​FRIBBLISH
 
ADJ.
having the quality of a fribble;
​frivolous, trifling, ridiculous ...1768

ETYMOLOGY
from fribble (n. a trifling, frivolous person) + -ish

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1768 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...His windows are glazed with as much variety as a glazier's sign, but he has picked up a vast quantity of pretty old painted glass. His library is indeed as fribblish as himself, and so furnished with looking-glass that had it the property of representing to him his inside as well as outside, it might read him a better lesson than he could find in his whole collection of books, and shew him his own insignificancy..."
From: The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs Delany
 - Mary Delany

EXCEPTIOUS
 
ADJ.
prone to making objections;
​cavilling, peevish, captious, complaining ...1602

ETYMOLOGY
from excepti(on) + -ous 

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1602 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...Our Lords they charge, our Ladies they command,
And who but us? And for a thing not done,
Our Lords and Ladies anger, out of hand,
Must turne us walking in the Summers Sunne,
While those things that are done must alwaies lye,
As objects to a nice exceptious eye..."
From: Sword & Buckler
- William Basse

HOOKUM-SNIVEY
also HOOK AND SNIVEY, HOOK AND SNIVVY,
HOOK 'EM SNIVEY, HOOKEM SNIVEY 

ADJ.
deceitful, tricky, sly ...1892 Eng. dial. & sl.

NOUN
1. an imposture or deceit ...1781 Eng. dial. & sl.
(for the criminal trick, see the EXAMPLE below)
2. a contrivance for undoing the bolt of a door from the outside ...1802

ETYMOLOGY
probably from hook (n. a length of metal or other material adapted for catching hold, sustaining suspended objects, or the like), or from hook (vb.)

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1781 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...This practice is executed by three men and a dog; one of the men counterfeits sickness, and has a white handkerchief tied round his head, or wears a nightcap.
They go into an ale-house, and are shown a room: having hid the dog under the table, they ring the bell and call for a pot of beer, and desire to know of the landlord if he has got any cold meat in the house, and what two of them must give a-piece to dine, as the third man is very ill?
He leans his head against the mantel-piece, keeps groaning and sighing, and says he can't eat a mouthful if the whole world were given to him.
This trick had once been attempted on a landlord, who was a man of the world and up to their gossip.
He informed them that he should charge them only sixpence a-head, and sent them in part of a cold round of beef; He watched them, and saw them give the counterfeit sick man above a pound of beef, and another to the Buffer under the table.
When they called to know what was to pay, he told them two shillings for eating, for he would be paid a sye-buck a-piece, and would stand no hook and snivey, or Nix the Buffer....."
(sye-buck = a sixpence)
From: A View of Society and Manners in High and Low Life,
​Being the Adventures of G. Parker
- George Parker

UPBRAY
 
NOUN
a reproach or reproof ...1590 obs.

VERB
1. to upbraid; to reproach, reprove, or censure;
to find fault with, to carp at ...1581 obs. exc. Eng. dial.
2. of food: to rise in the stomach;
to make uneasy with indigestion ...1598 obs. exc. Eng. dial.
3. to give utterance to ...c1600 obs. exc. Eng. dial.

ETYMOLOGY
an erroneous back-formation from upbrayd, obsolete past tense of upbraid (vb.)
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1581 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...Harkē a whiles you Portingal. Truly I may selfe haue heard the Iewes obbraying vs christiāns with the same faults, wherwith you do reproch vs now touching disordered life..."
From: Against Ierome Osorius Byshopp of Siluane
- Walter Haddon and John Foxe
Translated by James Bell

​SLUMMOCKY
also SLAMMOCKY, SLAWMECKY, SLOMMACHY,
SLOMMACKY, SLUMMACKY, SLUMMUCKY 

ADJ.
1. slovenly, untidy; careless, sloppy ...1855 colloq. & Eng. dial.
2. of a person's body: soft and flabby, out of shape ...1861 colloq. & Eng. dial.
3. ungainly, awkward; characterized by clumsy or careless movement ...1865 colloq. & Eng. dial.

