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susurration, n.

a. Whispering; occas. a whisper; in early use, malicious whispering, tattle.

1631 I. Craven Gods Tribunall 28 The secret susurrations and buzzings of false tongues.

1825 C. Lamb Let. to Manning in T. N. Talfourd Final Memorials Lamb vii. 256 Not a susurration of this to anybody!

1892 Harper's Mag. Aug. 331/1 The crossing of the hands is accompanied by a muttering and susurration of the lips.

b. transf. A rustling murmur.

1640 J. Howell Δενδρολογια 2 Those soft susurrations of the Trees.

1888 Harper's Mag. Apr. 736 There is a constant susurration, a blattering and swarming of crustacea.

spurtle, n.

1. A flat implement used for turning oatcakes, etc.

2. A wooden stick for stirring porridge, etc.; a potstick or ‘thivel.’

1572 J. Knox Hist. Reformation Scotl. in Wks. (1846) I. 38 The preast (said he)..standis up on Sounday, and cryes, ‘Ane hes tynt a spurtill’.

1894 S. R. Crockett Raiders xxi. 190 [She was] standing with the porridge spurtle in her hand.

3. A sword.

c1700 J. Fraser Chron. Frasers (1905) 486 Then the King will say,..If't please your Grace put up your spurtle, Peter!

1793 R. Burns Poems (ed. 2) II. 221 But now he's quat the spurtle-blade, And dog-skin wallet.

1822 J. Galt Sir Andrew Wylie III. vi. 48 ‘The spurtle’, as he peevishly called the sword.

hurluberlu, adj., adv., n.

Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 4e Edition (1762)

HURLUBERLU. adv. Terme populaire, qui signifie, Inconsidérément, brusquement. Il est entré tout hurluberlu sans dire gare.

Il s'emploie aussi quelquefois adjectivement, & même substantivement. C'est un homme hurluberlu, & absolument, Un hurluberlu, c'est-à-dire, Un homme qui agit étourdiment, sans prendre garde à ce qu'il fait

Émile Littré: Dictionnaire de la langue française (1872-77)

HURLUBERLU (hur-lu-bèr-lu) s. m.

Celui qui est inconsidéré, brusque, étourdi. C'est un hurluberlu. Il se dit aussi des femmes. CHATEAUB., Vie de Rancé, 1re édit. Paris, 1844, p. 167: Mademoiselle [fille du frère de Louis XIII], grand hurluberlu, qui se trouvait partout avec son imagination, écrivit à Ranoé et lui demanda quelques religieux

REMARQUE 1. Mme de Sévigné a dit hurlubrelu, et appliqué ce mot à une sorte de coiffure de femme : SÉV., Lett. du 20 mai 1672: Elle est coiffée hurlubrelu ; cette coiffure est faite pour elle SÉV., ib. 1er avril 1671: Les coiffures hurlubrelu m'ont fort diverties, il y en a que l'on voudrait souffleter 2. On dit, à tort, dans le peuple : hustuberlu

HISTORIQUE XVIe s. RAB., Pant. V, Prologue: Car je vous jure, mon grand hurluberlu, qui si....

ÉTYMOLOGIE Origine inconnue. Richelet prétend qu'il vient de l'allemand, mais sans dire de quel mot. C'est peut-être un mot de fantaisie, comme tourlourou pour petit soldat qui fait le beau.

Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 8th Edition (1932-5)

HURLUBERLU. n. m. Personne qui parle ou agit avec étourderie et brusquerie. Quel hurluberlu! Cette femme est un véritable hurluberlu.

eke, n.

Forms: OE éaca, ME, 15, 18 eke, Sc. (15 eik, 16 eeke). See also eche n.1

Etymology: Old English éaca = Old Norse auke < Old Germanic *aukon- , < same root as echev.

1. An addition, increase; a piece added on; a supplement. In Old English, A reinforcement (of troops).

894 Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Parker MS.) , Him com micel eaca to.

