My Beloved and I saw an excellent production today of the “Comedy of Errors” at the Folger Shakespeare Library in DC. Late in the play, however, I noticed the usage of a word I had not heard before, and which, had I not been sitting Amidst the Words of the Bard, I would have taken for an ugly neologism. Albeit an ugly neologism I might well have used; forsooth, such is the corrupting Influence of the Conspiracy upon me so to use Words of Mine Own Invention: O Fie, & Alackaday, &tc., &tc.
The word is “defeatured.” I note that WordPress spellcheck rejects it resolutely. It appears at Act 2, Scene 1:
By him not ruin’d? Then is he not the ground of my defeatures? My decayed fair. A sunny look of his would soon repair …
“Defeatures” here, as in marred or decayed features, eg an aged face. Interesting. I rather like it. I’ll be on the lookout for a place to work it into a post. And conversation!