WORD FOR THE DAY

Your word for today is: oscitation, n.

oscitation, n.

Pronunciation: Brit. /ˌɒsᵻˈteɪʃn/,  U.S. /ˌɑsəˈteɪʃ(ə)n/

Forms:  15 ossitacion,   16– oscitation.

Etymology: <  classical Latin ōscitātiōn-, ōscitātiō the action of yawning <  ōscitāt-, past participial stem of ōscitāre and ōscitārī (see oscitate v.) + -iō -ion suffix1. Compare Middle French, French oscitation (1546).

Now rare.

1.  The action or an act of yawning from drowsiness. Also fig.

1547  A. Borde Breuiary of Helthe i. f. Ciii, Ossitacio is the latyn worde... In englysh it is named ossitacion yeanynge or gapynge.

1615  H. Crooke Μικροκοσμογραϕια 289 As it happeneth in oscitations or yawnings when wee hold our breath long.

1787 Minor iii. iv. 168 The Ladies, after much oscitation, declared they did not understand.

1817  T. J. Pettigrew Mem. J. C. Lettsom III. 284 The paroxysm came on at six o'clock in the evening with great oscitation.

1856  W. W. Dobie Recoll. Visit Port-Phillip iii. 52 Inducing a sympathetic reader to indulge in two years oscitation at one ‘go off’.

1955  J. M. Cohen tr  Rabelais Hist. Gargantua & Pantagruel iv. lxiii. 585 What's the remedy for oscitation or yawning?

†2.  The condition or fact of being drowsy, listless, inattentive, or negligent; an instance of inattention or negligence. Obs.

1656  T. Blount Glossographia, Oscitation, negligence or idleness.

1697  R. Bentley Diss. Epist. Phalaris 119 'Tis a mere oscitation of our Scholiast, and of Suidas that gaped after him.

1704  Swift Tale of Tub v. 113 His Epidemical Diseases being Fastiodisity, Amorphy, and Oscitation.

1744  E. Carter Let. 20 July in Series of Lett. E. Carter & C. Talbot (1808) I. 45 These transient fits of oscitation, and inactivity, are perhaps no more than a necessary relaxation to the mind.

1869  A W. Haddan Apostolical Succession Church Eng. (1883) 158 The natural oscitation on the part of individuals in the matter of rigorous adherence to admitted principle.

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