1786 A. Geddes Prosp. New Transl. Bible 95 The words in Italics..are generally ill-assorted and clumsy ekes.

2a. A tag to a bell-rope; also attrib., as in bell-eke. Also echen.1

b. A short straw or wooden cylinder on which a beehive is placed to increase its capacity.

1549 in Miss T. Smith Rotherham Acc. (1878) 12 Paid to Robt. Machon for a neke to our gret Bell.

3. Sc. (16th and 17th c.) A supplement, postscript, appendix to a formal document.

1651 D. Calderwood Hist. Kirk Scotl. (1843) II. 451 The other partie had givin in an eeke or additioun to their former answere.

4. In adv. phr. to eken (Old English tó éacan) in addition, besides, contracted in Middle English into teke adv., q.v. Also, in same sense, on eke.

c1325 in G. L. Brook Harley Lyrics (1968) 37 Hire chyn ys chosen ant eyþer cheke whit ynoh ant rode on eke.

5. A male salmon

1887 Pall Mall Gaz. 22 Aug. 10/2 It [a salmon] was a male fish, or what is known in the north of England amongst fishermen as an ‘eke’.

analects, n.

Etymology: < post-classical Latin analecta literary gleanings, collections of fragments or extracts (1593 in a work title, or earlier) < ancient Greek ἀνάλεκτα , neuter plural of ἀνάλεκτοςselect, choice < ἀνά- ana- prefix + λεκτός chosen (see lectotype n.), after ἀναλέγειν to pick up, gather up. With sense 1 compare classical Latin analecta slave who collected the crumbs after a meal.

1. Discarded fragments of food, esp. those gathered after a meal; morsels, scraps, crumbs. Obs.

1623 H. Cockeram Eng. Dict., Analects, crums which fall from the table

1816 Scott Antiquary I. xiv. 312, I love the reversion of a feast better than the feast itself. I delight in the analecta, the collectanea, as I may call them, of the preceding day's dinner.

2. Literary or philosophical fragments or extracts; (a name for) a collection of such extracts, an anthology. Also occas. insing.: an extract, or a compilation of these. Now rare.

1651 N. Biggs Matæotechnia Medicinæ Praxeωs 213 The errors and ignorances‥have not bin sucked and elaborated (like the Bee) so much out of, either the poison of somes [sic] dotages and uncertain principles, or others Florilege and Analect.

1982 Times Lit. Suppl. 12 Nov. 1253/1 For readers such as these even the slightest analect must be a thing of the very highest value.

2a. spec. With capital initial: (the name of) a collection of the ideas of Confucius gathered by his disciples, and forming the basis of the philosophy of Confucianism.

1916 Harvard Theol. Rev. 9 454 Unshaken faith in Heaven, to which he [sc.Confucius] gave frequent expression, as we find recorded in the Analects.

1981 R. Dawson Confucius iv. 51 In the Analects, chung certainly meant ‘doing one's best for’ rather than blind obedience to the dictates of one's superior.

absquatulate, v.

Etymology: Perhaps humorously < ab- (compare ab- prefix1 and perhaps abscond v.) + squat v. (compare squat v. 9a) + -ulate (in e.g. congratulate v., perambulate v., capitulate v., etc.), in imitation of a word of Latin origin. Compare the parallel formation absquatulize v.; given the very close dates of first attestation, it is difficult to establish which word was in fact the earlier formation.

1. intr. To abscond, make off. Also occas. trans. with it.

1830 Painesville (Ohio) Telegr. 1/5 Obsquatulate—To mosey, to abscond.

1834 S. Smith A. Jackson 36 By golly, if you absquotulate, you are ded before you can say Jack Robinson.

1840 T. C. Haliburton Clockmaker ii. 16 Absquotilate it in style, you old skunk,‥and show the gentlemen what you can do.

1861 J. Lamont Seasons with Sea-horses xi. 179 He [sc. an old bull-walrus] heard us, and lazily awaking, raised his head and prepared to absquatulate.

2. trans. To send away, dismiss; to put to flight. Now rare.

1846 Forest Hill I. xii. 163, I guess I should like to see the other man who made you cry. If I wouldn't just obsquatulate him, I tell you, I'm a Dutchman!

