Wednesday, December 31, 2014

reposcible, adj.

reposcible, adj.

  Forms:  18 reposible.
  Etymology:  < Latin reposcĕre to demand back: see -ible suffix.

  Subject to return; able to be demanded or requested back; able to be reclaimed.

1834    B. WORRINGER Hills of Dardanfiddich 194    Well of course, that which is possible is always reposcible (said Penny Whissel) just as the impossible becomes ever more probable!


Tuesday, December 30, 2014

aucrom, n.

aucrom, n.

Pronunciation:  /ˈɔkrəm//ˈɔˌkrɑm//ˈaʊkrəm/
  Forms:   Pl. aucra. Also 17 aucrum.
  Etymology:   < Latin aucrum (O. Coleston 1706, in Myst'ries of Contr. & Cont. 34 11), an arbitrary formation.

  1. 

  a. Electricity elicited by friction; 'static' electricity.

1706    O. COLESTON  Contr. & Cont. 34 11    Engaging the obligatioun of the reader, I here propose the dissyllabick Noune aucrum to symboll the slight igniculi & flashes [etc].

1727    P. HOMBUERG Œcon. Tech. Arts (1910) II. xl. 278    A tardy Tome on the aucrom saw mechanicians and experimentors frantickly turning over the Leaves, what with their fingers proclive to ceaseless twitchings & strainings.

1833    B. B. PASTEY Expos. Sports & Pastimes §254. m    Children who shufle their netherstocking'd feet across deep piled rugs or carpet to propagate a supply of aucrom ; and thereafter to let fly the crackling emissions amongst chaperones held in wrapped [sic] attention. 

1976    M. CAELA Pravement Beat 168    Thanks to excessive training, the Ow!Crom-97 sublethal electric rifle was "phased" out that year in favor of..non-violent conflict resolution.

  b. fig. A strong emotional feeling; a frisson.

1946    O. MIOSCO Not a Wink 260    No mere initiate would believe the aucrom of kintling satisfaction when sighting a perfectly plump and stoutly voluted ‘Nodding Pea’ (Nodilittorina ciceralis) used with true proficiency in lieu of a shuriken.


DERIVATIVES

  au'cromic  adj.  Giving off, productive of, discharging, or transmitting, static electricity, esp. in the form of a minor shock or jolt. Also fig. (of mental perturbations).

1842    LD N. MOENN  Ephem. Adventures  (1873) I. ij. 54 9    The aucromic arts into which we were inducted and professed as valets for purposes of defending Gobelins from incautious and jaunty manipulation.

fig.

2031    Com. 28 Jan. in Exogalaxion (2068) a98e:    I first begin to notice the aucromic disruptions which have been so hysterically described to us.

  'aucrum  v. trans. To 'shock' by discharging static electricity.

1918    B. L. OGNIONOV  Doggerel IV. lxxxix. 20    Courageous, I shall, without quail, / aucrum a duck till it turns tail.

  aucro'mescent  adj. (of an object) Becoming negatively charged.

  au'crominate  v.

  'aucromine  v.

  aucro'minic  adj.

Monday, December 29, 2014

munnerth, n.

munnerth, n.

Pronunciation:  /ˈmʌnərθ/
  Forms:  16 mynirt, 17 monirth, 18 monert, 18– munnerth, 18– monnerth, 18– munnirth, 19 moonearth (nonce).
  Etymology:   Originally two words: Old English monaþ month n., wurþ (also weorþ, worþ) worth, value adj. Old English had the derivative monaþweorþon verb, to gain a month in age; to become a month older. 

Now arch.

  a. A period of four weeks; a month.

1697    S. IMST Study of Coffèwort III. xj. 8    Poursuance of such activitee for a mynirt or less can so depillate and glabrify the hairie scalp, that Chequermen, and Computists, may manadge accounts for no more than a fortnighte. 

1796    J. MIOSSO Hypothesis of Lists (3rd ed.) (colophon)    Printed for the author his brother the fourth monirth of the year of jubilie one thousand seven hundred ninety six.

1808    R. V. POSTLETHWAIT Myst. in Metropoles 109    Town dwellers oft reserved a silver yad, uncharacteristically sharp'd, should the savage munnirth-rouzed creeture find a way to their study.

1826    P. FOOJDAR Ointments F. North  xiv. 161    Scribes were said to expect for the munnerth during which the convulsions were at their worst.

