork. (Are We There Yet?, January 2014)

"Why, that's another matter" replied the beadle, "and if it be true - and I think thou dost not look so polrumptious as thy playfellow yonder - Thou wouldst be a mettle lass enow, an thou wert snog and snod a bid better." (Sir Walter Scott, The Heart of Mid-Lothian)

But niver mind, sir, us'll wait up for mun to-night, an' I'll get the loan o' the Dearloves' blunderbust in case they gets polrumptious. (Arthur Quiller-Couch, The Astonishing History of Troy Town)

Origin:

First used in Kent - or Cornwall, depending on your sources - this word was documented by Francis Grose in A Provincial Glossary, published in 1787... comes from the Middle English polle meaning head (derived from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch), and the late Middle English rump meaning backside (probably Scandinavian). (Joanna Puckering, PhD's Post)

perhaps from poll 'the head' + rumption + -ous; first documented 1787 in A Provincial Glossary by Francis Grose (Words and Phrases from the Past)

med_cat

Gadzooks [gad-ZOOKS]
(interj.) [archaic]

- A minced (mild) oath used to express surprise, fear, joy, wonder etc.

A minced oath (sub-genre of euphemisms used to avoid swearing)

Euphemistic shortening of "God's Hooks" (the nails on the cross). - 1690s

Used in a sentence:
“Gadzooks, Charles, what ever did you do when you noticed she had no reflection?”

(from Grandiloquent Word of the Day)

As mentioned above, an archaism, but I had once come across it used humorously in the last verse of this poem:

The Common Cold

Go hang yourself, you old M.D!
You shall not sneer at me.
Pick up your hat and stethoscope,
Go wash your mouth with laundry soap;
I contemplate a joy exquisite
In not paying you for your visit.
I did not call you to be told
My malady is a common cold.

( Read more... )

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animalcule [an-uh-mal-kyool]

adjective:
1 a microscopic or minute organism, such as an amoeba or paramecium, usually considered to be an animal.
2 (archaic) a tiny animal, such as a mosquito.

Examples:

Rotifers are also known as 'wheel animalcules,' thanks to the Latin root of their name which relates to a rotating 'wheel' of tiny hairs at one end of their body. The 'animalcule' part refers to them being microscopic animals. (Amanda Kooser, Animal revived after being frozen for 24,000 years in Siberian permafrost, CNET, June 2021)

The red earth, like that of the Pampas, in which these remains were embedded, contains, according to Professor Ehrenberg, eight fresh-water and one salt-water infusorial animalcule; therefore, probably, it was an estuary deposit. (Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle)

For instance, I have been writing to the Dean, on College business, and began the letter 'Obscure Animalcule', and he is foolish enough to pretend to be angry about it, and to say it wasn't a proper style, and that he will propose to the Vice-Chancellor to expel me from the University: and it is all your fault! (Lewis Carroll, 'Letter to Agnes Hull' from Stuart Dodgson Collingwood, The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll)

Here the tragedy is palpable. Indeed, too sadly so, and I dare apply but a flash of the microscope to the rageing dilemmas of this animalcule. (George Meredith, Rhoda Fleming)

Using a microscope of his own invention, van Leeuwenhoek had seen tiny creatures, invisible to the naked eye, living in lake water. Some of these 'animalcules' were so small, he later estimated, that 30 million of them would still be smaller than a grain of sand. (James Mitchell Crow, Zeros to heroes: Tall tales or the truth of tiny life?, New Scientist, September 2010)

(A 1795 hand-coloured illustration of van Leeuwenhoek's animalcules, click to enlarge)

Origin:

'very small animal,' especially a microscopic one, 1590s, from Late Latin animalculum (plural animalcula), diminutive of Latin animal 'living being'. In early use also of mice, insects, etc. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

Animalcule comes from New Latin animalculum, 'small animal'. The animal- element comes from Latin animālis, meaning 'living' or, literally, 'airy, breathy'. The suffix -culum, 'small', also appears in disguise in the words canicular and osculate. Animalcule was first recorded in English in the 1590s. (Dictionary.com)

