PRIMIPOTENT
 
ADJ.
most powerful ...1656 obs. rare

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin primipotent-, primipotens (first in power) (4th cent.), from Latin prīmi- , combining form of prīmus (prime adj.) + potēns (potent adj. powerful, having great authority)

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1656 - Primipotent (primipotens) of chief power
From: Glossographia; or, A Dictionary Interpreting All Such Hard Words, whether Hebrew, Greek or Latin... as are now used in our refined English tongue 
- Thomas Blount​

​FLAMMID
 
ADJ.
flame-coloured; red ...1610 obs. rare

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin flammidus (burning, fiery), from flamma (flame)

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1610 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...Also what Gemmes, as harde Adamants, viz. the Cenchros, Macedonicke, Cypricke, Siderite: the flammid Carbuncle, purple Amethist, greene Emeraulde, and Opall Paderas, with their Trineuned luster: the vyolet Hyacinth, Skie-coloured Saphire, Lustrie Diamonde, shining Topaz, starrie Calchedonie, sparkling Rubie, golden Chrysolite, splendid Asterite, various Achate, horny Corneol, greene Iasper, pellucid Onyx, cerule Tarqueis, candid Crystall, harde Blood-stone, attracting Loade-stone, white yellow and Falerne Agate..."
From: Feudigraphia The Synopsis or Epitome of Surueying Methodized
- William Folkingham

NIMFADORO
 
NOUN
an effeminate man ...1600 obs. rare
​
ETYMOLOGY
From OED: from Italian nimfadoro (1598 in Florio), apparently  from ninfa (nymph n.) + -adoro (compare -ator suffix), although the ending appears more typically Spanish than Italian. Compare Italian nimfarsi (1598 in Florio glossed ‘to trim, to smug, to trixie, to decke or spruce himselfe vp as a nimphe’) and †ninfare to adorn oneself (1585 in Garzoni)

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1600 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...Peace, you, ban-dogge, peace: what briske Nimfadoro is that in the white virgin boot there?..."
From: ​Every Man Out of His Humor
- Ben Jonson
​

DOMABLE
 
ADJ.
easy to be tamed, tamable ...1623 obs. rare
​
ETYMOLOGY
from late Latin domābilis (tamable) from domāre (to tame)

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1623 - Domable. Easie to be tamed
From: The English Dictionarie: Or, An Interpreter of Hard English Words
- Henry Cockeram
​
EXAMPLE
"...That Gods righteous and holy children, who are both harmeless, and innocent doves, even as quiet and peaceable in the world as domable, or indomable doves are that sit upon their Columbaries, or other birds that perk themselves upon the highest or lowest branches, or as Dolphins in the Sea, which intend the Mariner no hurt nor harm, yet cannot the godly and the upright live at quiet for them in the world, for their arrows are dayly notched and upon their strings, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart..."
From: ​Pelagos: Nec inter vivos, nec inter mortuos, neither amongst the living, nor amongst the dead. Or, An Improvement of the Sea, upon the Nine Nautical Verses in the 107. Psalm
- Daniel Pell

AVAILANT
 
ADJ.
advantageous, profitable; of beneficial efficiency ...c1420 obs. rare
​​
ETYMOLOGY
from avail (vb. to be effectual, serviceable, or of use) + -ant

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
c1420 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...Thaire kyndes beth, oon is peche Armenye,
Precox is next, the thridde is duracyne.
But if this tree to sore in sonne drie
Hepe erthe aboute and humoure vespertyne,
Eke thing object the fervoure of declyne.
A serpent skynne doon on this tree men lete
Avaylant be to save it in greet hete..."
(Their sorts are the Armenian, the Precox, and the cling-stone.
If the tree be too sorely sun-dried, heap earth about it.
Let anything placed as a protection ward off the heat.
Men think a serpent's skin avails to save it.)
From: Palladius On Husbondrie, Part 1
- Rutilius Taurus Aemilianus Palladius
Ed

SHUCKLE

​
VERB
1. to chuckle ...1598 obs.
2. to cluck ...1684 obs.
3. to rattle; to chatter ...Bk1884 Eng. dial.
4. to shuffle; to slink along in walking ...Bk1888 Eng. dial.
5. to run fast, to hurry, to bustle about, to make haste ...1933 Amer. dial.

