rusty

See also: Rusty

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹʌsti/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌsti

Etymology 1

From Middle English rusty, from Old English rūstiġ (“rusty”), from Proto-Germanic *rustagaz (“rusty”), equivalent to rust +‎ -y. Cognate with Saterland Frisian rusterch (“rusty”), West Frisian rustich, roastich (“rusty”), Dutch roestig (“rusty”), German Low German rusterig, rüsterig (“rusty”), German rostig (“rusty”), Swedish rostig (“rusty”).

Adjective

rusty (comparative rustier, superlative rustiest)

1. Marked or corroded by rust. [from 9th c.]
2. Of the rust color, reddish or reddish-brown. [from 14th c.]
   • 1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section XIV:

     Alive? he might be dead for aught I know, / With that red gaunt and colloped neck a-strain, / And shut eyes underneath the rusty mane;

   • 1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter I (Anarchy), pages 377–378:

     Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with […] on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs.

3. Lacking recent experience, out of practice, especially with respect to a skill or activity. [from 16th c.]
   • 2010 December 29, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0-1 Wolverhampton”, in BBC:

     Before the match, Hodgson had expressed the hope that his players would be fresh rather than rusty after an 18-day break from league commitments because of two successive postponements.

4. (now chiefly historical) Of clothing, especially dark clothing: worn, shabby. [from 17th c.]
   • 1911, Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson:

     He wore a black jacket, rusty and amorphous.

   • 1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:

     The clerk stared at him and the rusty black bonnet a moment, and then laughed.

5. Affected with the fungal plant disease called rust.

Derived terms

• better than a poke in the eye with a rusty nail
• ride rusty
• rustily
• rustiness
• rusty blackbird
• rusty dusty
• rusty guts
• rusty-margined guan
• rusty nail
• Rusty (nickname)
• rusty sheriff's badge
• rusty-spotted cat
• rusty tinamou
• rusty trombone
• turn rusty

 

Translations

affected by rust

• Arabic: صَدِئ (ṣadiʔ)
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: іржа́вы (iržávy)
• Bikol Central: matakla
• Bulgarian: ръждясал (bg) (rǎždjasal)
• Catalan: rovellat
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 生鏽的／生锈的 (zh) (shēngxiù de)

• Cornish: gossenek
• Czech: rezavý (cs)
• Danish: rusten (da)
• Dutch: roestig (nl), verroest (nl)
• Esperanto: rusta (eo)
• Finnish: ruosteinen (fi)
• French: rouillé (fr)
• Galician: ferruxento, enferruxado
• Georgian: ჟანგიანი (žangiani)
• German: rostig (de), verrostet (de)
• Greek: σκουριασμένος (el) (skouriasménos)
• Hungarian: rozsdás (hu)
• Icelandic: ryðgaður
• Irish: meirgeach
• Italian: arrugginito (it)
• Japanese: さびた (ja) (sabita)
• Khmer: ច្រែះ (km) (creh)
• Latin: rōbīginōsus (iron), aerūginōsus (bronze or copper)
• Luxembourgish: raschteg
• Macedonian: ’рѓосан (’rǵosan), за’рѓан (za’rǵan)
• Middle English: rusty
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: rusten (no)

  Nynorsk: rusten, rusta

• Polish: zardzewiały (pl), rdzawy (pl)
• Portuguese: enferrujado (pt), ferrugento
• Romanian: ruginit (ro)
• Russian: ржа́вый (ru) (ržávyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: рђав, хрђав

  Roman: rđav (sh), hrđav (sh)

• Slovak: hrdzavý (sk)
• Spanish: herrumbroso (es)
• Swedish: rostig (sv)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: paslanmış, paslı (tr)
• Ukrainian: іржа́вий (iržávyj)
• Venetan: rùxene (vec)
• Vietnamese: rỉ (vi)
• Waray-Waray: taoyon
• Welsh: rhydlyd (cy)

of the rust color, reddish or reddish-brown

• Bulgarian: ръждив (bg) (rǎždiv)
• Cornish: gossenek
• Czech: rezavý (cs)
• Danish: rustfarvet, rustrød (da) (reddish)
• Esperanto: rustkolora
• Finnish: ruosteenruskea (fi)
• Georgian: ჟანგისფერი (žangisperi)
• Hungarian: rozsdabarna (hu)
• Latin: ferrūgineus, rōbīginōsus
• Macedonian: ’рѓест (’rǵest)
• Middle English: rusty
• Polish: rdzawy (pl)
• Slovak: hrdzavý (sk)
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: ryzy

• Spanish: herrumbroso (es), rojizo (es)
• Swedish: rostfärgad
• Welsh: lliw rhwd, rhydliw, rhytgoch

lacking recent experience, out of practice

• Bulgarian: занемарен (bg) (zanemaren)
• Catalan: rovellat
• Danish: rusten (da)
• Esperanto: rusta (eo)
• Estonian: roostes
• Finnish: ruosteinen (fi), ruosteessa (fi)
• French: rouillé (fr)
• Galician: enferruxado, oxidado
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: eingerostet (de)
• Greek: σκουριασμένος (el) (skouriasménos), ξεπερασμένος (el) (xeperasménos)
• Hungarian: berozsdásodott (hu)
• Italian: arrugginito (it)
• Macedonian: подзабо́равен (podzabóraven), зане́марен (zanémaren)
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: rusten (no)

  Nynorsk: rusten

• Polish: zardzewiały (pl)
• Portuguese: enferrujado (pt), destreinado
• Spanish: oxidado (es), olvidado (es)
• Swedish: ringrostig
• Turkish: paslanmış
• Welsh: rhydlyd (cy)

worn, shabby

• Bulgarian: износен (bg) (iznosen)
• Irish: tréigthe
• Macedonian: и́зносен (íznosen)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Norman: ^{(please verify)} roui (Jersey)
• Swedish: ^{(please verify)} rostig (sv) (1,4), ^{(please verify)} rostfärgad (3)

Etymology 2

Ellipsis of rusty one more often used for this, or from the general epithet rusty given to various particular firearm names—earlier both was applied in Cockney rhyming slang for other machines, including swords in their day, but the present coinage has not more than a loose connection to this and is from the preference for used or antique firearms due to their being easier or cheaper to obtain.

Noun

rusty (uncountable)

1. (MLE, slang) A gun or in particular an old or worn one.
   • 2014 August 25, Dimzy of 67 (lyrics and music), “Outside”‎^[1], 1:29–1:35:

     My angles dusty, two black hands on the rusty
     And I got uck from a peng ting, mad back but the chest busty

Etymology 3

Variant form of resty; compare also reasty.

Adjective

rusty (comparative more rusty, superlative most rusty)

1. Discolored and rancid; reasty. [from 16th c.]

   rusty bacon

Anagrams

• Tyrus, yurts

Middle English

Alternative forms

• rosty, rousty, rowsty, ruste, rusti, ruysty
• rustiȝ (Early Middle English)

Etymology

From Old English rustiġ; equivalent to rust +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈrustiː/, /ˈruːstiː/

Adjective

rusty

1. rusty, rusted
2. degenerate, uncouth
3. (rare) rust-coloured
4. (rare) unpolished, jarring

Descendants

• English: rusty
• Scots: roosty, rousty
• Yola: roostha, roosta, roosthaa

References

• “rū̆stī, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.