ETYMOLOGY
adj.1) probably from slummock (n. a person who is habitually negligent or lazy with regard to person appearance or household cleanliness) + -y
adj. 2 & 3) probably from slummock (vb. to walk or move in a heavy, ungainly, clumsy, or careless manner) + -y 

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1855 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...Why, Massa, de common slommachy way people ab ob boiling it on de cob; dat she said was only half a way. Oh, Lordy gracious, one way she wented, de corn was as white as snow, as light as puff, and so delicate it disgested itself in de mout..."
From: Nature and Human Nature, by the Author of 'Sam Slick, The Clockmaker'
- Thomas Chandler Haliburton

APIFACTURE
 
NOUN
the work of bees; the production of honey by bees ...1622 obs. rare

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin apis bee + factūra making, production
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1622 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...Next let vs somewhat digresse from Manufacture, to Apifacture, (and with Salomon the wise, send the sluggard to imitate the paine­full and laborious Bees) for the increase of Hony and Waxe in England, Scotland and Ireland, and others of his Maiesties domi­nions: and let mans helpe succour this Apifacture, if it may be so cal­led, as followeth...."
From: Consuetudo, Vel Lex Mercatoria; Or, The Ancient Law-Merchant
- Gerald de Malynes

WHUTTER
 
NOUN
the sound of the flapping of the wings of a large bird, or of a flight of birds ...1831

ETYMOLOGY
imitative 
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1831 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...There is silence in the Snuggery from half-past seven till half-past eight; or, rather, a sound like the whutter of wild-fowl on the feed along a mud-bank, by night, in Poole Harbour, at low-water, as described by Colonel Hawker..."
From: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine
Vol. XXIX. January - June, 1831
in: Noctes Ambrosianae
- John Wilson

KILL-DEVIL
 
ADJ.
that would kill devils; deadly ...1831

NOUN
1. a recklessly daring fellow ...a1593 obs.
2. brandy or rum, or newly-made rum ...1647-50 obs. colloq.
3. a gun ...1699 UK sl.
4. an artificial bait used in angling,
​made to spin in the water like a wounded fish ...1833
5. strong alcohol, esp. whisky ...1867 US sl.
6. very strong tobacco ...1953 US sl.

ETYMOLOGY
from kill (vb.) + -devil
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
a1593 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...Let your Balio and your Belcher come here, and Ile knocke them, they were neuer so knockt since they were diuels, say I should kill one of them, what would folkes say? "Do ye see yonder tall fellow in the round slop,, hee has kild the diuell," so I should be cald kill diuell all the parish ouer..."
From: The Tragicall History of D. Faustus
- Christopher Marlowe 

BOHUNKUS
 
NOUN
1. silly behaviour, nonsense ...1918 obs. rare, originally and chiefly US usage
2. (often derogatory) an eastern or southeastern European, esp. of the working class; a Bohemian; a foreigner ...1924 Amer. dial.
3. a stupid, obnoxious, or worthless person; often used as a term of abuse or a contemptuous form of address ...1933
4. a person's buttocks; the bottom, the backside ...1941

ETYMOLOGY
apparently from the title of a comic song and the name of its rustic and unintelligent character, Bohunkus (1870s)

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1918 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...Now look here! Any more shilly-shallying and bohunkus and I fire the both of you. See?..."
From: The Saturday Evening Post (Philadelphia)
14 Dec, 1918
in: Suffering Husbands, by Wallace Irwin

NIDGERY
 
NOUN
a small or worthless object; a trifle; a knickknack;
a piece of foolery ...1611 obs. rare

ETYMOLOGY
from French nigerie (a trifle) from niger (to trifle or waste time) + -ery
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1611 - Nigeries f. nidgeries, fopperies, fooleries, trifles, nifles, friulous bables
From: A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues
- Randle Cotgrave

EXAMPLE
"...he never falters or fambles for a word (a bon bec) but will invent one rather than cheat you of your allowance. Ask him the meaning of so light a word as Bagatelle, and he floods you with - "trifle, trash, bawble, peppercorn, nidgeries, feather, punctilio, pimping-thing, piddling-business, fiddle-faddle, stuff, toy, fiddle-stick, fig, foolery, fingle-fangle, flim-flam, kickshaw, trinket..."
From: Literature: An International Gazette of Criticism
New York, Friday, May 19, 1899
in: Humor of Dictionaries, by Cecil Headlam

PROCLIVITOUS
 
ADJ.
steep ...1859 obs. rare

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin proclivitas (downward slope, tendency, propensity), from prōclīvis (sloping deeply forwards and downwards) + -ous,
​probably after declivitous, acclivitous
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1859 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...The roads, as usual in East Africa, are tracks trodden down by caravans and cattle, and the watercourse is ever the favourite Pass. Many of the ascents and descents are so proclivitous that donkeys must be relieved of their loads; and in fording the sluggish streams, where no grass forms a causeway over the soft, viscid mire, they sink almost to the knees..."
From: The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London
- Sir Richard Francis Burton

VIADANT
 
NOUN
a wayfarer; a traveller ...1632 obs. rare
​ 
ETYMOLOGY
from Spanish viandante, Portuguese viandante, Italian viandante, (a traveller, especially on foot) from via way + andar(e to go

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1632 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...are alwayes occupied for the maintaining of their Families: they are but poorely clad, yet wonderfull kinde to all Viadants; so that who so have occasion to passe that Mountain, are there lodged, and furnished of all necessary provision of food..."
From: The Totall Discourse, of the Rare Adventures, and Painefull Peregrinations of Long Nineteene Yeares Travailes from Scotland, to the Most Famous Kingdomes in Europe, Asia, and Affrica ...
- William Lithgow

CLANCULARY
 
ADJ.
secret, private; clandestine, underhand ...1563 obs.
 