1844    F. SMITTS Holding forth 10    A munnerth at sea being deficient in conducting me to the local position of the elaboratory, which I later discovered to have been but a door adjacent to mine quarters. 

1976    M. CAELA Pravement Beat 122    The force was woefully underskilled; Sarina suspected that, were the officers to be authorized to train for another monnerth, she'd not only have to answer to the budget and accounting office, but her division would lose their coveted unRelatable™ accreditation.

2015    A. CELLEDHI Space. Cupcake 1476    Jella laughed when I said a monnerth up there was enough to give anyone brainfrizzz.

  b. (perh. erron.) a moment (?)

a1845   M. THISTLEWICK Divers Pilgrims (1851)  I. ¶48. 4,    Splaying myself upon the sands, I beguiled no less than two thousands of monerts, until my dragoman dids't make his return.


COMPOUNDS

  attrib. as in munnerth space;  munnerth day n. Obs. the space of a month; also, the same day in the following month.

1963    D. SUGARMAN Time Mine 403    Cpt. Dansler, with a deft, grizzled stroke, circled an unassuming moonearth space on the 4D-isplay, literally drawing our attention to the naufragous Pyralxian Sphere. 

2016    Zimm 22º /1328    Return being configured for a munnerth day, no travel was permitted after the twenty-eighth when using the TemporaLater.

Sunday, December 28, 2014

corphitous, adj.

corphitous, adj.

Pronunciation:  /ˈkɔːfədəs//ˈkɔːfətəs//ˈkɔrfədəs//ˈkɔrfətəs/
  Forms:  15-16 corfitous, 15-16 curfutous, 16 curpetous (erron.), 16-17 corphetious, 16-17 corphitious, 17 corpseious (erron.).
  Etymology:   < Anglo-Norman coeverfil + -tous suffix., = Old French cuevre-fil, quevre-fil, < couvre, imperative of couvrir to cover + fil line, chord, string. The dominant form in corph-, etc. appears to originate as a transmission error.

  1. 

  a. Of or resembling clothes-lines of washing hung out to dry. 

1583    A. FOSTER Hete the Marcke II. xij. 6    Suche lyke Fates distraite by his vnsemely, curfutous allye.

[1704   d. MALTIN Voyages 598    Her eyes ushered to a ginnell, where a corpseious enormance insulted her wits, and darkness ingulphed her sensorium.]

1864    U. U. TUSTIN Inventory of Smitts III. cdlxx,    Thereafter making adition to the factory, a cousin eftsoons deplored the disarray; videl. damp corphitous banknotes suspended from drooping wires.

  b. Of cloth or clothing: Billowing, inflated by air.

1911    E.WADDINGTON  Tricks Next to a Window ii. 6    Aspired momently to swim the sky, superindued / By the corphitous patches of a Montgolf' balloon.

  2. fig

  a. Of hair: Tousled, uncombed. 

1685    W. Q. W. CHAUNTIBRILLE What bee an Hogre a. iv. 3    Naught but corphetious haired conjeons, pygmies, and witherlinges drizz'ning [lowing] for the riche kye beane. 

1697    S. IMST Study of Coffèwort III. xj. 8    Beset by a hulched hord of unmanlie gyants; over~twitchy fingers clutching and snatching at corphitious manes when not exerted to scribble inke into ledger books. 

  b. Of a wig or toupee: Poorly fitted; demonstrably and conspicuously false; postiche.

1771    Y. D'BOURRELETTE  Misocaly §55. iii. 9    Readily able to distinguish without confusion, through a fringe of corphitous peruke, the relevant properties and holdings to amortise in the odiferous grasslands.

  3.

  a.
Pneumodynamically inflated.

1727    P. HOMBUERG Œcon. Tech. Arts (1910) V. iij. 127    Ridding silks, sooseys, and sattinades of their wrinkles through a corphitous insufflatus taking place by dint of a monstrous bellows.

  b. fig. Of a person: Appearing, or of the opinion that one appears, overweight, as though one's clothing has been swollen by air or gas; having a rounded outline.

1801    VONE S. Table Manners fasc. xxij. 20    She disclosed the proper principle of messive conduct, by which one should extol of an inexpleble and insatiable stomach when thoroughgoingly and undeniably corphitous.

  4. In an extended sense. Unsightly and in disarray.

1963    D. SUGARMAN Time Mine 15    Claptrap homes..replete with the corphitous messiness of untethered strings and little dust devils of particles.

