þær was wop: May 2014

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

gotspraugh, n.

Pronunciation: /g - o - t - sp - r- a - f/
Forms: 14 gütspreet, 14-15 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.

Pronunciation: /n - oh - d - r - eye - nd/ , /n - ah - dr - i - nd/
Forms: 14-15 nockrinde, 15-16 nockrat, 15-16 nokranht, 15-16 nockront, 15-17 nockrind, 15-17 noddyrind, 16 nuddrund, 16 nodraind, 16 noddind, 16-17 nudrind, 16-18 nudrund, 17-18 noddrind, 17-18 nodrinde, 18 noddrin.
Inflections: Plural nodrinds, nodrindes, 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. attrib. nonce. 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.

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Friday, May 9, 2014

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 pompolux, 16-18 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.

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.

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.

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 ἕξις habit of body, state, condition, < ἔχειν 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.

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.

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 trip; cognate 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. 15^v Abbrochement of whole Wares and Chaffer, a tiresome Entermise, made less so, by the quirks and ockanning, of hodiern and daily Price.

2. trans. To 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.