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dispiteous [dis-pit-ee-uhs]

adjective:
(archaic) without pity or mercy, ruthless

Examples:

Based on Sante Kimes, she is the most compulsive, dispiteous grifter in fiction I can think of. Identity theft, regular theft, fraud, arson, enslavement, murder—it's difficult to enumerate all the crimes Evangeline, her husband Warren, and their son Devin commit over the course of the novel. (Peter Goldberg, All-American Amnesia, The Baffler, January 2020)

She was battling for people she cared about: the dozens of condemned prisoners awaiting execution in dispiteous Southern cellblocks. (Colman Mccarthy, Marie Deans, 'courageous fool' of death row, National Catholic Reporter, July 2017)

Aeneas was our king, foremost of men in righteousness, incomparable in goodness as in warlike arms; whom if fate still preserves, if he draws the breath of heaven and lies not yet low in dispiteous gloom, fear we have none; nor mayest thou repent of challenging the contest of service. (Virgil, The Aenid)

Be but as sweet as is the bitterest, The most dispiteous out of all the gods, I am well pleased. (Algernon Charles Swinburne, 'Phaedra')

The morning had succeeded to the hopeless humidity of the night, and the drizzling rain fell with almost dispiteous persistence. (A M Sullivan, The Wearing of the Green)

Origin:

1795–1805; earlier despiteous, alteration, after piteous, of dispitous, despitous, Middle English from Anglo-French, Old French; see despite, -ous; later taken as dis-1 + piteous (Dictionary.com)

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lethiferous [li-thif-er-uhs]

adjective:
bringing death or destruction, deadly

Examples:

Early on in the game, Lux meets a mysterious female named Charlotte, who is the character with pink hair. Charlotte has lost her memories, but has very lethiferous powers. (Amy Thomas, Forbidden Magna details stop by Lux's inn, meet Charlotte, Beatrice, Diana, and their weapons, neoseeker, February 2014)

But these were as things of yesteryear, bearing at least the memory or the intimation of life, compared with the awesome and lethiferous antiquity, the cycle-enduring doom of a petrified sterility, that seemed to invest Yoh-Vombis. (Clark Ashton Smith, 'The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis')

To love deeply and to break up is just a small thing. But seems lethiferous and pestilent. (Deepak Dubey, Good Night Dear Eddie)

Those that are really lethiferous, are but peccatorum sudores, excrescences of sin, & came in with the thorns. (John Robinson, A Calm Ventilation of Pseudodoxia Epidemica)

Origin:

Latin lethifer, letifer lethiferous (from letum death + -fer -ferous) + English -ous(Merriam-Webster)

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spondulicks [spon-doo-liks ]

noun:
1 (archaic) fractional currency
2 (slang) money, funds

Examples:

And, by hook or by crook they’ll find the spondulicks to pay the fees, convinced that the grind school will pave the way for the brat’s entry into Third Level. (OPINION: Great for some to be able to afford grind schools, The Southern Star, October 2019)

But now the world’s most hedonistic island has come to me. Or rather, a key element of it has: the legendary boutique called Annie’s Ibiza, where clubbers who are generously endowed with both self-confidence and spondulicks go to get dressed. (Anna Murphy, The day Ibiza style queen Annie Doble gave me a makeover, The Sunday Times, January 2021)

Suppose I can't raise the spondulicks in time for the ten train! (Nell Speed, Molly Brown's Orchard Home)

"I ain't as rich as old Jim Hornback, and I can't be so blame' generous and good to Tom, Dick, and Harry as what he is, and slam money around the way he does; but I've told him many a time 't I wouldn't trade places with him; for, says I, a sailor's life's the life for me, and I'm derned if I'D live two mile out o' town, where there ain't nothing ever goin' on, not for all his spondulicks and as much more on top of it. Says I -" Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn)

Origin:

1856, American English slang, 'money, cash', of unknown origin, said to be from Greek spondylikos, from spondylos, a seashell used as currency (the Greek word means literally 'vertebra'). Used by Mark Twain and by O Henry and since then adopted into British English, where it survived after having faded in the US. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

It would seem from the evidence that spondulicks (either so spelled or as spondulix) was originally American college slang. One of its earliest appearances was in a piece about college life in the New York magazine Vanity Fair in 1860: 'My friend the Senior got out of spondulix, and borrowed [my watch] to spout for the purpose of bucking the Tiger' (to interpret, his friend had run out of money and pawned the watch to get some more cash in order to gamble on cards, probably faro). The word was used later by such literary luminaries as O Henry and Bret Harte. From usage data, it now looks to be much more common outside the US, to the extent that the New Oxford Dictionary of English marks it as 'British slang'.