1910 H. G. Wells Hist. Mr. Polly v. 117 Ready to absquatulate all the dragons and rescue you.

Golding-isms

Neologisms from the 1567 translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses by Arthur Golding

Woose: ooze

Throatboll: Adam’s-apple

Quoath: faint

Yesk: sob

Gnoor: snarl

Toot: gaze at

Overdreep: droop over

Leechcraft: medical science

elesaew, n.

Etymology: < Old English ele oil + séaw , sew n.1, juice.

Oil.

?c1200 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 8667 Drihhtin seȝȝþ‥tatt te shall þin elesaew. Lasstenn.

?c1200 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 994 Bræd‥smeredd wel wiþþ ele sæw.

ophidiarium, n.

Etymology: < Ophidia n. + -arium suffix, after aquarium n., vivarium n., etc.

A vivarium for snakes.

1882 C. C. Hopley Snakes Introd. 16, I now invite my readers to accompany me in imagination to the Ophidarium.

virago, n.

Forms: Also virragoo, verago, vyrago, firago.

Etymology: Latin virāgo a man-like or heroic woman, a female warrior, etc., vir man. Hence also Old French, French virago , Spanish virago

1. Woman. (Only as the name given by Adam to Eve, after the Vulgate rendering of Gen. ii. 23.)

1000 Ælfric Homilies I. 14 Beo hire nama Uirago, þæt is, fæmne, forðan ðe heo is of hire were genumen. a1300 Cursor Mundi 633 Virago gaf he hir to nam; þar for hight sco virago, for maked o þe man was sco. a1425 (1395) Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Royal) (1850) Gen. ii. 23 And Adam seide‥This schal be clepid virago, for she is takun of man. 1483 Caxton tr. J. de Voragine Golden Legende 37 b/1, And Adam gaf here a name lyke as her lord and said, she shal be called Virago, whiche is as moche to saye as made of a man and is a name taken of a man. a1500 Chester Pl. i. 150 Shee shalbe called, I wisse, Viragoo, nothing amisse, For out of man tacken shee is. 1547 A. Borde Breuiary of Helthe i. f. lxxxxiiii, First whan a woman was made of god she was named Virago because she dyd come of a man. 1576 G. Gascoigne Droomme of Doomes Day i. ⁋6 Before Eva sinned, she was called Virago, and after she sinned she deserved to be called Eva.

2a. A man-like, vigorous, and heroic woman; a female warrior; an amazon. Now rare.

1513 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid xii. viii. 56 The mynd‥Of Juturna, the verray virago; Quhilk term to expone, be myne avis, Is a woman exersand a mannis office.

1553 R. Eden tr. S. Münster Treat. Newe India sig. Fjv, One of his wiues‥decketh her selfe moste gorgiously‥& procedeth like a Virago stoutly & cherefully to the fire, where the corps of her husbande was burnte. 1582 R. Stanyhurst tr. Virgil First Foure Bookes Æneis i. 14 No swarms or trouping horsmen can apale the virago. 1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage 383 This Sultan presented him with the head of that Virago Periaconcona vpon the top of a Launce. a1641 R. Montagu Acts & Monuments (1642) 361 Shee so ruled as Queene eight yeers and better: a man-like virago of a stout and noble spirit. 1677 W. Hubbard Narrative (1865) II. 20 That young Virago kept the door fast against them. 1717 Pope Rape of Lock v, in Wks. 160 To arms, to arms! the fierce Virago cries, And swift as lightning to the combate flies. 1781 W. Cowper Let. 5 Mar. (1979) I. 455 And as to the Neutralities, I really think the Russian virago an impertinent Puss for meddling with us. 1831 T. Carlyle Sartor Resartus iii. xi, Did not the same virago boast that she had a Cavalry Regiment, whereof neither horse nor man could be injured. 1885 19th Cent. May 472 She [Vittoria Colonna] was a virago, a name which, however misapprehended now, bore a different and worthy signification in her day.

