• scurrilous •
Printable Version Pronunciation: skêr-ê-lês • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: 1. Vulgar or obscene, expressed in vulgar or obscene terms. 2. Containing vulgar, obscene, or slanderous accusations.
Notes: Today's word is an extension of scurrile (see Word History), a word that is still available though a tad archaic. This parent word has the advantage of a full family, including a noun, scurrility, adverb, scurrilely, and a verb scurrilize. Scurrilous has only the adverb, scurrilously, and a longish noun, scurrilousness.
In Play: Scurrilous is seldom used to refer to obscene language, but it certainly remains fit for the task: "Scurrilous language reflects scurrilous minds." It is most often used to refer to vicious false verbal attacks: "Everyone agreed that Dwight Mann did not deserve the scurrilous accusations made against him by his business partner."
Word History: Today's Good Word is an extension of its ancestor, scurrile with the suffix -ous. Scurrile has the same meaning as scurrilous and came to French from Latin scurrilis "jeering, buffonish", the adjective of the noun scurra "buffoon". Scurra was borrowed from Etruscan, a language spoken in Italy before the arrival of the Romans. We only have short phrases from this language on pottery shards, lintels, and the like, so little is known about it.
P.S. - Register for the Daily Good Word E-Mail! - You can get our daily Good Word sent directly to you via e-mail in either HTML or Text format. Go to our Registration Page to sign up today!