Where does it come from? 'A fanciful coinage', the Oxford English Dictionary says. It has been described as a 'perverted and elaborated' form of greenback (you may feel that to believe spondulicks could come from greenback requires a perverted imagination all its own). Eric Partridge suggests that it might derive from Greek spondulikos, from spondulos, a species of shell once used as money.

However, Doug Wilson pointed out that that Greek stem is also the source of various English words beginning in spondylo- that refer to the spine or vertebrae. He suggested that a stack of coins may have been likened to the spine, with each coin a vertebra. He found a supporting reference in an 1867 book, A Manual of the Art of Prose Composition: for the Use of Colleges and Schools, by John Mitchell Bonnell. A list of provincialisms included: 'Spondulics - coin piled for counting'.

If it is indeed college slang, either explanation may well be the kind of academic joke that would appeal. Otherwise, your guess is as good as mine. (World Wide Words)

manicule

Greetings, and thank you for reading the inaugural Throwback Thursday post! Many thanks to the lovely

med_cat for allowing me to do this series. Throwback Thursday devotes itself to the joy of obsolete and archaic language.

Semovedly [adverb]
separate, alone

Semovedly appears in the second edition of Henry Cockerham's The English Dictionarie: or, an Interpreter of hard English words (1637). Cockerham's entry defines semovedly as "meaning one alone". Early dictionaries like Cockerham's tend to be word dumps, organized alphabetically or by subject, and often without the definitions and illustrative quotations as normalized by Samuel Johnson's 1755 Dictionary of the English Language. For the curious, here's a transcription of Cockerham's first edition of The English Dictionarie (1623). It has wonderful sections, such as "Men vext in Hell".

The word semovedly appears in Thomas Nashe's discursive Christs Teares over Jerusalem (1593).

So let it be acceptable to God and His church what I write, as no man in this treatise I will particularly touch; none I will semovedly allude to, but only attaint vice in general.

Nashe is providing your basic all persons fictitious disclaimer: “all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this writing are fictitious.” He’s only holding a mirror up to society and showing it its sins, right guys?

The TL;DR of Cristes Teares: reform, fellow Englishmen, or London will go the way of Jerusalem. People have their own ways of interpreting the bubonic plague, commonly moral.

Stay safe, folks. It's dangerous to go semovedly.

med_cat

Dear everyone--comm members, comm posters, and of course the former comm moderator--

Thank you for being here in 2021. We have shared in the joy of linguistics, and that has been one of the positive things this year, I think.

I wish you and yours all the very best in the coming year 2022!

And now for something special, for New Year's Eve:

"...But one English word surely stands above all others from the corners of the dictionary. I mention it all the time, because I’m determined to bring it back. Or bring it anywhere in fact, for it never really enjoyed more than a day in the sun. “Respair” has just one record next to it in the Oxford English Dictionary, from 1525, but its definition is sublime. Respair is fresh hope; a recovery from despair. May 2022 finally be its moment."

A few other interesting words in this article from The Guardian: From respair to cacklefart – the joy of reclaiming long-lost positive words

(...would you believe "cacklefart" means "egg"?! ;))

sallymn.livejournal.com

forsooth [fawr-sooth]

adverb:
(archaic) in truth, indeed (now used in derision or to express disbelief

Examples:

Forsooth, the winter of our discontent has been made glorious summer by the Salzburg Festival. (A J Goldmann, After a Winter of Discontent, a Glorious Summer in Salzburg, The New York Times, July 2021)

And the lowly scribes say, forsooth
you are talking bunkum and hocus pocus. (An Ode for - and from - Sandra Goudie , newsroom, October 2021)

