Sunday, August 18, 2013

THE FIRST WORD

fustilarian

PRONUNCIATION:
(fuhs-tuh-LAR-ee-uhn) 

MEANING:
noun: A fat and slovenly person.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Middle English fusty (smelly, moldy). Earliest documented use: 1600.

NOTES:
The first recorded use of the word is from Shakespeare's Henry IV in which Falstaff exclaims, "Away, you scullion! You rampallion! You fustilarian! I'll tickle your catastrophe."

USAGE:
"I've no fancy to be guzzled up by a wolf or spitted on the tusks of one of the fustilarian wild boars."
Joan Aiken; Whispering Mountain; Starscape; 2002.

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