Vanquash
verb. TO SMASHTICATE Nay, if you be no better in the Reare then in the Van I shall make no doubt to vanquish, and vanquash you, too, before we part. … Continue Reading ⇒
Nonce-Word
Frescour
noun. Coolness; adj. Cool and crisp By Cold, and by a kinde of Frescour (as we now-a-days speak). Bacon’s Life & D. (1627) OED says noun, but there are some … Continue Reading ⇒
Airgonation
noun. Air travel by hot-air-balloon. A sort of meditation on future airgonation, supposing that it will not only be perfected, but will depose navigation. Letters, Horace Walpole (1784) One who … Continue Reading ⇒
Man-case
noun. Body. He had an handsome man-case, and better it had been empty with weakness, than (as it was) ill-fitted with viciousness.The church-history of Britain, Thomas Fuller (1655) Hey there … Continue Reading ⇒
Amomous
adj. Blameless [the Church] shold be holi and without blemish, or rather Amomous..that is irreprehensible, safeguarded from the bitings of Momus, one of the feined Gods among the Gentils. Theologica … Continue Reading ⇒
Meist
noun. An egotist. His Works hereafter will be more favourably receiv’d..by the Meists and Selfists. Common Sense (1737) A meist (or me-ist) is someone who subscribes to some form of … Continue Reading ⇒
Obitaneously
adv. By the way; in passing. That such a Doctrine..should be left thus faintly, thus obscurely, and, if I may so say, obitaneously, declared. Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit, Samuel … Continue Reading ⇒
Legerdeheel
noun. ‘Light-heeled’ pranks. If your wiues play legerdeheele, though you bee a hundred miles off, yet you shall be sure instantly to find it in your forheads. All Fools, George … Continue Reading ⇒
Kirkist
noun. An adherent of the ‘kirk’ or Scottish church. What hath been done by kirkists these last dozen of yeers. The discovery of a most exquisite jewel, Thomas Urquhart (1652) … Continue Reading ⇒
Jocoseriosity
noun. Being half in jest, half serious. Our own poet has lately characterized himself as a jocoserious genius; and in fact this jocoseriosity seems of much the same quality with the … Continue Reading ⇒