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May 28, 2019
This week’s theme
Words originating in shoes

This week’s words
sabotage
roughshod
old shoe
vamp
shoehorn

roughshod
Horseshoe with Calks (projections)
Image: Wikimedia Commons

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

roughshod

PRONUNCIATION:
(RUF-shod)

MEANING:
adjective:1. Domineering; bullying; brutal.
 2. Having horseshoes with projecting nails or calks to prevent slipping.
adverb:In a domineering or harsh manner.

ETYMOLOGY:
From rough + shod (wearing shoes), past participle of shoe. Earliest documented use: 1688.

USAGE:
“Since coming to power in 2010, the government of Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, has consistently disdained judicial independence, academic and media freedoms, and the rights of migrants. It has, in the view of many people, run roughshod over some of the core values of the European Union.”
Orban Sceptics; The Economist (London, UK); Sep 15, 2018.

See more usage examples of roughshod in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. -William Pitt, British prime minister (28 May 1759-1806)

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