This week’s theme
Interesting usage examples

This week’s words
renunciatory
winsome
susurrant
ruderal
bereft

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(ROO-duhr-uhl)

MEANING:

adjective: Growing in waste places, disturbed land, or poor soil.
noun: A plant that thrives in such conditions.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin rudus (rubble). Earliest documented use: 1835.

USAGE:

“Carl Linnaeus revolutionized the way in which [taxonomy] was done. In fact, he courted controversy at the time, using quite explicit sexual descriptions, such as ‘eight men in the same bride’s chamber, with one woman’! [Octandria Monogynia] The German botanist, Johann Siegesbeck, referred to Linnaeus’ work as ‘loathsome harlotry’, though Linnaeus, believing in revenge as a dish best served well and truly chilled, retorted with taxonomic vengeance, naming a small and insignificant little ruderal plant (Siegesbeckia) after his accuser.”
Keith Skene; Form, Function, Forests, and Fossils; Contemporary Review (Oxford, UK); Dec 2011.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: