spinksterinkdum

Jesse Sheidlower jester at PANIX.COM
Wed Apr 12 18:19:34 UTC 2006


On Wed, Apr 12, 2006 at 01:57:41PM -0400, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>
> In "spinksterinkdum" I hear echoes of that trio previously discussed
> here: "hincty", "dicty", and "saditty". Any other possible sources for
> the coinage?

The form _spizzerinctum_, in various spellings, was fairly
popular in the nineteenth century in the sense 'vim; pizazz'.
Richard Bailey was familiar enough with it to use it in his
blurb of HDAS vol. I.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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