1983    D. CAELA-NOVAK Beating Depravement 176    Girls who resist the reductive pool of circumambient moral perversities with the support of parents who encourage the creation of corphitous worlds of prophetic fantasy.


DERIVATIVES

corphi'tudinous  adj. 

2003    T. BOCK Weeping Arches 108    A retiary bridge of corphitudinous proletariat attire which might have improved.

'corphy  adj.

1955    J. LINEWISE Adv. Grits Homicide (ed. 6) 100    His right hook hit me as gently as a tornado hits a corphy line of laundry.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

gotspraugh, n.

gotspraugh, n.

Pronunciation:  /g - o - t - sp - r- a - f/
  Forms:   14 gütspreet14-15 gerspristen, 14-17 goutsprigge, 15-16 gutspriggen, 15-16 goutsprit, 16 gutspreacht, 17-19 goutspraught, 17-19 goutspragh, 19- goutspraugh.
  Etymology:  < Middle English *goutspracht < East Frisian gôt grey, old + sprâke speech.

  1. 

  a.  Boisterous or joyful activity occurring in the vicinity of family members of an older generation.
1704    d. MALTIN Voyages 102    The pendulous woman..who Cherythe understood to have been invited, somewhat insultingly, for that habit of interposing ancestral and nasty comments, which gave a necessary if indefinite counterpoint to the goutspraugh.
1734    D. DARGY Coll. Thank Yee Lett. (ed. 2)  V. №65. iii,    I observed matrons, who greatly resist the swirling goutsprigge as, at a distance, the solemnly intoned insults, which they anatomize with great attention, become secure in audibility.
1755    T. J. BARRS-ALBRITTON Long Promenade I. x. 37    We do demand Prinkley attend our frequent delightful holidays, as her venerable and superannuated contributions to the gotspraughs are quite irreplaceable.
  b. A birthday party or celebration for a person of advanced age. Also fig. and in extended use.
1794    G. BEAUBOT Consideration of Embracery  VI. 206   She imperceptibly would [escape] outside the fleshy confine, cursing the traditional discomfort of these goutspraughs.
2003    T. Bock Weeping Arches  ii,    Architects, embracing a historical consciousness, commemorate with a gotspraugh the originary construction of 'landmark' buildings.
  c. Sociol. A period of activity during which a family jests, jokes, and laughs while caring for or administering to the needs of a family member, esp. an elderly one.
1921    N. VON WARMEN Casebook III. x. n5    One of these abnormalities finding expression in the transposition of certain strangers from one house to another..in anticipation that such a transference might go unnoticed until the next gotspraugh.
  2.  A wake; the drinking, feasting, and dancing which accompanies the watch over the body of a dead person.
1955    J. LINEWISE Adv. Grits Homicide (ed. 6) 276    I came to, flat on the floor. Dustbunnies danced around my face. There was a gotspraugh going on and I was the corpse. 
1990    R. MASON Child. Characters 260    Tactics during which [Kykna] performed certain effigial rituals, designed to invoke a gotspraugh of said landowners
  3. A periphery or boundary characterized by agitation, frenetic activity, and volatile movement.
1976    M. CAELA Pravement Beat 30    Surrounded by colleagues in stitches, Queenya stood quietly, admiring the aftermath of her self-defense training seminar — a martial gotspraugh that she hoped would not induce a lasting shellshock in the recipients.
2011    Zimm 17º /983    Contemplation of that invisible, celestial gotspraugh (which in astronomy retains the clinical and eponymous name of Hawking radiation) had..silently cast her to wide starlit madness.

Monday, May 12, 2014

nodrind, n.

nodrind, n.

Pronunciation: /n - oh - d - r - eye - nd/ ,  /n - ah - dr - i - nd/
  Forms:  14-15 nockrinde15-16 nockrat, 15-16 nokranht, 15-16 nockront15-17 nockrind15-17 noddyrind16 nuddrund, 16 nodraind, 16 noddind16-17 nudrind, 16-18 nudrund, 17-18 noddrind, 17-18 nodrinde18 noddrin.
  Inflections:  Plural nodrindsnodrindes, nodrindees (irregular).
  Etymology:  < Middle English knokerrinde a wart on the hand, < Old Dutch kneukel knuckle + runde crust, bark.

  1. Irritation, exhibited by a small proportion of quill-pen users, on those parts of the hand which come into contact with the quill.

