Coffee has initially been a food – chewed, not sipped. Early African tribes consume coffee by grinding the berries together, adding some animal fat, and rolling the treats into tiny edible energy balls.
SQUEAMISH
dainty, nice, overnice, prissy, squeamish
(adjective) excessively fastidious and easily disgusted; “too nice about his food to take to camp cooking”; “so squeamish he would only touch the toilet handle with his elbow”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Adjective
squeamish (comparative more squeamish, superlative most squeamish)
easily bothered or upset; tending to be nauseated or nervous; oversensitive
averse or reluctant
Source: Wiktionary
Squeam"ish, a. Etym: [OE. squaimous, sweymous, probably from OE. sweem, swem, dizziness, a swimming in the head; cf. Icel. svemr a bustle, a stir, Norw. sveim a hovering about, a sickness that comes upon one, Icel. svimi a giddiness, AS. swimi. The word has been perhaps confused witrh qualmish. Cf. Swim to be dizzy.]
Definition: Having a stomach that is easily or nauseated; hence, nice to excess in taste; fastidious; easily disgusted; apt to be offended at trifling improprieties. Quoth he, that honor's very squeamish That takes a basting for a blemish. Hudibras. His muse is rustic, and perhaps too plain The men of squeamish taste to entertain. Southern. So ye grow squeamish, Gods, and sniff at heaven. M. Arnold.
Syn.
– Fastidious; dainty; overnice; scrupulous. See Fastidious.
– Squeam"ish*ly, adv.
– Squeam"ish*ness, n.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
16 September 2024
DOMESTICATION
(noun) accommodation to domestic life; “her explorer husband resisted all her attempts at domestication”
Coffee Trivia