2b. Applied to a man. Obs. rare.

a1616 Shakespeare Twelfth Night (1623) iii. iv. 267 Why man, hee's a verie diuell, I haue not seen such a firago.‥ They say, he has bin Fencer to the Sophy.

a1640 J. Day & H. Chettle Blind-beggar (1659) sig. G3, Come then my mad Viragoes‥now I'll turn swaggerer my self.

3. A bold, impudent (†or wicked) woman; a termagant, a scold.

c1386 Chaucer Man of Law's Tale 359 O Sowdanesse, roote of Iniquitee, Virago, thou Semyrame the secounde [etc.]. 1719 Swift Quiet Life in Wks. (1735) II. 350 He saw virago Nell belabor, With Dick's own Staff, his peaceful Neighbour. 1773 G. White Let. 26 Mar. in Nat. Hist. Selborne (1789) 150 Every hen is in her turn the virago of the yard.

4. attrib., chiefly appositive, as virago family, virago girl, virago heroine, etc.; also virago-strain.

1621 J. Taylor Superbiæ Flagellum C vi, Like shamelesse double sex'd Hermaphrodites, Virago Roaring Girles. 1891 F. W. Farrar Darkness & Dawn I. i. 12 If she had not made Galba and his virago-mother feel the weight of her vengeance, it was only because they were too insignificant.

Also, +virago-like, adj.

1602 J. Marston Hist. Antonio & Mellida Induct. sig. A4, An Amazon should have such a voice, virago-like.

DERIVATIVES: viragoish adj. somewhat resembling, or characteristic of, a virago, viragoship n. the character of a virago.

peradventure, n.

Etymology: Johnson comments: ‘It is sometimes used as a noun, but not gracefully nor properly.’ However, the use is well supported.

1. The possibility of a thing being so or not; uncertainty, doubt; a chance, contingency; a risk, hazard. Now rare.

c1450 tr. Bk. Knight of La Tour Landry (1906) 56 She ansuered‥‘yef we ete of this fruite, perauenture we shull deye’, and thus she putte condicion in her ansuere; but oure Lorde putte ther inne no condicion nor no perauenture.

1996 Times (Nexis) 16 Feb., What is, without any possibility of a peradventure, the most hideous building in the history of the world.

2. An adventure. rare.

1917 T. Hardy Coll. Poems (1930) 505 Peradventures unsought, Peradventures that finished in nought, Had kept me from youth and through manhood till lately Unwon by its style.

PHRASES:

† 1. beyond (also †out of, †past, without) (all) peradventure : out of the realm of uncertainty, beyond question, without doubt.

865 H. Bushnell Vicarious Sacrifice iii. v. 271 A state of natural punition that is, without a peradventure, endless.

†2. by (also at) (a) peradventure : by chance or accident; at random, randomly. Obs.

1895 A. Lang tr. Monk of Fife xviii. 239, I saw the violet woman‥place her finger, as it were by peradventure, on her lips.

kickshaw | kickshaws, n.

Forms: α. sing.15–17 (in 16 pl.) quelque chose; pl.16 quel- que(s)-, quelk-, kick-choses, quelque choices; kicke-shoses, -chawses. β. pl.15–16 kick-shawes, 16 kicshoes, kick-shose, -shoes, -showes, -shores, -shews, -chawes, ( quick-chaws); kek-, kecshose, ke(c)k-, queck-shoes; 16– kickshaws. γ. sing.16– kickshaw.

Etymology: French quelque chose something. The original French spelling was frequent in the 17th cent., but the commonest forms follow the pronunciation que'que chose formerly regarded as elegant, and still current in colloquial French. The word was sometimes correctly taken as singular, with plural -choses , etc.; more commonly it was treated as a plural, and a singular kickshaw afterwards formed from it.

1. A fancy dish in cookery. (Chiefly with contemptuous force: A ‘something’ French, not one of the known ‘substantial English’ dishes.)

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues, Fricandeaux, short, skinlesse, and daintie puddings, or Quelkchoses.

1642 D. Featley Καταβαπτισται Καταπτυστοι (1645) 199, I made bold to set on the board kicke-shoses, and variety of strange fruits.