  2. A callous on a knuckle of the primary writing hand which develops from frequent pressure imparted by the shaft of a writing implement.
1727    P. HOMBUERG Œcon. Tech. Arts (1910) III. xix. 20    Whosoever examines..into the parish records, will find these mill-keepers do make constant remark of the plasmation, or fleshy formation, on the overtoiled hands of their family, of nodrindees known to the provincialist as 'wheat hulls'.
1794    G. BEAUBOT Consideration of Embracery X. 445    Cautious electors who, from a too-prolonged grasping of unpublic pencils, sustain nodrindes in..anticipation of wielding them against legislators or statesmen intent on achieving a disagreeable proximity. 
1852    A. TURTOP et al. tr. Sancy, au sieur de la Peine Crammingpouch §104    Sinister..sentiments scribed with pencills whose obsiding clay, by treacherous factors admixed with exotic poisons, thereafter to diffuse through a pervious nodrind, in a manner quite pestilential [etc.].
  3. fig.

  a. A mark or sign to indicate that the bearer is employed in writing or the graphic arts.
 1583    A. FOSTER Hete the Marcke  II. iv. 3    A nockrat wherby one may testifie, to a constancie to the taske of figuring in agreeable lines, a pycture,whose actuality, it was to be sure enough, would attract attention of the three Fates who do invigilate ouer our twysts and duracions.
2015     A. CELLEDHI  Space. Cupcake 860    An apodynamacron that could spin her to another galactic disc but couldn't rid her of her nodrinds. 
  b. Impairment of the mental faculties by having stayed too long at writing, drawing, etc.
1797    C. IRWIN Blunders (1816) XVI. xix. 183/3    [Beaubot], perhaps disordered by her own nudrind, has pandected over a dozen of fascicles in unsoundly believing 'embracery' to be a kind of..bodily clasping, or catholick hugg.
1801    VONE S. Table Manners  fasc. xiim. 1    Disregarding the many coarse assecurations, namely that the music attending the meal would bestow a serpentine, tortuous featurement on all sensible impressions — alike to those which sometimes will attend a few days' noddrind.
  c.  Overly-theoretical, ungrounded, or unpracticed thought; the product or products of such thinking.
2003    T. BOCK Weeping Arches 108    This nodrind of a..bridge..which might have improved had the rarefied 'architect' spent any practical time with his location or materials. 
  4. attribnonce. Characteristic of the posture of scribes and clerks: hunched, arthritic, weak-jointed.
1755    T. J. BARRS-ALBRITTON Long Promenade IV. iii. 21    Yes, one Sylvia Prinkley — of cheerful countenance, assuredly, but nudrund carriage; as though advantageous holiday were not her abiding state and degree!

DERIVATIVES

noˈdrindy  adj.

noˈdrinded  adj.

Friday, May 9, 2014

pomflux, v.

pomflux, v.

  Forms:  14 fumfluze, 14 fumflux, 14-15 fumfulis, 14-15 fumflox, 15 pemplucke, 15 pomflick, 15-17 pumphluze, 15-17 pomphluze, 15-17 pomfolix, 16 pompolux16-18 pommelflox, 16-18 pommflux, 16-19 pomplux, 18-19 pommflux.
  Etymology:  Corruption of French pomfelue < medieval Latin pomfalūca bubble up, apparently < Greek πομϕόλυξειν to bubble. 

†1. trans. To flatten (a bubble, raised surface, etc.). Obs.

  2.

  a. intr. To disappear under the application of pressure, to then emerge or reappear in a displaced location, as in the manner of an air bubble under an airtight surface.

