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Sunday 17 July 2011

Sunday Rest, Word Not To Use Today: scabrous.

Scabrous. This is a horrid word, with a cruel beginning and a dismissive end.

It means indecent, in a joyless sort of way.

Scabrous is sometimes used, too, of a problem that's particularly difficult to solve.

It can mean scaly, too. Now, there's nothing wrong with scales (provided you don't discover them when you take your vest off - that would be a sign you were turning into a dragon). Lizards and snakes wear their scales most beautifully. But even the elegance of an armadillo girdled lizard doesn't salvage the word scabrous as far as I'm concerned.

A murrain on it!

Word Not To Use Today: scabrous. This nasty word comes from the Latin word scaber, which means rough.

2 comments:

  1. Scabrous is good but MURRAIN is wonderful...more please on that!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'll muse on murrain for you, Adele. Watch this space!

    ReplyDelete

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