A medical plaster; an alcoholic solution of soap (or oleic acid) and camphor with some added essential oils; soap liniment; (also) a preparation made from this, esp. by mixing with laudanum; now arch. In extended use: (U.S. regional) any medicine; alcohol. (OED ( Read more... )

Chastisement, corporal punishment. Also fig. and in phr. to get toco for yam. (OED)

From Hindi ṭhōko, imperative of ṭhoknā beat, thrash.

"The School leaders come up furious, and administer toco to the wretched fags nearest at hand." (Tom Brown's School Days)

"To embrace you thus, con fuoco, Would distinctly be no gioco, And for yam I should get ( Read more... )

illiesm (n): the act of referring to oneself in the third person. illeist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illeism

This was bread prepared in a rather special way, women would knead the dough between their naked thighs before baking it; it was supposed to serve as a love-charm or aphrodisiac. Here is John Aubrey on the matter ( Read more... )

I stumbled across this word in a poem by Kipling, the Road-Song of the Bandar-Log (monkey-folk - 'Brother thy tail hangs down behind!'), which contains this line ( Read more... )

One of the quotations the OED gives for "God bless the mark" (section III.11 of the first entry for the noun 'mark') is:

1833 Dublin Penny Jrnl. 2 23/2 ‘An' they say’, remarked a third, ‘that if a body swears in the wrong wid that [sc. the garvarry] about his neck, his face'll be turned to the back of his head, God bless the mark ( Read more... )

There are of course many unusual words connected with architecture, especially ecclesiastical architecture; one I particularly like is 'slype', meaning a covered passage, especially one leading from a cathedral or monastic church to the associated chapter-house. Here is a doorway leading into the slype at Gloucester Cathedral:


( Read more... )

A cat-lover (ailouros being a cat in ancient Greek). Perhaps not that unusual, but not widely familiar among non-ailurophiles. After all, it is much easier just to say cat-lover, and ailouros doesn't have a catty sound.

I came across this in an anthology of bad verse, an extract from 'The Bride's Prelude' by D.G. Rossetti ( Read more... )

A genus of cretaceous fossil sponges.