circumbendibus

English

Etymology

• From Latin circum (“round about”) (compare English circum-) + English bend + Latin -ibus

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɝkm̩ˈbɛndɪbəs/

Adjective

circumbendibus (comparative more circumbendibus, superlative most circumbendibus)

1. (often humorous) indirect or roundabout
   • 1918, Sidney Watson, In the Twinkling of an Eye, Bible institute of Los Angeles, page 66:

     “We’re all circumbendibus, / Wherever we may be, / We’re all circumbendibus, / On land or on sea. / Rich or poor or middling, / Wherever we are found, / We’re all circumbendibus, / We’re all going round.”

   • 1987 Syed Tassadque Hussain, Reflections on Kashmir politics,Rima Pub. House, p59

     The only irresistible inference that can be deduced from a bare perusal of this judgment is that it is circumbendibus in its tenor vague and conjectural in its logic and in fine it is a remarkable piece of a political document.

Translations

indirect, roundabout

Noun

circumbendibus (plural circumbendibuses or circumbendibi)

1. (often humorous) A roundabout route or process
   • 1899, Herbert Spencer, Social Statics; Or, the Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Specified, and the First of Them Developed, D. Appleton and company, page 383:

     If, as Coleridge says, “a knave is a fool with a circumbendibus,” then by instructing the knave you do but make the circumbendibus a wider one.

   • 1907 Albert Temple Swing, James Harris Fairchild; Or Sixty-Eight Years with a Christian College, F. H. Revell company, p155

     After he had moved into the house and repaired it Mrs. Mary L. Bacon remembers standing with him one day and looking over the winding flag stones leading up to his front door. “And what is this,” he said, “a circumbendibus?”

   • 1968, George William Erskine Russell, Afterthoughts, Ayer Publishing, page 152:

     Before tea-time my circumbendibus brought me to the hospitable residence of Tommy’s chief supporter, whom we will call Mr Goodhart.

2. (often humorous) A roundabout, indirect, or confusing manner of speech or writing

Translations

roundabout route or process

• Finnish: ketunlenkki, kiertotie
• German: Umweg (de) m
• Spanish: rodeo (es) m

a roundabout or confusing manner

• Finnish: kiertoilmaus (fi)
• French: circonlocution (fr), galimatias (fr), cultisme (fr)gongorisme (fr), préciosité (fr)
• German: Umschweif (de) m
• Italian: circonlocuzione (it)
• Spanish: rodeo (es) m, circunloquio (es) m