ETYMOLOGY
for vb. 1 - a by-form of chuckle (vb.) 
​
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1598 - Colleppolarsi d' allegrezza, to shuckle, to chuck or rouze ones selfe to gladnes and mirth
From: A Worlde of Wordes, or Most Copious, and Exact Dictionarie in Italian and English, collected by Iohn Florio
- John Florio
​
EXAMPLE
"...Wherefore, would but my unknown blushing Servant appear, or give me a kind Sign; would but my little Partridge call, methinks I could so shuckle, and run, and Bill, and clap my Wings about her. Hah!..." 
From: The Atheist, or The Second Part of the Souldiers Fortune
- Thomas Otway, 1684

TARRYHOOT
 
VERB
to rush; to go about with much noise and fuss; to gallivant ...​1933 Amer. dial.

ETYMOLOGY
possibly a variant of callyhooting (moving rapidly and noisily), or of scallyhoot (vb. to go or depart quickly; to gallivant)

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1933 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...Over his third cup of coffee, he glared at Herman and me. "What was the idee of all them cops tarryhootin’ round the house last night?" he demanded. He had us there. ..."
From: My Life and Hard Times
​- James Thurber

LIMPARD
 
NOUN
a contemptuous name for a person who limps, a cripple ...1653 obs.
​
ETYMOLOGY
from limp (vb. to walk lamely) + -ard

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1653 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...did I ill? No, Friar Ihon, (said Gymnast,) no by all the devils that are, no: So (said the Monk) do I attest these same devils so long as they last, or ra­ther vertue G—, what could that gow­tie Limpard have done with so fine a dog? by the body of G—he is better pleased, when one presents him with a good yoke of oxen..."
From: The first book of the works of Mr. Francis Rabelais
 - Francois Rabelais
Translated by Thomas Urquhart

EXTORSE
 
VERB
to practice extortion upon; hence, to oppress ...1567 Sc. obs.
​
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin extors- rare form of participial stem of extorquēre (to extort)

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1567 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...Neyther the saidis customaris be sufferit to extorss the people as thai haue done in tymes past..."
From: ​The Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland
Scottish Acts of James VI
​

​VORTICORDIOUS
 
ADJ.
turning the heart ...1669 obs.
​
ETYMOLOGY
from Latin Vorti-, Verticordia (turner  or changer of hearts (an epithet of Venus)), from vertĕre (to turn) + cord- , cor (heart) + - ous

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1669 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...Then cap. 24. he proves more largely, That this medicinal Grace is Vorticordious or most potent. 1. In that it does, by an ineffable suavitie, mixed with power, effectually overcome the heart. 2. In that God is the alone su­preme Agent in this work. 3. In that this Medicinal Grace is such, as that its effect depends not on the will, but the will is by it determined:’ whence Au­stin saies, the will cannot resist this Grace, but that she is more in the power of Gods triumphant victorious Grace, than in her own, &c. Whence he proceeds to prove, that the Molinists Conditional Grace destroies Christs Medicinal Grace, and the difference 'twixt the Grace of a sick, and that of a sound will..."
From: ​The True Idea of Jansenisme, Both Historick and Dogmatick
- Theophilus Gale

TRUFFERY
 
NOUN
a thing of no importance; a mockery, a trifle, a triviality ...c1429 obs. rare​

ETYMOLOGY
from Middle French trufferie, truferie (teasing, joke, c1227 in Old French; nonsense end of the 13th cent.; triviality c1341; knick-knack, bauble 1378),
from truffer , trufer (truff vb. to trifle with) + -erie (-ery)

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
c1429 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...The first two causes pilat / helde bot a truferye 
Asking crist of the thredde / diuerse tymes bysylye
ffor Cesare the revme of Jewes / helde vndere Romayns Empire
And thai no king bot hym / to commande at his desire
Pilat apon the Jewes / be Cesare hadde powere
ffor thy of non oyr king / of the Jewes walde he here..."
From: The Miroure of Mans Saluacionne: A Fifteenth Century Translation into English of the Speculum Humanae Salvationis 
- Edited by Avril Henry
​

MOGUE
also MOGE (Eng. dial.), MORG (Eng. dial.)

