There's a brand new word in the OED. Well, the word's not new, it's been sitting around since 1620, but it only made it into the dictionary a few days ago, like one of those saints who's canonised centuries after his immolation. The word is rugible.Say it.
Rugible.
Sounds good, doesn't it?
Rugible is defined as Obscure Rare: Capable of roaring.
It has only, so far as the OED knows, been used once, back in 1620 in a book called Syntagma Logicum, which contains the sentence:
A Lion is a fore-footed Beast rugible.
I have a weakness for postpositive adjectives, which are the ones used after the noun like court martial and attorney general. Plus, when life is getting me down and niggles are niggling a little too much, I often feel very, very rugible.
The Inky Fool conducting fieldwork
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Among the many words to which I was introduced by H.P. Lovecraft, one was 'rugose'. Sadly, this has nothing to do with the excellent 'rugible', but means only 'wrinkled'.
ReplyDeleteAs another prime introducer of words, do you have anything else in common with H.P.? Someting eldritch, for preference.
There was that fantastic moment when a young H.P. Lovecraft was leafing through the dictionary, found the word "gibbous" and realised he could base a career on the word.
ReplyDeleteI did eldritch many moons ago. I've always loved it.
I like the name Lovecraft too. For years I thought it was made up, but it wasn't.
Most of the Google hits for rugible were in Spanish. So, wondering if it had the same meaning, I used Google translate and found out that the Spanish word rugible indeed translates as 'rugible'. But the Spanish pronunciation is "rrrooheebly". Which is funny. On account of foreign people talk funny.
ReplyDelete