scabrous

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English[edit]

WOTD – 18 August 2017

Etymology[edit]

From Latin scaber (“scabrous, rough; scabby, mangy, itchy”) (from scabō (“to scratch, scrape, abrade”), from Proto-Indo-European *skabʰ- (“to scratch”)) + English -ous; compare French scabreux, Late Latin scabrōsus.

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

scabrous (comparative more scabrous, superlative most scabrous)

  1. Covered with scales or scabs; hence, very coarse or rough.
    Synonyms: scabby, scaly, scurfy; see also Thesaurus:scabby, Thesaurus:rough
    After the incident with the gasoline, Noel’s burnt arm remained scabrous, and was susceptible to infections.
    • 1737 July–December, J[ohn] Bevis, “An Observation of an Occultation of Mars by the Moon, in Covent-Garden, 1736”, in Philosophical Transactions. Giving Some Account of the Present Undertakings, Studies, and Labours, of the Ingenious, in Many Considerable Parts of the World, volume XL, number 446, London: Printed for T. Woodward, […]; and C. Davis […], printers to the Royal Society, →OCLC, page 101:
      I was ſurpriz'd to ſee Mars continue quite round, though hardly, to Appearance, disjoin'd from the ſcabrous Edge of the Moon; but that Inſtant I thought it began to loſe its Figure.—Clouds.
    • 1752, John Hill, “Lumbricus”, in An History of Animals. […], London: Printed for Thomas Osborne, […], →OCLC, part I, book II (Of Insects), page 15:
      Lumbricus ſcaber. The rough Lumbricus. The Sea-worm. This ſpecies grows to a foot, or more, in length, and to the thickneſs of a man's finger. It is of a pale red colour, and is compoſed of a number of rings or annular joints, as it were, in the manner of the other; but the ſkin is ſcabrous, and all theſe rings are covered with little prominences, ſo that it is extreamly rough to the touch.
    • 1836, Amos Eaton, “Helianthemum, Cistus”, in Manual of Botany, for North America: […], 7th edition, Albany, N.Y.: Oliver Steele, →OCLC, page 328:
      [Helianthus] frondosus, […] stem smooth below, leaves lance ovate, remotely and acutely serrate, scabrous above, paler and sub-scabrous beneath, 3-nerved: peduncles scabrous; petiole ciliate; calyx squarose, undulate, leafy, ciliate: rays 8-flowered.
    • 1934, John Keats, “Lecture 5. Diseases of Veins.”, in Maurice Buxton Forman, editor, John Keats’s Anatomical and Physiological Note Book: […], London: Oxford University Press, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: Haskell House Publishers, 1970, →OCLC, page 44:
      The Veins of old Persons are apt to become varicose and this is where the greatest column of Blood—the Valves loosing [sic] their power is the cause of the disease. The Blood by this Means is not kept from gravitating to ye foot the Consequences are Scabrous Skin and Ulcers.
  2. (figurative) Disgusting, repellent.
    Synonyms: repulsive, vile; see also Thesaurus:unpleasant
    The novel was a flagrantly scabrous bodice-ripper, and Rachael was ashamed to read it in public.
    • 1959, Tertullian, translated by William P. Le Saint, Treatises on Penance: On Penitence and On Purity (Ancient Christian Writers; 28), Westminster, Md.: Newman Press; London: Longmans Green, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y., Ramsey, N.J.: Paulist Press, c. 1978, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 118:
      This typifies the man, body and soul, who is transformed after Baptism, that is to say, after the entrance of the priest, and then takes up once more the scabrous contaminations of the flesh.
    • 1973, David G. Epstein, “The Spontaneous Settlements”, in Brasília, Plan and Reality: A Study of Planned and Spontaneous Urban Development, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif., London: University of California Press, →ISBN, page 106:
      In the Pilot Plan, women shop in brightly lit, hygienic supermarkets; in the Social Security Invasion, they must be content with tiny rat-infested shops or scabrous open air markets.
    • 2017 January 19, Peter Bradshaw, “T2 Trainspotting review – choose a sequel that doesn’t disappoint”, in The Guardian‎[1], London, archived from the original on 20 January 2017:
      What began as a zeitgeisty outlaw romp in the Uncool Britannia of the 1990s is now reborn as a scabrous and brutal black comedy about middle-aged male disappointment and fear of death.
  3. (figurative) Salacious, scandalous; concerning oneself with lurid or lascivious substance.
  4. (figurative) Of music, writing, etc.: lacking refinement; unmelodious, unmusical.
    Synonyms: harsh, rough; see also Thesaurus:cacophonous
    • 1693, John Dryden, The Dedication, Juvenal; Persius; John Dryden, [William Congreve, and Nahum Tate], transl., The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC, page xxx:
      [A]s his Verse is ſcabrous, and hobbling, and his Words not every where well choſen, the purity of Latin being more corrupted, than in the time of Juvenal, and conſequently of Horace, who writ when the Language was in the heighth of its perfection; ſo his diction is hard; his Figures are generally too bold and daring; and his Tropes, particularly his Metaphors, inſufferably ſtrain'd.
    • 1939, F[rederick] C[harles] Green, “The Novelist: 1821–1830”, in Stendhal, Cambridge: At the University Press, →OCLC, page 188:
      In January 1826 Stendhal wrote for The New Monthly Review a lengthy account of a novel called Olivier which was then the talk of the Paris salons. The author of this highly romantic, scabrous and worthless fiction was Henri de la Touche, but all believed, as the publisher intended that they should, that Olivier was from the pen of the famous Mme [Claire] de Duras […]
  5. (figurative) Difficult, thorny, troublesome.
    • [1845–1847], [Jules] Michelet, “[Book the Thirteenth.] Chapter II. Louis XI. Revolution Attempted by Him. a.d. 1462–1464”, in G. H. Smith, transl., History of France, volume I, London: Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria Lane, →OCLC, page 232, column 1:
      These were things which gave him [Louis XI of France] no concern; and he went on alone, without taking any advice, in the scabrous path of novelty, turning his back on antiquity, and laughing at it. When solemnly remonstrated with by its most venerable representatives, he smiled and shrugged his shoulders.
  6. (figurative, chiefly US) Covered with a crust of dirt or grime.
  7. (biology) Having scabers.

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Further reading[edit]

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