'Moral duty to chase' forsooth! 'Won’t someone think of the kiddies who came to watch' indeed! (Said no one, ever.) ( Tim de Lisle and Rob Smyth, England draw first Test with New Zealand: day five - as it happened, The Guardian, June 2021)

I am not to see, forsooth, that no man does me an injury, or breaks into my home--I am not to take care that all shall go well with me, or that I have clothes to wear, or that my shoes do not require mending, or that I be given work to do, or that I possess sufficient meat and drink? (Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Poor Folk)

Origin:

Old English forsoð 'indeed, in truth, verily,' from for-, perhaps here with intensive force (or else the whole might be 'for a truth'), + soð 'truth' (see sooth). Regarded as affected in speech by c 1600. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

Although it is still a part of the English language, forsooth is now primarily used in humorous or ironic contexts, or in a manner intended to play off the word's archaic vibe. Forsooth is formed from the combination of the preposition for and the noun sooth. Sooth survives as both a noun (meaning 'truth' or 'reality') and an adjective (meaning 'true', 'sweet', or 'soft'), though it is rarely used by contemporary speakers. It primarily lives on in English in the verb soothe (which originally meant 'to show, assert, or confirm the truth of') and in the noun soothsayer (that is, 'truthsayer'), a name for someone who can predict the future. (Merriam-Webster)

sallymn.livejournal.com

ichthyic [ik-thee-ik]

adjective:
(archaic) of or relating to fishes or having the form of a fish; piscine

Examples:

The Western Branch Reservoir is among his favorite fishing haunts. Catfish, especially channel catfish, have become the objects of his ichthyic affection. (Bob Ruegsegger, Lake Prince resident a local catfish whisperer, The Virginian-Pilot, October 2020)

Those who lack gills typically meet members of the ichthyic kingdom à la meunière or packed in oil. (The secret life of fish, The Economist, May 2018)

A weekend adventure was cut short by dramatic ichthyic violence this past Sunday, as 46-year-old Karri Larson found herself on the wrong side of a chance encounter with a Florida Keys needlefish. (Nate Jones, One More Thing To Be Frightened Of: Horrific Back-Stabbing Needlefish, Time, October 2020)

Maybe you would not even feel that, as you struggled in clothes that felt like cooling tar, and as you slowed, calmed, even, and opened your eyes and looked for a pulse of silver, an imbrication of scales, and as you closed your eyes again and felt their lids turn to slippery, ichthyic skin, the blood behind them suddenly cold, and as you found yourself not caring, wanting, finally, to rest, finally wanting nothing more than the sudden, new, simple hum threading between your eyes (Paul Harding, Tinkers)

A curious episcopal ring worn by St Arnulf, bishop of Metz, in the sixth century, exhibits the well-known ichthyic symbol. (William Henry Withrow, The Catacombs of Rome)

Origin:

Mid 19th century from Greek ikhthuïkos 'fishy', from ikhthus 'fish'. (Lexico)

sallymn.livejournal.com

gaudiloquent [goh-dil-uh-kwuhnt ]

adjective:
(archaic, obsolete) speaking joyfully or on joyful matters

Examples:

But I must provide an especially gaudiloquent tribute to Debra Hansen, our wardrobe whisperer, to my guardian makeup angel, Lucky Bromhead, and to our dare-doing hair wrangler, Ana Sorys (Joanna Adams, 'Schitt's Creek' Cast's Emmy Speeches Are A Masterclass In Mutual Appreciation, Huffpost, October 2020)

This is all very gaudiloquent, but of course you have to like to read in the first place, otherwise it’s all a ficulnean issue. And reading - literacy itself - seems to be on the decline (Ian Chadwick, Words, Your Brain and Sex, Scripturient, October 2014)

The subject upon which I am inclined to be gaudiloquent is the English language. (Joy of discovering words, The New Indian Express, February 2010)

Origin:

