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Feb 9, 2012
This week's themeWords to describe people This week's words wastrel lummox dilettante roue poseur 
A woodcut illustrating an execution on a wheel, of Peter Stumpp (died 1589)
who was accused of being a werewolf among other crimes
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Gargroue
PRONUNCIATION:
(roo-AY, ROO-ay)
MEANING:
noun: A debauched man, especially an elderly man from a wealthy or aristocratic family.
ETYMOLOGY:
From French roué (literally, broken on a wheel), from rouer (to break on the
wheel), from Latin rota (wheel). The word arose from the belief that such a
person deserved this punishment. Earliest documented use: 1781.
NOTES:
The word was first applied to the companions of Philippe II, Duke of
Orleans. The breaking wheel was an instrument of torture on which a victim
was put and bludgeoned to death.
USAGE:
"Patrick Lichfield, the Queen's dandified cousin, invested in the shop
because its founders were, as he said with a roue's smirk, 'two of my
old girlfriends'." Peter Conrad; The Big Picture; The Observer (London, UK); Nov 20, 2011. See more usage examples of roue in Vocabulary.com's dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I shall live badly if I do not write, and I shall write badly if I do not live. -Francoise Sagan, playwright and novelist (1935-2004)
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