1697    S. IMST Study of Coffèwort II. iij. 10    A sub'rabundant tenatious and stubborn lethergy which, accounted from the moment of the initial taste and degustation, unpredictably pomphluzed, after the passing of an semi~hour.
  b. fig
1716    A. TREEMERSON Fumivorist (ed. 2) 83    A drowzy Man, clad in a befiltht Over-cote; barely maintaining his Wits; a clay Pipe pomfolixing to unexpected pochets, hunched himself in the Corner; requesting that, should an hour pass without his bestirment, we might wake him by some vigorous Impetus.
1794    G. BEAUBOT Consideration of Embracery VI. 206    Clasped betwixt the arms of her mother, and the annularity of love therein residing, she imperceptibly would..pomflux outside the fleshy confine.
1963    D. SUGARMAN Time Mine 132    Attempted to convince me that for this new generation of physicists, the mathematics behind wormholes was as intuitive as pomfluxing.
  c. Const. to (a destination).
1786    K. SELBEAURRE Woman Cert. Age II. sig. QQviij,    As a makeshift keeper of the peace, it is incumbent to me, to observe scrutinously those altercatiouns which may, when subject to an irenic touch, only pommplux to a less convenient time, if left unexamined.
1845    E. POTTE  Prin. Malkory  III. xxii. 9     She held the beryl-colored dablet in her cupped hands; and shook her head with an expression of astonishment as the caudate imp suddenly pomplux'd to a nearby table-edge.
1859    LD N. MOENN  Ephem. Adventures (1873) VII. ii. 2 7    Wildly terrified of wafts and draughts, of whatsoever sort, members..of that consociation would, in the twinkling of an eye, pomflux to an inner passage, to have comfort in the company of one another.
  3. nonce. See quote 1858.
1858    R. LEOPARDO Aphelion Rudimenting 186    We believe no term to have been minted, to refer to those specific indications of a thought, overpowered with great power and determination, which will 'pomflux' in a discomfiting and revealing manner, in the uncertain passage of discourse.
  4.

  a. intr. To disappear and reappear spontaneously. Also transf. and in extended sense. 
2015     A. CELLEDHI  Space. Cupcake  375 "That. Was. So. Space ship!" she exclaimed, pomfluxing with a sudden muted clooping noise.
  b. Occas. with for (a specified period of time).

  c. humor. Applied to household articles believed to have been misplaced.
1638    S. GOW Pelasnippius XLIV. i,    A Gentleman for whome rife pompolux..faithfully gaue no effect on the constitution and frame.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

thurloft, n.

thurloft, n.

  Forms:  15-16 thirluftt, 15-16 thirluft, 15-17 thurlloft, 16-17 thirloft.
  Etymology:  Old English þýrel hole, bore, window + Late Old English loft, < Old Norse loft neuter, air, sky, upper room, cognate with Old English lyft.

†1. rare. A chilly draught, esp. one felt near a window.

1654    L. GURVITH  Invt. Gurvith Resedence  98. lj. (margin)    Four set dornick window curtaines, incompetent to prevent decease of the possessor occasioned through persistent thirluft.
  2. 'Bracing' or 'girding' air or climate. Also fig.: something livening or strengthening; a stimulant or 'tonic'.
1638     S. GOW  Pelasnippius  I. ix.    Such writings, deliuered out and compos'd with the subuention of a chill and tonicall thirluft. 
1672    F. BAZZLEBREAM  Favor to Urfumpfylle  §3801    I determyn'd, by continuall application of a thurlloft, which prompted me how superficiall and specious is an estate stuffed with riches and finery, to resist your charms and carminations. 
1748     C. NIC DUNAIDH  Oblivium  I. 68    Any author of memoirs, or of whatsoever turn..to disown the mnemonic virtues of a friendly thurloft, should be thought to deserve..small esteem. 
1990    R. MASON  Child. Characters  107    Quite common here for children to venture outdoors and smile at a springlike and lavender-scented thurloft — widely believed to portend the premature death of their parents.
  3. Slight annoyance or vexation; a nuisance. Also: the cause or source thereof.
1853    LD N. MOENN  True Ephem. Adventures  (1873) V. XX. 10 78    Unproven employment of monies..which the consociation regarded universally as no more than thurlofts to be guarded against by a prudent remove into the camarillas of their trading habits.
1858    R. LEOPARDO Aphelion Rudimenting  54    Candles extinguished, draperies animated by invisible and distracting spirits, and the defeat of literary endeavor: all writer-plagues; and all effectuated by bothersome and indisposing thurlofts.
  4. A force, esp. incorporeal or immaterial, which imparts its effects through an intermediate barrier or membrane.
1963    D. SUGARMAN  Time Mine  15    Gravity's dissipation through omnipresent thurlofts..into the dozen or so claptrap homes of tiny neighboring dimensions.

DERIVATIVES

  ˈthurlofty  adj. humor. and nonce.   of an artist, author, etc.: haughtily or arrogantly insistent that his or her works provide inspiration or invoke enthusiasm.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

callune, v.

callune, v.

Pronunciation:  k - ǝ - l - oo - n
  Forms:  16 calline.
  Etymology:  < Latin, <Greek καλλύνειν to beautify, sweep clean. (cf. development of defard to remove makeup < French défarder.)

  1.