NOUN
a joke, a humbug, a trick ...1888 Eng. dial.
 
VERB
to deceive, to fool, to trick, to cheat, to humbug; to play a joke on, to make fun of ...1854 sl., orig. Eng. dial.
​
ETYMOLOGY
of uncertain origin;
possibly a variant of mock (vb.)

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1854 - Mogue, to deceive, to cheat. ‘You shan't mogue me.’
From: A Glossary of Northampton Words and Phrases
- Anne Elizabeth Baker

EXAMPLE
"...Sometimes we mogue 'em by pulling 'em a bit, but those bookies are fly to the game..."
From: Signor Lippo, Burnt-Cork Artiste
- Peter Henry Emerson, 1893

OOBYJIVER
 
NOUN
a thing whose name one cannot remember, does not know, or does not wish to mention; a thingamy; hence, a useful implement, a gadget ...1963 colloq. rare

ETYMOLOGY
of uncertain origin;
possibly from oojib- (in oojiboo n. a thing whose name one cannot remember)

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1963 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...Colourful words like ‘oobyjiver’, meaning ‘whatsis’ pop up regularly and inventive expressions like "He took it in like a dustbin" for "he believed every word I said" enrich the language..."
From: New Society Limited, Great Britain
Volume 2. 

GLEMISH
also GLEAMISH
 
NOUN
a glimpse ...1576 obs. rare
​
ETYMOLOGY
possibly a variant of glimpse (n.)

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1576 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...The solace and comfort, which ariseth of actions and virtues thus done in christian men's breasts is so great, that no tongue or pen can counterpoise the same, albeit I have endeavoured before to shadow (as it were) and give a gleamish thereof. And thus much I thought good to speak of the mind: now I will come to man's body also..."
From: The Christian Manual: Or, Of the Life and Manners of True Christians
- John Woolton
Edited for The Parker Society for the Publication of the Works of the Fathers and Early Writers of the Reformed English Church, 1851

WINKLOT
 
NOUN
a wench, a young woman ...a1586 Sc. obs.

ETYMOLOGY
of obscure origin;
for the ending compare giglot, giglet (n. a giddy, laughing, romping girl)

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
a1586 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...Than he to ga and scho to ga
and never ane bad abyd ȝow
Ane winklot fell and hir taill vp
wow quod malkin hyd ȝow..."
From: The Maitland Folio Manuscript Containing Poems by Sir Richard Maitland, Dunbar, Douglas, Henryson, and Others
- Edited by W.A. Craigie, 1919
Vol. I, XLIX. Anon. Peblis to the Play

​​BRANKIE
 
ADJ.
1. (also BRANKY) showy, gaudy, finely dressed ...1790 Sc. obs.
2. a wooden board for turning cakes on a girdle ...1925 Sc.

ETYMOLOGY
adj. 1. - from brank (vb. to march in a confident or demonstrative fashion; to strut; to prance) + -y

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1790 - see EXAMPLE below
 
EXAMPLE
"...Whare hae ye been fae braw, lad!
Whare hae ye been fae brankie O?
Whare hae ye been fae braw, lad?
Cam ye by Killiecrankie O?..."
From: The Scots Musical Museum
Vol. III Killiecrankie

​RIMBOMB
 
VERB
to reverberate, to resound ...1838 rare

ETYMOLOGY
from Italian rimbombare (to boom out, to echo)