1600 Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 2 v. i. 24 A ioynt of mutton, and any pretty little tinie Kick-shawes.

1840 Thackeray George Cruikshank (1869) 303 The Chef is instructing a kitchen-maid how to compound some rascally French kickshaw.

2. Something dainty or elegant, but unsubstantial or comparatively valueless; a toy, trifle, gew-gaw.

1616 Shakespeare Twelfth Night (1623) i. iii. 111 A. I delight in Maskes and Reuels sometimes altogether. T. Art thou good at these kicke-chawses Knight?

J. Webster Deuils Law-case ii. i, A pox vpon them Cuckshawes that beget Such monsters without fundaments.

1886 E. L. Bynner Agnes Surriage xxxi. 378 Go buy some kickshaws to send home to your mother.

3. A fantastical, frivolous person /4. attrib. as adj. Frivolous, trifling.

1644 Milton Of Educ. 8 The Mounsieurs of Paris to take our hopefull youth‥and send them over back again transform'd into mimics, apes & Kicshoes.

1870 Dickens Edwin Drood xii. 86 He sang‥no kickshaw ditties.

***kickshawed adj. /ˈkɪkʃɔːd/ consisting of or treated with kickshaws.

1862 A. Vance tr. Hist. Jehan de Saintré Introd. 29 Good‥reading‥risen at of our greasy palates as is plum porridge of a kickshawed stomach.

facinorous, adj.

Etymology: < classical Latin facinorōsus criminal, wicked < facinor- (also faciner- ), facinus deed, especially bad deed ( < facere to do (see fact n.) + a suffix of Indo-European origin forming legal terms relating to property, also seen in e.g. fēnus interest: see fenerate v.) + -ōsus -ous suffix. Compare Middle French facinereux (1483), facinoreux (1488).

arch. in later use.

common in the 17th century.

1. Extremely wicked or immoral; grossly criminal; vile, atrocious, heinous; infamous.

1548 Hall's Vnion: Richard III f. xxixv, The people hauing, in there freshe memorie the facinorous acte of there kynge.

1656 Artif. Handsom. 131 Things highly charged with sin‥to a more facinorous and notorious degree.

1799 G. Walker Vagabond II. ii. 37 When shall‥the catachrestical reasonings of facinorous aristocrats be dispanded?

1979 New Eng. Q. 52 567 He [sc. Jefferson] regarded Britain as facinorous. It was permeated by cupidity and commercialism.

mantissa, n.

1. An addition of comparatively small importance, esp. to a text or discourse; a supplement. Obs.

1641 H. Maisterson Serm. 20 Trifles, which‥should‥as a mantissa or an overplus be cast in at their bargain.

1642 R. Cudworth Disc. Lords Supper i. 9 It will not be now amisse, if we adde as a Mantissa to that discourse, something of the Custom of the Heathens.

1671 R. MacWard True Non-conformist 5 Spurning at the righteousnes of Jesus Christ, and aspiring to adde a Mantissa, an addition of your own, to his sole purchase.1781 E. Darwin Let. 29 Sept. (1981) 112 Mr. Lightfoot advises the botanical society to introduce the plants in the Mantissa in their proper places.

miséricorde (!), n.

1. Compassion pour la misère d'autrui. Synon. commisération. Exercer, pratiquer la miséricorde; faire miséricorde. Sur le haut de grosses charrettes de foin les yeux des paysans me regardent à la fenêtre avec miséricorde (Jacob, Cornet dés, 1923, p.162).

+Œuvres de miséricorde. Bonnes oeuvres.

2. Générosité entraînant le pardon, l'indulgence pour un coupable, un vaincu. Synon. clémence. Demander, obtenir miséricorde; s'abandonner, se remettre à la miséricorde de qqn. L'arrestation signifiait: les assises, le jugement, la mort, la mort sans miséricorde et sans délai (Dumas père, Monte-Cristo, t.2, 1846, p.533).