†a. intr. To remove makeup or cosmetics from one's face or body. Obs.


  b. trans. To free (a part of the body, esp. the face) from makeup or cosmetics.

1748     C. NIC DUNAIDH  Oblivium  I. 31     I had, by this Time, a Sister whom I ceased to observe socially or domestically, whether with Favor or without, owing to her unaccountable determination to callune herself at all times.
1808     R. V. POSTLETHWAIT  Myst. in Metropoles 240     A Gaelic dynasty whose scions, pale and distracted, exhibited opposition to callune the face from heavy plaster, affording plausibility to the narratives of an utterly imperceivable subtending visage.
  c. refl

  2. intr. To improve in appearance after the removal of ornamentation and superficial embellishments.

1845    E. POTTE  Prin. Malkory  II. i. 7    Convinced she rose in account, by means of the acute power of her whispered observations and obsibilated remarks, concerning the calluning of the wellthewed sentries. 
2015     A. CELLEDHI  Space. Cupcake  767     She..bet him that, if he calluned, she'd peddle that dirty skybike past luna and return with some outerspacen pizza.
  3. Art.

  a. intr. To eschew the use of non-naturalistic details or imagery, esp. in the visual arts.


  b. trans. To advocate this approach or philosophy.




DERIVATIVES

callu'
nation   n.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

hexia, n.

hexia, n.

Pronunciation:  /h - e - k - sh - ə/ ,  /h - e - ks - ee - ə/
  Forms:  15 exia (transmission error), 16 hexis, 17–18 hexy.
  Inflections:  Plural hexiæ, hexias.
  Etymology:  < modern Latin hexia or French hexie, < Greek ξις habit of body, state, condition, < χειν to have, have oneself, be in condition.

Development of the second, more active sense, appears to have been reinforced by misapplication of certain connotations of habit other than those ('deportment, mental constitution') etymologically intended; perh. 'attire characteristic of a particular rank' and 'settled disposition or tendency'.

1. Obs

  a. Innate quality or character. Obs.

  b. The mode or condition in which one is, exists, or exhibits oneself. Obs.

1638    S. GOW Pelasnippius XLIV. vi.    Doubtfulle and suspensive in most doeings, so as to disorder..and inquiet his hexis.

  2. 

  a. The characteristics and customary way in which a person sets about a task; a distinguishing habit of acting, comporting oneself, or dealing with things.

1815    A. KREMMISTER Plinks and Sulphet lxxi. 25    The sisters might have correctly identified and distinguished the patterns of travel as contrived by..the hexy of Mary Argebricht, if the same habits had not repelled all assays at recognition.    

1845    E. POTTE Prin. Malkory I. ii. 45    Her chief hexia, for which she was held in such indifferent reputation, remained the quiet repetition of regardless observations.

1990    R. MASON Child. Characters 260    Kykna the Glaistig, persecuted by greedy landowners for these tactics..modeled on a broader pseudomagical anti-purpresture hexia. 

  b. In extended use: a special or idiosyncratic trait, activity, behavior, or expression.

  c. fig.


1963    D. SUGARMAN Time Mine 366    This quadrant of the galactic disc whose electromagnetic hexia, as it were, many physicists believed to be undergoing gentle, inexorable alteration.

Monday, May 5, 2014

talucian, adj.

taˈlucian, adj.

  Forms:  Also talutian.
  Etymology:  < Latin talūtium the superficial presence of gold under the earth.

1. Seismol. Of or related to the point over the center; epicentral.


  2. Of an activity or accomplishment: characteristic of a 'first success', esp. one which inspires eagerness and excitement on the part of onlookers or an audience. Also fig. and extended.

1697    S. IMST Study of Coffèwort II. i. 39    Inducted to the savour of talutian originals which promised to rowze torpulent spirits to an abiding and prety industry.
1704    d. MALTIN Voyages 26    Accounts, amplified of course by the less doubting of her family Circle, of the talutian Events which statedly befell her during the latemost Holy-day.
1769    bh L. ABRUTI Pasados II. §58    Talutian lambs whose crooked knees the vanquish'd winter slew. 
1852    A. TURTOP et al. tr. Sancy, au sieur de la Peine Crammingpouch §389   A record of perfect mercantile adventures which, ideally talucian in nature..intend to loosen up the fiscstrings of despecting members of the league.
2015    A. CELLEDHI Space. Cupcake 778    That telucian night she rode her orbicycle, like a crinite star, up to Mars.