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1838 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...The fame of the finest pieces in the world reaches him on the steps; not mine; I do not say mine; but the pieces of Signor Marchese and Signor Conte, rimbombing through the universe..."
From: Monthly Repository, 1837-1838, April
In - Imaginary Conversations; The Cardinal-Legate Albani and Picture-Dealers
- Walter Savage Landor

COOZE
 
NOUN
1. (also COUSE) a chat, a gossip ...1880 Eng. dial. rare
2. (also COUSE) a woman, especially one who is sexually attractive or promiscuous; by extension, a prostitute ...1921 US sl.
3. (also COOSE, CUZE) the female genitals; the vagina ...c1925 US sl.
4. (also KUSE) a term of abuse or contempt ...1948 US sl.
5. a passive, effeminate homosexual ...1950 US sl.
6. a lesbian ...1965 US homosexual sl.
7. vaginal secretions ...1981 sl.
8. a term of address to a sexually exciting woman ...1986 US sl.
9. sexual intercourse with a woman ...1989 US sl.

VERB
1. to loiter aimlessly, to idle ...1810 Eng. dial. obs.
2. to chat, to gossip ...1870 Eng. dial. rare
3. to chase, to hunt, to pursue ...Bk1895 Eng. dial.

ETYMOLOGY
n. 1. from cooze (vb. to chat, to gossip)
n. 3. possibly shortened from coozie (n. the female genitals)
vb. 2. (from OED) Probably < Cornish cows (verbal noun) action of talking (already in Middle Cornish), of uncertain origin, perhaps ultimately related to French causer , although the relevant sense ‘to chat, to gossip’ is later in French (16th cent.: see causerie n.)

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1810  - Cozing, or coozing, loitering, soaking
From: The Monthly Magazine, Or, British Register
Devonshire and Cornwall Vocabulary
Volume 29, 1810
​
EXAMPLE (for noun 2)
"...Just lean back into the tar paper and look up into the cold sky, think of the races he'd win and the easy-come goof-job he'd have in the loft. Think of Melva, the neighborhood's favorite teen-age cooze, a jazzed-up kitten still fleshy with baby fat yet to be rubbed off, blue-jeaned Melva with "Danger - T.N.T." proudly crayoned o n her sweatshirt over her fat young teats, a funned-up member of the young ladies auxiliary of the Golden Warriors, with her gold-and-purple Golden Warriorette blazer..."
From: On the Waterfront: a Novel
- Budd Schulberg, 1955

PUCKEROO
also PUCKAROO, PUKAROO, PUKARU (for adj. and verb only)

ADJ.
useless, broken, out of order; destroyed, finished ...1943 NZ sl.

NOUN
a young man ...1952 US sl.

VERB
to break, to destroy, to ruin; to kill ...1840 NZ sl.

ETYMOLOGY
for adj. & verb - from Maori pākaru (to break; also, broken);
for noun - a variant of buckeroo (a lively young man)

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1840 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"... I was fearful that they might burst my gun but in such a situation it was necessary to have a serviceable gun or none & I determined to fire it off. This caused a ridiculous scene the Mauries swore that we should all be Puckarooed as well as the gun and away they scuttled hiding themselves in the long flax. I took the precaution of firing my gun with a laniard and rejoice to say it did not burst. Even in our then present position the affair caused much mirth..."
From: The Journal of Ensign Best
- Abel Dottin William Best
Edited by Nancy M. Taylor

IMPOSTORIOUS
 
ADJ.
having the character of an impostor or imposture; fraudulent; deceitful ...1623 obs. rare

ETYMOLOGY
from impostory (n. imposture) + -ous

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1623 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...Nothing else but impostorious conjecture...."
From: Arraignment of Urines
- Pieter van Foreest
Translated by James Hart

DESTERNUTE
 
VERB
to sneeze ...1623 obs. rare

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin dē, + sternuĕre, sternūt-, or sternūtāre (to sneeze)
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1623 - To sneeze, Desternute
From: The English Dictionarie; Or, An Interpreter of Hard English Words
- Henry Cockeram

