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
Nefandous
Abominable, unmentionable. Latin ne, not + fandum, what ought to be spoken, gerundive of for, fan, fatum, to speak. Nefandous was used from the 17th into the 19th century (Robert Southey) ; in the 15th and 16th centuries a shorter form was used, nefand. The printer Caxton in 1490 cried out against a grete, horribyle, nephande, and detestable cryme. Note that ineffable (cp. effable) has developed the opposite connotation, of something good beyond the power of words to express, as ineffable happiness. Unspeakable usually has unpleasant connotations; unutterable may swing with the emotions, either way.
Pinguescent
Growing fat; causing to grow fat, Latin pinguescere, to grow fat; pinguis, fat. pinguescence, the process of growing fat. pinguefy, rarely pinguedinize, to make fat. pinguefaction, the act of fattening. Robert Southey in 1797 pictured a very brown looking man, of most pinguescent and fullmoon cheeks. BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE of 1825 more gruesomely pictured buttocks pinguefying on their own steaks.
Scrivener
A professional or public penman; scribe, clerk, secretary, copyist or writer. Eventually, also a notary public. Earlier (13th to 15th century) scrivein, scriveyn; French escrivain. Hence to scrive, to scriven. Also scrivenliche (Chaucer), like a scriver or scrivener. Latin scribere, scriptum, to scratch, to write; cp. scripturient. From the Italian came 16th century English scrivan, scrivano, a clerk. Chaucer (1574) addressed a copyist: Adam scryveyne if ever it thee byfalle Boece or Troylus for to wryten nuwe.Scrivener was also used, with measure of contempt, to mean an author; Robert Southey in SIR THOMAS MORE (1829) wrote: A very little suffices for the stock in trade, upon which the scribes and scriveners of literature, who take upon themselves to direct the public, set up.
Stelliscript
The writing in the stars. Coined by Robert Southey in THE DOCTOR (1835).
Wont
See wone; won. Wonted (accustomed; sometimes used alone, to mean acclimatized) is a fresh past form developed (in the 14th century) when wont was used as a separate verb in the present tense. Wontedness, habituation, the state of being accustomed; wonting, making (someone) accustomed. Also wontless (q.v.), unaccustomed; unusual. Robert Southey in JOAN OF ARC (1795) has: He . . . all astonish'd at their force And wontless valour, rages round the field. The wonting-penny, wages paid a herdsman to guard beasts in a place until they were used to it and would stay of their own accord.