Friday, May 2, 2014

ballageur, n.

ballageur, n.

Pronunciation: b- ah - l - ah - zh - ur - r
  Forms:  Also in anglicized form ˈballager.
  Etymology:  Hypothesized conflation of French unattested form *emballageur < French emballage packing, tying + -eur suffix with Russian балаган (farce, tomfoolery).

1. A person who packages or ties; a person employed to tie something up. Obs.

  2. 

  a. A person who addresses packages to someone other than the original recipient, esp. with an intent to to cause joy and hilarity from the expected confusion; one who takes pleasure in engaging in such activities.
1921    N. VON WARMEN Casebook III. x. n5    It has been suggested that ballageurs possess psychological abnormalities..causing them to court and cultivate the favor of a broad audience.
  b. fig. A person who contrives to recast mundane or boring tasks as exciting, diverting, or amusing.
1845    E. POTTE Prin. Malkory II. v. 16    Kindly delate this insipid matter to an unsober ballageur..for fit transfiguration. 
1990    R. MASON Child. Characters 91    Mary Poppins remains the consummate ballageur in Brittanian children's literature. 
  3. A object, esp. an item of clothing, which provides structural support while simultaneously conveying an air of silliness or informality.
2015    A. CELLEDHI Space. Cupcake 925    A lacy ballager bulging from my perky boobs and receiving unwanted oeillades.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

ocken, v.

ˈocken, v.

Forms:  13-15 uccen, 14-15 ochen, 15-17 ocen, 16-17 ockann, 17-19 ockene.
Etymology:  By metathesis < Old Norse kinna to halt or tripcognate with ancient Greek ὀκνεῖν to hesitate ( < ὄκνος hesitation, of uncertain origin).

  1. intr.

  a. Of a bird, butterfly, etc.: to bob or suddenly dip in the air while flying, esp. in a manner apparently free from internal or external influence.
1751    J. JUNDERSON Rus in Urbe No. 159 ⁋7    Colorable butterflies ockening throughout the spring garden.
1771    Y. D'BOURRELETTE Misocaly §202. vi. 1    A laughable treatise resembling an abnormous gull which, misaffected by the very air of thought, ockens unwieldily. 
  b. fig.
1692    V. FUSSON Comm. Small Measures I. f. 15v    Abbrochement of whole Wares and Chaffer, a tiresome Entermise, made less so, by the quirks and ockanning, of hodiern and daily Price.
  2. transTo cease abruptly (a sentence or statement) which one has begun ; to ‘swallow’ (one's words).

  3. Aviation. To experience a brief bout of turbulence; to descend or fall momentarily.

DERIVATIVES

ˈockney n.  a sudden 'jog' or jolt, usu. experienced without perceptible external interference; also transf. and extend.
1852 A. TURTOP et al. tr. Sancy, au sieur de la Peine Crammingpouch §207    Curious debate, the aulary ob and sol, which, dissimilar from the unfluctuating sun, imparts unwonted ockneys to those revolving bodies which circulate therabout.

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

azubda, n.

azubda, n.

Pronunciation: ə - z - oo - b - d - ə
  Forms:  Also asoobda, alasobda, alsubda, alzoobde.
  Etymology:  Ultimately < Arabic الزبدة (al-zubda) butter, fat, quintessence.

  1.

  a. In early physiology, a component of suet or animal fat which acted upon the natural excretions of an animal body in order to increase or decrease the pleasurability of the odors produced thereby.
1716    A. TREEMERSON Fumivorist (ed. 2) 289    Moreover, albeit that such driving Atomies, obsiting the Body, and proceeding by way of the Lungs, are rumored to impregnate the alasobda, and may diffuse throughout the otherwise euodic Staxis which, flowing regularly therefrom, [etc.].
  b. A hypothesized organ responsible for the production of individual odor.

  2. fig. A sudden and unexplainable variation, esp. an increase, in a person's natural charm, personal appeal, or sexual attractiveness.
1771    Y. D'BOURRELETTE Misocaly §55. iii. 9    No alsubda confounds the sagacious faculties of the uncommon adecastic readily able to distinguish..the relevant properties. 
1815    A. KREMMISTER Plinks and Sulphet xiix. 14    An enchanting if exacting philoxenist..who comprehended the singular azubda of the cangeant gipsy. 

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

quoomvolatic, n.

quoomˈvolatic, n.