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin clanculārius secret, from clanculum adv., diminutive of clam in secret, privately + -ary

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1563 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...If the king and the fautors of his procedings, why be not we now the church abiding in the same procedinges? If clanculary Massemongers mighte bee of the Church, and yet contrary to the kinges proceedings, why may not we as well be of ye church contrarying ye queenes procedinges?..."
From:  The First Volume of The Ecclesiasticall History Contaynyng the Actes and Monumentes of Thynges Passed...
- John Foxe
​​

ROARATION
 
NOUN
a roaring discourse; a loud or emphatic oration;
a deep and prolonged noise ...1617 obs.
 
ETYMOLOGY
a humorous blend of roar and oration

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1617 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...but the Gift in this fatal month answered her name and gave them for a New Year's Gift such orations (roarations ye may call them) that they were easily persuaded to leave the Hope, and all hopeless to cool their hot blood with leaping into the sea's cold waters, where many for want of a boat made use of Charon's ..."
From: Purchas His Pilgrimage; Or, Relations of the World and the Religions Obserued in all Ages and Places Discouered
- Samuel Purchas
​

GLOTTER
 
VERB
to chatter ...1656 obs.
 
ETYMOLOGY
possibly echoic usage

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1656 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...whence it is, that the sounds of Brute Creatures so much vary, that the Snake hisseth, the Eagle clangeth, the Stork glottereth, the Chough caweth, the Bee hummeth, the Cow loweth, the Bull belloweth, the Sheep bleateth, the Swine grunteth, or whineth, the Fox yelpeth, the Bear murmureth, Etc. and that fishes want voice, becaus they want Lungs and a Rough Artery..."
From: The Gate of the Latine Tongue Unlocked
- Johannes Amos Comenius

TITCH
 
NOUN
1. † a kid ...Bk1867 Ireland
2. a small person; a name for a small person ...1888 chiefly Brit.
3. a very little; a small amount ...1937 colloq.
4. (also as TISH) phencyclidine (PCP) ...1979 US drugs sl.

ETYMOLOGY
n. 2. from 'Little Tich', the stage name of Harry Relph, an English music hall comedian and dancer (1867–1928), whose performances played on his
unusually short stature
n. 3. a regional and colloquial pronunciation of 'touch' (n. the degree of purity of gold or silver as determined by testing with a touchstone)
n. 4. a variant of tic, a misreading of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol)

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1868 - Titch. A kid
From: A Glossary, with Some Pieces of Verse, of the Old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland
 - Jacob Poole, 1867

EXAMPLE
"...John Thomas Young, better known as ‘Tich’, died in Oldham Workhouse on Saturday night...."
From: The York Herald
Tuesday, September 11, 1888

SHRIGHT

NOUN
shrieking; a shriek ...1558 obs.

VERB
to shriek ...a1542 obs.

ETYMOLOGY
n. corresponding to scright (n. a shout, a cry) = Old Frisian skrichte, Middle Low German schricht(e
vb. either from the noun, or from shritch (vb. to shriek, to screech)

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
a1542 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...And ye salt teres, again my will eche nyght
That are with me, when fayn I would be alone :
Then are ye gone when I should make my mone.
And you, so reddy sighes to make me shright,
Then are ye slake when that ye shulde owtestert,
And onely my loke declareth my hert...."

(...And ye salt tears, again my will each night
That are with me, when fain I would be alone,
Then are ye gone when I should make my moan.
And you, so ready sighs to make me shright,
Then are ye slake when that ye should outstart,
And onely my look declareth my heart...)