While there is no online etynology, it appears that the word is constructed from Latin gaudium 'joy', gaude 'rejoice thou' (in hymns), from gaudere 'rejoice' and loquus 'speaking,' from loqui 'to speak' (from PIE root tolkw- 'to speak'). (details from Online Etymology Dictionary)

sallymn.livejournal.com

lief [leef]

adjective:
1 (archaic) dear; beloved; treasured.
2 (archaic) willing, glad

adverb:
soon, gladly (commonly in the phrase 'as lief')

Examples:

Depend upon it, sir, many a rich man dining tonight upon roast swan would as lief exchange his vittles for a plate of this cooked cheese! (Marcel Theroux, Strange Bodies)

He wants no boisterous notes of artificial passion: he would as lief the town-crier spoke his lines. (Michael Phelan, The Young Priest's Keepsake)

Lief should I rouse at mornings. And lief lie down of nights. (A E Houseman, Last Poems)

Origin:

Lief began as 'lēof' in Old English and has since appeared in many literary classics, first as an adjective and then as an adverb. It got its big break in the epic poem 'Beowulf' as an adjective meaning 'dear' or 'beloved.' The adverb first appeared in the 13th century, and in 1390, it was used in John Gower’s collection of love stories, 'Confessio Amantis.' Since that time, it has graced the pages of works by William Makepeace Thackeray, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and D.H. Lawrence, among others. Today, the adjective is considered to be archaic and the adverb is used much less frequently than in days of yore. It still pops up now and then, however, in the phrases 'had as lief,' 'would as lief,' 'had liefer,' and 'would liefer.' (Merriam-Webster)

'dearly, gladly, willingly' (obsolete or archaic), c. 1250, from Middle English adjective lief 'esteemed, beloved, dear,' from Old English leof 'dear, valued, beloved, pleasant' (also as a noun, 'a beloved person, friend'), from Proto-Germanic leuba- (source also of Old Norse ljutr, Old Frisian liaf, Dutch lief, Old High German liob, German lieb, Gothic liufs 'dear, beloved'), from PIE root leubh- 'to care, desire, love.' Often with the dative and in personal constructions with have or would in expressions of choice or preference ("and yet, to say the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom, as the morality of imprisonment", 'Measure for Measure'). I want and I'd love to are overworked and misused to fill the hole left in the language when I would lief faded in 17c. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

sallymn.livejournal.com

scapegrace [skeyp-greys]

noun:
1 (archaic) a mischievous or wayward person, especially a young person or child; a rascal
2 something capable of causing oblivion of grief or suffering; anything inducing a pleasurable sensation of forgetfulness, especially of sorrow or trouble.

Examples:

The Middle Ages died dismally, and the scapegrace poet Francois Villon sang their requiem in the wineshops of the Cité. (Kenneth Macleish, Adored, neglected, and restored: A 1968 Nat Geo feature explored Notre Dame, National Geographic, April 2019)

Hayward’s fruity baritone provides a firm foundation for a wide-ranging portrayal of the title role that encompasses the archetypal breadth of the elderly scapegrace while humanising his fallibility. (David Kittredge, A Falstaff for the annals at the Grange Festival, Financial Times, June 2019)

So Aladdin is a scapegrace, an idler, but he's frank and courageous, and the Moor who pretends to be his uncle is a deceiver all through. (Philip Pullman, Aye, there's the rub, The Guardian, Nov 2005)

Bluck, the neglected young pupil of three-and-twenty from the agricultural district, and that idle young scapegrace of a Master Todd before mentioned, received little eighteen-penny books, with "Athene" engraved on them, and a pompous Latin inscription from the professor to his young friends. (William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair )

Yes they can, aunt, if she married a man whom she knew to be a scapegrace because he was very rich and an earl. (Anthony Trollope, Can You Forgive Her?)

Origin:

At first glance, you might think 'scapegrace' has something in common with 'scapegoat,' our word for a person who takes the blame for someone else’s mistake or calamity. Indeed, the words do share a common source - the verb 'scape,' a variant of 'escape' that was once far more common than it is today. 'Scapegrace,' which first appeared in English in the mid-18th century (over 200 years after 'scapegoat'), arrived at its meaning through its literal interpretation as 'one who has escaped the grace of God.' (Two now-obsolete words based on a similar notion are scape-thrift, meaning 'spendthrift,' and 'want-grace,' a synonym of 'scapegrace.') In ornithological circles, 'scapegrace' can also refer to a loon with a red throat, but this sense is rare. (Merriam-Webster)

1767, from scape (v.) + grace (n.); as if it meant 'one who escapes the grace of God.' (Online Etymology Dictionary)

sallymn.livejournal.com

pinguescent [ping-we-snt]
adjective:
(Archaic, rare) Becoming or growing fat; also of a food: greasy, fattening.

