babery
n. finery to please a baby
scarebabe
n. a thing that frightens a baby
babery
n. finery to please a baby
scarebabe
n. a thing that frightens a baby
ignivomous
adj. vomiting fire
galericulate
adj. covered by a hat
See whelve.
nod-crafty
adj. nodding to give an air of wisdom
smellfeast
n. “one who is quick at finding and frequenting good tables”; a parasite
happify
v. to make happy
procellous
adj. stormy
naufragous
adj. causing shipwreck
remugient
adj. bellowing again
vespertilionize
v. to turn into a bat
curtain-lecture
n. a reproof given by a wife to her husband in bed
That’s from Samuel Johnson’s 1755 Dictionary of the English Language, which is more colorful than one might suppose. It also defines cough as “a convulsion of the lungs, vellicated by some sharp serosity” and lexicographer as “a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original and detailing the signification of words.”