quomodocunquize

[prettygoodword]

quomodocunquize (kwoh-moh-doh-KUN-kweyez) - v., to make money in any way possible.


Coined, and quite probably last used, by 17th century essayist Sir Thomas Urquhart, based on Latin quōmodocumque, in whatever way, which he found in Horace Epistles i.i.66. In context, he is complaining about people who assume all Scotsmen are money-grubbers, because a

churlish and tenacious humor hath made many that were not acquainted with any else of that country, to imagine all their compatriots infected with the same leprosie of a wretched peevishness, whereof those quomodocunquizing cluster-fists and rapacious varlets have given of late such cannibal-like proofs, by their inhumanity and obdurate carriage, towards some whose shoes strings they are not worthy to unty

Okay, it's a very 17th century sentence, but "quomodocunquizing cluster-fists and rapacious varlets" is a delicious phrase.

---L.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Larry, you say "it's a very 17th century sentence" like that's a bad thing, with which sentiment I would beg to differ. What amuses me is that even in the 17th century, to make a derisive phrase, the noun modified by the adjective cluster began with an F. --Paul V

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

I tend to prefer 16th-century sentences, or even 18th-century periods, over 17th-century models. The structures generally don't work for me, even allowing for alternate comma-schemes. (Which is a shame, as I'd otherwise be all over Sir Thomas Brown and The Anatomy of Melancholy.)

And heh, yeah, on the f-word.

---L.