MW Now as concerninge the two articles obiected by your most excellente maiestye, whether I woulde acknowledge those bookes which were named, and be publyshed in my name, or whether I would mainteine & not reuoke thē: I haue geuē…
Month: March 2021
Queach
One of the earliest examples of usage cited in the OED is in Golding’s translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses: 1565 A. Golding tr. Ovid Fyrst Fower Bks. Metamorphosis i. f. 2v Their houses were the thyckes, And bushie queaches. from “queach,…
The many kinds of Alacrity
MW Alacrity in Joyce and Burton. The rogues slighted me into the river with as little remorse as they would have drown’d a blind bitch’s puppies, fifteen i’ th’ litter; and you may know by my size that I have…
Diffident
MW Solitariness. Most part they are, as Plater notes, desides, taciturni, aegre impulsi, nec nisi coacti procedunt, &c. they will scarce be compelled to do that which concerns them, though it be for their good, so diffident, so dull, of…
Exodus
MW The trees are white with dust, that o’er their sleepWave their broad curtains in the south-wind’s breath,While underneath such leafy tents they keepThe long, mysterious Exodus of Death. Author and Text In a psychological point of view, it is…
Words of the day: March 18 – March 26, 2021 Fiscal, Prevaricate, Equinox, Inimitable, Quash, Sesquipedalian
Fiscal Why, Excellency, we and his Highness hereWould settle the matter as sufficientlyAs ever will Advocate This and Fiscal ThatAnd Judge the Other, with even–a word and a wink–We well know who for ultimate arbiter.Let us beware o’ the basset-table–lestWe…
Blarney
MW All the better. He could have kicked himself for wanting to help mankind, join in revolutions or reforms or any of that stuff. And he kicked himself still harder thinking of his frantic struggles with the “soul” and the…
Replete
MW Fish (fly-replete, in depth of June,Dawdling away their wat’ry noon)Ponder deep wisdom, dark or clear,Each secret fishy hope or fear.Fish say, they have their Stream and Pond;But is there anything Beyond? This life cannot be All, they swear,For how…
Circumlocution and Circumlucency
MW Circumlucency — not defined by the OED or Merriam-Webster, but imagined: The lagoon was calm, as we landed; not a breath stirred the plumes of the trees; and as we entered the voiceless shades, lifting his hand, Babbalanja whispered:–“This…
Attitudinize
MW An unusual word: for each of the two main senses of the word (of striking an attitude and of practising affected and self-conscious deportment) the OED cites only three examples. Interestingly, this word was “frequently” used–on three occasions–by Henry…