Also

pinguescence
noun:
The process of becoming fat: fatness, obesity; (in extended use) oiliness, unctuousness.

Examples:

I saw Dr Gregory (Biographer of Chatterton) to-day; a very brown-looking man, of most pinguescent and full-moon cheeks. There is much tallow in him. (Joseph Cottle, Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey, 1848)

"I said she was pinguescent," Marny returned. "She is. 'Pinguescent' means 'getting fat'." Kendra burst out laughing. (Gwen Bristow, Calico Palace: A Novel)

Haggis, as the Doctor might say, is unctuously pinguescent and unfragantly odorous. (Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol 6, 1832)

He tells Voltore, for instance, that he may dream of swimming in 'golden lard'… The image identifies the lawyer's motive, infusing it at the same time with the resonance of repellent and excessive pinguescence. Everywhere in (Martin R Orkin, 'Languages of Deception in Volpone', Theoria: A Journal of Studies in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, 1982)

Origin:

Late 18th century; earliest use found in Robert Southey (1774–1843), poet and reviewer. From classical Latin pinguēscent-, pinguēscēns, present participle of pinguēscere to grow fat, to become oily or fatty from pinguis fat + -ēscere (Lexico)

sallymn.livejournal.com

fallaciloquence [(fuh-lay-shee-oh-kwens]
noun:
(Archaic) deceitful or false speech

Examples:

Marie told her husband that she was tired of listening to his fallaciloquences. She wanted him to tell her the truth. (English-Word information)

The Enugu result was sure but the actual score was a working definition of Fallaciloquence ( Patrick Obahiagbon reacted to Enugu results, Osundefender, 2015)

Being a pre-election year (aren’t they all?) we have had our fill of fallaciloquence. (Chris Chris Remick: I have lethologica?, fosters.com, 2008)

Origin:

Not surprisingly, I have been unable to find an online etymology for this extremely archaic work: the Phrontistery indicates it was in use from 1656-1761 and it can probably be assumed that it comes from a similar background as fallacious and loquacious but ulike them, sadly died out...

sallymn.livejournal.com

horbgorbling [horbgorb-ling]
verb:
(Archaic/slang,Scottish) Roaming without intent, wandering aimlessly for pure pleasure

Examples:

"Gore spent his time horbgorbling around ineffectively", the writer claimed, meaning that he travelled about in a feckless manner, fumbling, or "mooching", as we'd say here. (Diarmaid O Muirithe, The words we use, The Irish Times, 2010)

The Professor grumbled under his breath for a good five minutes while horbgorbling about the room, then told the students to take a break (Micki Evris, The Seeding)

The other day while horbgorbling the woods and swamps in a local state park drinking beer and idly looking at things, an extraordinarily thing happened. (Steve Daniels, New York State Champion Cedar and Hophornbeam, The Irish Times, 2010)

Origin:

For once, I don't have an 'official' origin for this endearingly obscure word, however, I did find this tiny discussion on the website for World Wide Words

Following my request for information on this strange word, several subscribers commented that they came across it in Chosen Words by Ivor Brown, published in 1955. Brown said (and for this I am indebted to Ian Paterson) that the word means "to putter about in a feckless ineffective way" and that Brown heard of it in
connection with the trial of a Caithness man for sexual assault on a young girl. The girl said in Court that the defendant was just horbgorbling and no worse, so that the case was dismissed. It was suggested by other subscribers that it is a variant pronunciation (with spelling following it) of "hobgoblin", though this doesn't explain the sense. Mystery not yet solved, I'm afraid.

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Entries tagged with archaic

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Sunday Word: Horbgorbling

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