A growing assortment of words and definitions used in the Early Modern era. See the Guide for more information.
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7
Word
Definition
Baculine
The line of the flagellant. Relating to the rod, or to punishment by flogging. William Makepeace Thackeray in THE VIRGINIANS (1858) states that the baculine method was a common mode of argument. Bacul was used in the 15th century for a religious staff or crosier. From Latin baculus, a rod, the symbol of power, also used in English. Hence baculiferous, bearing a cane, like the dandy of yore. The common bacillus was named from its shape: Latin bacillus, little rod; diminutive of baculus. Baculometry, says Bailey in his DICTIONARY (1751), is the art of measuring accessible or inaccessible distances or lines, by one or more staves.
Exuviate
Cast skins, shells and other coverings of animals; figuratively, cast-off articles of apparel. William Makepeace Thackeray in CATHERINE (1840) looks at the old-clothes man and wonders at the load of exuvial coats and breeches under which he staggers. FRASER'S MAGAZINE in 1855: Crabs of mature age and full size cease to exuviate. Huxley in 1880: The young crayfish exuviate two or three times in the course of the first year.
Impavid
Fearless. From Latin in, not + pavidus, fearful. William Makepeace Thackeray in PENDENNIS (1849) remarked that Calverley and Coldstream would have looked on impavidly. These forms appeared only in the 19th century; in the 17th, irnpavidity was used, in the sense of foolhardiness: impavidity, or lack of just fear.
Jugulate
To slit the throat of, to slay. Latin jugulum, collar-bone, throat, neck. Also jugulator, cut-throat. Ivor Brown in A WORD IN YOUR EAR (1945) suggests that William Makepeace Thackeray was thinking of Elizabethan songs --"Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo" when he spoke of the jugulation of a pseudosongstress.
Nix
A water-elf. See eche; nixie. Also (from German nichts, nothing) nothing, nobody. Nix! as a signal meant somebody's coming. Keeping nix, keeping watch so nobody will surprise one. Ainsworth in ROOKWOOD (1834) coined a phrase which has been copied by Hood, William Makepeace Thackeray, and more: Nix my dolly, pals, fake away. The first three words mean chuck it, never mind.
Orgeat
A syrup, or a cooling drink made therefrom. In the 15th century it was made from barley (French orge, from Latin hordeum, barley) and was apparently not very tasty. As late as 1845 William Makepeace Thackeray (MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS) speaks of pulling a queer face over a glass of orgeat (pronounced orjaw). Later, the syrup was made from almonds, or from orange-flower water, and presumably made orgyan a more succulent drink. Hannah More (but that was in BAS BLEU, 1786) exclaimed: Nor be the milk-white streams forgot Of thirst-assuaging, cool orgeat.
Pinchbeck
An alloy (5 parts copper with 1 part zinc) that looks like gold, hence used for cheap jewelry; hence, spurious; imitation, sham. From Christopher Pinchbeck (died 1732) a watchmaker of Fleet Street, London, who invented the alloy; apparently his family name is a place-name; there is a village called Pinchbeck near Spalding. An advertisement in THE DAILY POST of 27 November, 1732, read: The toys made of the late ingenious Mr. Pinchbeck's curious metal . . . are now sold only by his son and sole executor, Mr. Edward Pinchbeck. William Makepeace Thackeray in THE VIRGINIAN (1859) said what is true of many a young woman this hundred years later: Those golden locks were only pinchbeck. Symonds in THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY (1877) spoke of a pinchbeck age of poetry.