From: Collected poems of Sir Thomas Wyatt
- Thomas Wyatt

MICKLEWISE

ADJ.
having much wisdom ...1650 obs. rare

ETYMOLOGY
from mickle (adv. to a great extent or degree, greatly)  + -wise

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1650 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...For, our Eares are naturally extant and looke forward, because wee heare better when we turne our Faces to the sound, our Eares so better encountring with the sound; and the prominency of our Eares serve also for a defence to cast off the sweat and filth, and the furfuracerous excrements of the Temples and the upper part of the Eare, least they should slide into the auditory passage; all which commodities our mickle-wise Mothers defraud us of by their nice dislike of Lugs, and as they call them in reproach, Prickeares...."
From: Anthropometamorphosis: Man Transform'd: or, The Artificiall Changling
- John Bulwer

WRIG

NOUN
1. the willow tree ...1564 obs.
2. also 'RIG' - the smallest or weakest of a litter, brood, or family;
the youngest or feeblest of a family; a weak, puny child ...1805 Sc.

VERB
to wriggle, to writhe ...Bk1854 Eng. dial.

ETYMOLOGY
n. 1. ? from werg (n. a willow)
n. 2. of unknown origin

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1564 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...[The tenant may take] boowes of the wrigges to make stakes..for the mentayning of the mowndes..."
From: Assignment of Lease, 1564 (Brasenose College, Oxford Archives)

OBDURATIOUS

ADJ.
hardened against persuasion, the sentiment of pity, etc.; stubborn, obstinate, unyielding, inflexible, relentless, hard-hearted ...1672 obs. rare

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin obdurat- (hardened, stubborn) + -ious

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1672 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"... I had been guilty of an obduratious self-saving, and perfidious silence...."
From: The Church told of Mr. Ed. Bagshaw's Scandals
- Richard Baxter

FOLABILITY

NOUN
foolishness, folly ...a1529 obs. rare

ETYMOLOGY
from fol fool + -able + -ity

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
a1529 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...And so litle learning, so lewdly alowed:
What fault find ye herein but may be auowed?
But ye are so full of vertibilite,
And of frenetyke folabilite.
And of melancoly mutabilite.
That ye would coarte, and enforce me.
Nothing to write, but hay the gy of thre.
And I to suffre you lewdly toly,
Of me, with your language full of vilany..."
From: Against Venemous Tongues Enpoysoned with Sclaunder and False Detractions, &c.
- John Skelton

PRASINOUS

​ADJ.
leek-green in colour ...1924 rare

​NOUN​
a leek-green colour ...1826 obs.

ETYMOLOGY
from classical Latin prasinus leek-green + -ous, 
from Ancient Greek πρᾰ́σῐνος (prásinos, leek-green, light green)

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1826 - "Prasinous (Prasinus). Green with a mixture of yellow. The colour of the leaves of leeks or onions."
From: An Introduction to Entomology; or, Elements of the Natural History of Insects
- William Kirby and William Spence

EXAMPLE
"...Here, likewise, everything pleased the eye and galled the blood; here the silvery streaks on the dark-green satin, and there the argentine tracery on the smooth, prasinous leaves of the water-lilies  were only the slimy trail - here of man's creative power...."
From: Teleny, or, The Reverse of the Medal: a Physiological Romance of To-day
 - Anonymous. 1893
Attributed to Oscar Wilde

SPLENDIOUS

​ADJ.
splendid, very impressive, very good ...1609 obs.

ETYMOLOGY
? from Italian splendioso

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1609 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...Sir that is France, a faire beseeming friend,
On yonder continent stands Ireland,
On this side Brittaine, and on that side Garsie,
Ilands besides of much hostillitie,
Which are as sun-shine, sometimes splendious,
Anon disposed to altering frailtie.
We that all neighbor must so strēgth our being,
As fearelesse we may frolicke yet not seeing...."
From: The History of the Two Maids of More-clacke, with the Life and Simple Maner of Iohn in the Hospitall 
- Robert Armin

COCKALL
​
NOUN
a person regarded as the pre-eminent or perfect example of a particular type or category; the paragon ...1602 obs. rare

ETYMOLOGY
from cock (n. the most dominant, pre-eminent, or chief person or thing) + -all

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1602 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...I haue had foure husbands my selfe. The first I called, Sweete Duck; the second, Deare Heart; the third, Prettie Pugge: But the fourth most sweete, deare, prettie, all in all: he was the verie cockeall of a husband. What, Ladie? your skinne is smooth, your bloode warme, your cheeke fresh, your eye quick..."
From: Antonios Reuenge
- John Marston

IMBECILITATE
​
VERB
to make weak or feeble; to deprive of strength ...1647 obs.

ETYMOLOGY
from imbecility (n. mental or intellectual deficiency or weakness) + -ate

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1647 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...What was the violent pursuing of Members but a stinking condition'd kinde of physicall fighting with the whole body by way of imbecillitating?..."
From: An Outcry Against the Speedy Hue & Cry after Generall Massey, Col, Poyntz and many other renowned reformadoes, etc.