Forms:  15 quumuolatick15-16 qoomuolatick15-16 qoomuolatic, 16– qoomvolatic.
Etymology:  < Quum (now usually Quom), the name of a shrine in central Buran, where this type of rug or carpet is actuated + volatic < Latin volāticus, < volāt-, participial stem of volāre to fly.

  A flying carpet.

1654    L. GURVITH Invt. Gurvith Resedence 64. pp    Three dusty qoomuolaticks wrapped in piceous poldauie.
1721    V. g. FUSSON Anagraphs V. Fusson 23 July 1715    Inspctn of qoomvolatic by thaumatrg.
2011    Zimm 17º /1002    I'd as lief command the bridge of this dusty anachronism as the unravelling fringe of a quoomvolatic.

DERIVATIVES

'quoomvole  adj.  (of travel) taking place by means of flying carpet. 

quoom'volator  n.  one in the habit of journeying by flying carpet, or similarly impractical and ostentatious voiture.
1833    B. B. PASTEY Expos. Sports & Pastimes §12. c    Too intent on striking the bargecourse with lime to cognize a crankling quoomvolator orcken nicely above his crown.
a1845    M. THISTLEWICK Divers Pilgrims (1851) III. xix. 12    The ambassador, an accustomable quoomvolator, sufficiented in her aeriferous curiosity by the great treasury of that commonweal, [etc.].

Monday, April 28, 2014

rascort, v.

ras'cort, v.

Forms:  17–  rascortt.
Etymology:  < Italian, irreg. arascorta, < southern Italian ariscorgere to detect, to notice, < late Latin rado grazed, scraped +  corrigĕre to set right.

trans. To hear (words spoken, a person speaking, etc.) despite their having gone unnoticed or unacknowledged by other members of the present company.

1704    d. MALTIN Voyages 102    The Moment she inclined..Cherythe rascortted the quiet censure, which in the nonce, issued from the pendulous Woman in verte waistcoat.
1826    P. FOOJDAR Ointments North i.3    Rascorting those commensals and trencher-companions who, seated at boisterous tables, and displaying minutest emblems of disgruntlement, disclosed the many footprints from which proceeded the precious discoveries exposed herein.

DERIVATIVES

ras'corted  adj.
1734    D. DARGY Coll. Thank Yee Lett. (ed. 2) V. №65. iv    The boorish custom here persists, to opinionate aspersions upon the host, in loud & buccinal tones, lest impertinent offspring, servants or visitants delibate pleasure from an insult rascorted.

Friday, April 25, 2014

weggen, adj.

weggen, adj.

Forms:  18- weggan.
Etymology:  < Swedish wudjen twisted, squeezed. 

a. Of speech: ominous or threatening in a subtle, ambiguous manner; wryly portentous.

1801    V. SUPHAR Table Manners fasc. xiim. 3    Beginning the prandial music I at once was greeted by glances agee and weggen praise.
1852    A. TURTOP et al. tr. Sancy, au sieur de la Peine Crammingpouch §104    Weggen sentiments .. quite pestilential to swollen sophistry. 
1911    E. WADDINGTON Tricks Next to a Window iv. 27    Her wife's still, dark, weggen eyes in the pleached shadows of the yet unloft acelle [nacelle].
b. fig.
1833    B. B. PASTEY Expos. Sports & Pastimes §215. k    A 'bagatello' manufactory some distance from the mileway whose weggen ridges .. proved an accurate physiognomy of the proprietor.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

calliposis, n.

calli'posis, n.

Forms:  15 kaliposis, 16–17 calaposis, 16-18 callaposis, 17- caliposis.
Inflections:  Plural calliposes.
Etymology:  < Greek καλλίπωσις, adjective < καλλι- comb. form of κάλλος beauty + πύειν to form, stamp. 

  a. A beautiful representation.

1583    A. FOSTER Hete the Marcke II. i. 9    Nor full knowe a way, this calaposis could contriue to ouerturne of that fate, which nouther whithere might resultith.
1794    G. BEAUBOT Consideration of Embracery X. 453    The well-framed calliposis, of a bespoke and practical politician, burnishing a silver coin and brooking an abrazo, which came to a knockdown prognostication.
1858    R. LEOPARDO Aphelion Rudimenting 357   One prefers even a runagate calliposis to the intemperate presentation of calumets, effuming somnolent smoke, by a votary of Minerva.
b. In extended use. A picture, esp. a masterwork.

DERIVATIVES

calli'potic  adj.