SMYTRIE
 
NOUN
a collection of small people, especially children, or of small objects ...1786 Sc. rare

ETYMOLOGY
of unknown origin;
compare Frisian smite (n. a great number of persons, a large amount of money, etc.)
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1786 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...Trowth, Caesar, whiles they're fash't eneugh:
A cottar howkin in a sheugh,
Wi' dirty stanes biggin a dyke,
Baring a quarry, an' sic like;
Himsel', a wife, he thus sustains,
A smytrie o' wee duddie weans,
An' nought but his han'-daurk, to keep
Them right an' tight in thack an' rape...."
From: Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect
In - The Twa Dogs
- Robert Burns

HOMINEITY
 
NOUN
the essential quality of mankind; that which constitutes man ...1660 obs.

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin homo, homin-em (man), after deity
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1660 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...inasmuch as they participate of the Idea of Greatness or Littleness, &c, The like of Man himself, for many individual Men are such by participation of the Idea of Man, (as if we should say Homineity) which hath a permanent Subsistence, whereas particular Men are in perpetual Fluxion and Mutation..."
From: The History of Philosophy: Containing the Lives, Opinions, Actions and Discourses of the Philosophers of Every Sect
- Thomas Stanley

​FLINK

ADJ.
nimble, agile, active ...1866 Sc. & Eng. dial.

NOUN
1. figure, appearance ...1847 Eng. dial. 
2. a bad temper, a tantrum ...1882 Eng. dial.
3. a pert or insolent kind of deportment; a conceited, jaunty air; a frolic, a flirtation; a good time, a 'fling' ...1882 Sc. & Eng. & Amer dial.
4. a fling, jerk; a blow with the tips of the finger ...1882 Eng. dial.

VERB
1. to walk jauntily or nimbly ...1866 Sc.
2. to comb the hair ...1866 Eng. dial. 
3. to fling, to toss, to jerk, to throw with a jerk; to sprinkle, shake ...1867 Eng. dial.
4. to behave in a cowardly manner; to shirk one's duty ...1887 Amer. dial.
5. to be agile, nimble, active ...1895 Eng. dial.
6. to romp, to frolic; to flirt ...1908 Sc. 
7. to play hooky, to cut class ...1969 Amer. dial.
8. to flick with the fingertips ...1978 Amer. dial.

ETYMOLOGY
vb. 4  - possibly from flinch (vb. to draw back through failure in courage, endurance, or resolve) 

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1847 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...Laur! if you uny cude bit zee
Tha vlink thits cuts be Bets and me
Wen us go'th out to wahlk;
Civillins stare way all thare hyes,
An as es cut'th out droo Mount Wise,
(We two be purty murch wan size)
'Tis good ta hear min tahlk....."
From: Letters & Poems Ts Es Brither Jan, in the Devonshire Dialect
- Nathan Hogg

​AMPHIBOLOUS
 
ADJ.
1. ambiguous, of double or doubtful character ...1644 obs.
2. of language: ambiguous in sense ...1647

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin amphibol-us (ambiguous)
(from Greek ἀμϕίβολ-ος  (amphíbolos, ambiguous)
 
FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1644 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...There was never such a confused mysterious civil war as this; there were never so many bodies of strength on sea and shore, never such a choice of arms and artillery, never such a numerous cavalry on both sides, never a greater eagerness and confidence, never such an amphibolous quarrel; both parties declaring themselves for the king, and making use of his name in all their remonstrances to justify their actions..."
From: The Harleian Miscellany: A Collection of Scarce, Curious, and Entertaining Pamphlets and Tracts, as well in Manuscript as in print, found in the late (Edward Harley, second) Earl of Oxford's library;
England's Tears, for the present Wars; which for the Nature of the Quarrel, the Quality of Strength, the Diversity of Battles, Skirmishes, Encounters, and Sieges, happened in so short a Compass of Time, cannot be paralleled by any precedent Age.