Thursday, January 14, 2010

Bawdry:

Obscenity; unchaste language.

"I have no salt; no bawdry he doth mean; For witty, in his language, is obscene."

-B. Johnson

Bawd:
A procurer, or procuress; one that introduces men and women to each other, for the promotion of debauchey.

to bawd:
To procure; to provide gallants with strumpets.

"And in four months a batter'd harridan;
Now nothing's left, but wither'd, pale, and shrunk,
To bawd for others, and go shares with punk."

-Swift

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Ambidexter:

A man who is equally ready to act on either side, in party disputes. This sense is ridiculous.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Dern:

(1) Sad, Solitary.

(2) Barbarous; cruel. Obsolete.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Contrition:

(1) The act of grinding; or rubbing to powder.

(2) Penitence; sorrow for sin: in the strict sense, the sorrow which arises from the desire to please God, distinguished from attrition, or imperfect repentance produced by dread of hell.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Magnality:

A great thing; something above the common rate.

Not used.

Friday, January 8, 2010

File

to file:

To foul, to sully; to pollute. This sense is retained in Scotland.

"His weeds, divinely fashioned,
All fil'd and mangl'd."

Chapman's Iliads. b. xvii

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Beldam

An old woman; generally a term of contempt, marking the last degree of old age, with all its faults and miseries.