A growing assortment of words and definitions used in the Early Modern era. See the Guide for more information.
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Word
Definition
Coemption
Cornering the market; buying up the available supplies. Literally (Latin co-, com, together + emere, emptum, to buy: caveat emptor, let the buyer beware; cp. caveat) the word means joint purchasing; Chaucer in his translation (1374) of Bothius thus understood the word: coemptioun that is to seyn comune achat or hying to-gidere. And in ancient Rome, one type of marriage ceremony consisted of the husband's buying the wife and the wife's buying the husband; this too was called coemption. Francis Bacon in his ESSAYS (1625, ON RICHES) said that monopolies, and coemption of wares for resale, where they are not restrained, are great means to enrich.
Irrorate
To bedew, to sprinkle. From Latin in + rorare, to bedew; ros, rorem, dew. A recipe of Lovell (1661) pleasantly suggests: They are to be fried and irrorated with the juice of oranges. Rawley in his edition (1638) of Francis Bacon's HISTORY NATURAL AND EXPERIMENTAL OF LIFE AND DEATH says that to the inoration of the body, much use of sweet things is profitable.
