Showing posts with label word-hoard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label word-hoard. Show all posts

Monday, January 09, 2012

The Word-Hoard: Shinnicked

Shinnicked: "Benumbed, paralyzed with the cold, especially when accompanied by the contraction of the muscles and violent shivering." (G.M. Story's Dictionary of Newfoundland English, 1982)

Monday, November 21, 2011

The Word-Hoard: Devorative

Devorative "Capable of being swallowed whole."

(The Word Lover's Dictionary, Josefa Heifetz)

Monday, September 19, 2011

The Word-Hoard: Kalokagathia

Kalokagathia: "a combination of the good and the beautiful in a person."

(The Word Lover's Dictionary, Josefa Heifetz)

Monday, August 29, 2011

The Word-Hoard: Hochle

Hochle: "To tumble lewdly with women in open day." (John Mactaggart's Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia, 1824)

Monday, May 23, 2011

The Word-Hoard: Apophasis

apophasis: "mentioning something by saying it won't be mentioned: 'We won't mention his filthy habits.'" (The Word-Lover's Dictionary)

Monday, May 16, 2011

The Word-Hoard: Bibble

bibble: "1. to drink often or much. 2. to drink or eat noisily." (The Word-Lover's Dictionary)

Monday, May 09, 2011

The Word-Hoard: Curilogical

curilogical: "pertaining to a form of hieroglyphics which represents things by graphic illustrations rather than by abstract symbols." (The Word-Lover's Dictionary)

Monday, May 02, 2011

The Word-Hoard: Machicolation

machicolation: "1. an opening in a parapet, or floor, for dropping missiles on attackers. 2. the act itself." The Word-Lover's Dictionary)

Monday, April 25, 2011

The Word-Hoard: Gleek

"1. A trick or deception. 2. an enticing glance. 3. a card game for three people; three cards of the same rank in one hand; a trio." (The Word-Lover's Dictionary)

Also: a specialized form of spitting (you probably don't want to know), the blue space monkey sidekick to the Wonder Twins, and rabid fans of Glee.

And now you know. :)

Monday, April 04, 2011

The Word-Hoard: Roky

Roky

"Misty; cloudy; foggy."
- Rev. John Boag's Imperial Lexicon of the English Language, c. 1850

"Possessing or characterized by rokes...smoke, steam, vapour, mist, fog, drizzling rain."
- Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1914

Friday, April 01, 2011

The Word-Hoard: Goffen

Goffen

"To laugh idiotically; hence, goffeny, a fool, a silly person. Yorkshire."
-Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary, 1896-1905

"Goister, to laugh loudly."
-Jabez Good's Glossary of East Linconlshire, 1900

Monday, November 15, 2010

The Word-Hoard: Bibibles

Bibibles

"Food of liquid kind; an innovation formed on the model of edibles, which has little to recommend it, save its vulgarity." (John Farmer's Americanisms Old and New, 1889)

Monday, November 08, 2010

The Word-Hoard: Cothish

Cothish

"Faint, sickly, ailing. It is amply justified by modern and very frequent use. A dog is said to cothy when he is meek and delicate. [From] cothe, to faint. (Robert Forby's Vocabulary of East Anglia, 1830)

"Morose, uncouth; East Anglia, Norfolk." (James Wright's English Dialect Dictionary, 1896-1905)

"The springs in the New Forest are said 'to cothe' the sheep - that is, to disease their livers." (J.R. Wise's New Forest, 1880)

Monday, November 01, 2010

The Word-Hoard: Prigge

Prigge

"To filche; to steale." (John Bullokar's English Expositor, 1616)

Monday, October 25, 2010

The Word-Hoard: Crinigerous

Crinigerous

"Hairy; overgrown with hair. From Latin criniger." (Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, 1755)

Monday, October 18, 2010

The Word-Hoard: Friggling

Friggling

"Loitering or trifling about." (J. Drummond Robertson's Glossary of Archaic Gloucestershire Words, 1890)

"Friggle, to fidget, worry; to do anything in a slow or awkward way." (Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary, 1898-1905)

Monday, October 11, 2010

The Word-Hoard: Burry

Burry

"Probably rough, boorish, according to Lord Hailes. It might bear this meaning as descriptive of the shaggy appearance of [a] dog...from French bourru, flockie, hairie, rugged, [and Old French] bourre, locks of wool. But it seems more naturally to convey the idea of cruelty...From French bourreau, an executioner." (John Jamieson's Etymological English Dictionary of the Scottish Language, 1808)

"Burrie, to push roughly; to crowd confusedly and violently; to overpower." (Alexander Warrack's Scots Dialect Dictionary, 1911)

"Shaggy; rough."
(Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1888)

Monday, October 04, 2010

The Word-Hoard: Imaginant

Imaginant:

"One who is prone to form strange ideas."
(Rev. John Boag's Imperial Lexicon of the English Language, 1850)

"An imaginer [1600s]."
(Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1901)

Monday, September 27, 2010

The Word-Hoard: Priscianist

Priscianist:

"A grammarian." (Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1914)

"To break Priscian's head, to outrage the rules of grammar." (Albert Hyamson's Dictionary of English Phrases, 1922)

"The phrase 'Priscian a little scratched' [from Love's Labor's Lost] is a paraphrase of a common expression, 'diminuis Prisciana caput,' which was applied to such as speak false Latin. It may be fairly said that from the...sixth century until recently Priscian has reigned over Latin grammar." (John Phin's Shakespeare Cyclopedia and Glossary, 1902)

Monday, September 20, 2010

The Word-Hoard: Exosculate

Exosculate "To kiss heartily." (Nathaniel Bailey's Etymological English Dictionary, 1749)