3. RELIG. Bonté par laquelle Dieu fait grâce aux hommes. Dieu de miséricorde!... Pitié! (Krüdener, Valérie, 1803, p.97). Dieu fait réellement miséricorde aux coupables en les châtiant dans ce monde (J. de Maistre, Soirées St-Pétersb., t.2, 1821, p.119). La miséricorde de Dieu est infinie (Claudel, Otage, 1911, iii, 4, p.301).

♦ Loc. À tout péché miséricorde. Aucune faute n'est impardonnable. À tout péché miséricorde et surtout aux péchés de jeunesse (Proust, J. filles en fleurs, 1918, p.474).

4. [Exclam. marquant la surprise, la douleur, l'inquiétude (v. malheur)] Miséricorde! Miséricorde! plus tu l'essuies, plus la tache paraît! (Quinet, Ahasvérus, 1833, 3e journée, p.245). Miséricorde! si ça allait ne pas être bien! (Green, Journal, 1934, p.223). − Loc. Crier miséricorde. Exprimer vivement sa douleur. Le Barthaut, pourtant, qui arrivait aux nouvelles fut surpris à en crier miséricorde (Pourrat, Gaspard, 1925, p.248).

hiatus, n.

[Easily overlooked rare significations and some choices examples. Big enough to receive a chestnut and long enough to move to a new city and begin a new semester. To be resumed shortly.] Etymology: < Latin hiātus gaping, gap, opening, < hiāre to gape.

a. A break in the continuity of a material object; a gaping chasm; an opening or aperture. Now rare.

1599 Master Broughtons Lett. xiii. 44 Hades‥was below, and Abrahams bosome was aboue, and betweene them both a great huge Hiatus.

1695 J. Woodward Ess. Nat. Hist. Earth 117 The Water of this Orb communicates with that of the Ocean, by means of certain Hiatus's or Chasmes passing betwixt it and the bottom of the Ocean.

1737 B. Franklin Causes Earthquakes in Pennsylvania Gaz. 15 Dec. 2/1 These Hiatus's at the Bottom of the Sea, whereby the Abyss below opens into it and communicates with it.

b. Anat. An opening or foramen. Also attrib., as hiatus hernia n. a hernia in which an organ, esp. the stomach, protrudes through the œsophageal opening in the diaphragm.

1928 Acta Radiologica IX. 301 Diaphragmatic hiatus-hernia and oesophageal diverticulum were roentgenologically diagnosed.

c. humorously. A rent or hole in a garment.

1761 L. Sterne Life Tristram Shandy IV. xxvii. 176 The hiatus in Phutatorius's breeches was sufficiently wide to receive the chesnut.

a. A gap or interruption of continuity in a chronological or other series; a lacuna which destroys the completeness of a sentence, account, writing, etc.; a missing link in a chain of events, etc.

1655 T. Fuller Church-hist. Brit. ii. 98 A Dunce-Monk, being to make his Epitaph‥at Night left the Verse thus gaping, Hic sunt in fossa Bedæ —— ossa, till he had consulted with his Pillow, to fill up the Hiatus. 1874 W. B. Carpenter Princ. Mental Physiol. i. i. §1 A Material Instrument, whose function it is to bridge over the hiatus between the individual Consciousness and the External World.

b. Logic. A step wanting in a chain of proof; a gap in reasoning or evidence.

1850 J. C. Calhoun Wks. (1874) II. 269 Where is that hiatus‥between the premises and the conclusion?

a1850—a1850

3. Grammar and Prosody. The break between two vowels coming together without an intervening consonant in successive words or syllables. Also attrib. and Comb., as hiatus-consonant, hiatus-filler, hiatus-glide; hiatus-filling adj.The break or interval of silence is necessary in order that the two vowels may be separately heard, when there is no intervening consonant to mark the division between them.

1706 Pope Corr. 22 Oct. (1956) I. 24 The Hiatus which has the worst effect, is, when one word ends with the same Vowel that begins the following. 1875 J. R. Lowell Spenser in Literary Ess. (1890) IV. 309 (note) , He [Milton] also shuns a hiatus which does not seem to have been generally displeasing to Spenser's ear.

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