Wiktionary

furibund

English edit

WOTD – 24 November 2020

Etymology edit

From French furibond (“furious”) and Middle English furybound, furybounde, both borrowed from Latin furibundus (“frantic, frenzied; maddened, raving; inspired”), from furō (“to rave, rage”) + -bundus (suffix forming adjectives with an active or transitive meaning).[1] The further etymology of furō is uncertain; a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“smoke; haze, mist”) has been suggested.

Pronunciation edit

Adjective edit

furibund (comparative more furibund, superlative most furibund)

  1. (formal, literary) Having a propensity to be furious; choleric, irate.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:angry
    Antonyms: see Thesaurus:calm
    • 1537, Wilfride Holme, On the Fall and Evil Success of Rebellion; quoted in Geo[rge] Steevens, “Act V”, in Annotations by Sam. Johnson and Geo. Steevens, and the Various Commentators, upon Midsummer Night’s Dream, Written by Will. Shakespeare (Bell’s Edition of Shakspere’s Works; 50), London: […] John Bell, […], 1787, →OCLC, page 87, line 150:
      Fie, frantike, fabulators, furibund, and fatuate, / Out, oblatrant, oblict, obstacle, and obsecate.
    • [1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act IV:
      Tibullus. O, terrible, windy words! / Gallus. A ſigne of a windy Braine. / Criſpinus. O—Oblatrant—Obcæcate—Furibund—Fatuate—Strenuous.— / Horace. Heer's a deale: Oblatrant, Obcæcate, Furibund, Fatuate, Strenuous. / Cæſar. Now, all's come vp, I trow. What a Tumult he had in his Belly!]
    • 1730, Andrew Brice, Freedom: A Poem, Written in Time of Recess from the Rapacious Claws of Bailiffs, and Devouring Fangs of Goalers, […], Exon [Exeter, Devon]: […] [T]he author, […], →OCLC, page 80:
      Or burley Hero [Ajax the Great] Sev'nfold Targe who bore, / With Choler furibund, vindictive Steel / Plunging in Brutal Gore; [...]
    • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, “At Versailles”, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book VII (The Insurrection of Women), page 266:
      [...]—And so poor Louison Chabray, no asseveration or shrieks availing her, fair slim damsel, late in the arms of Royalty, has a garter round her neck, and furibund Amazons at each end; is about to perish so,—when two Bodyguards gallop up, indignantly dissipating; and rescue her.
    • 1853 July, “Sir Nathaniel” [pseudonym], “American Authorship. No. IV.—Herman Melville.”, in William Harrison Ainsworth, editor, The New Monthly Magazine, volume XCVIII, number CCCXCI, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 308:
      The story itself is a strange, wild, furibund thing—about Captain Ahab's vow of revenge against one Moby Dick. And who is Moby Dick? A fellow of a whale, who has made free with the captain's leg; [...]
    • 1863, [William] Wilkie Collins, “Fragments of Personal Experience.—I. Laid Up in Lodgings.”, in My Miscellanies. […], volume I, London: Sampson Low, Son, & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 130–131:
      But I soon discover that she grins at everything—at the fire that she lights, at the cloth she lays for dinner, at the medicine-bottles she brings upstairs, at the furibund visage of Mrs. Glutch, ready to drive whole baskets full of creases at her head every morning.
    • 1890 February, Jas[on] G. Kiernan, “Anti-syphilitics of the Sixteenth Century”, in The Medical Standard, volume VII, number 2, Chicago, Ill.: G. P. Engelhard & Co., →OCLC, page 43, column 1:
      About 1540 the furibund character of syphilis began to disappear. Probably inherited immunity played a part in this as well as the fact that the Galenical physicians, stirred up by the assaults of Paracelsus, took a more active part in treatment. Dr. Antoine Lecocq, in 1540, notices the fact that syphilis was beginning to lose its furibund, galloping character.
    • 1910 January 12, Ameen Rihani, “Subtranscendental”, in The Book of Khalid, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published October 1911, →OCLC, book the second (In the Temple), page 116:
      And what mean these outbursts and objurgations of his, you will ask; these suggestions, furtive, rhapsodical, mystical; this furibund allegro about Money, Mediums, and Bohemia; [...]
    • 1918 May 9, Lytton Strachey, “[Cardinal Manning.] Chapter V”, in Eminent Victorians: Cardinal Manning, Florence Nightingale, Dr. Arnold, General Gordon (Library of English Literature; LEL 11347), London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 55:
      [Nicholas] Wiseman's encyclical, dated "from without the Flaminian Gate," in which he announced the new departure, was greeted in England by a storm of indignation, culminating in the famous and furibund letter of Lord John Russell, then Prime Minister, against the insolence of the "Papal Aggression."

Translations edit

References edit

  1. ^ Compare “furibund, adj.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1898.

Catalan edit

Etymology edit

Borrowed from Latin furibundus.

Pronunciation edit

Adjective edit

furibund (feminine furibunda, masculine plural furibunds, feminine plural furibundes)

  1. furious, irate

Further reading edit

Romanian edit

Etymology edit

Borrowed from French furibond, from Latin furibundus.

Adjective edit

furibund m or n (feminine singular furibundă, masculine plural furibunzi, feminine and neuter plural furibunde)

  1. furious

Declension edit

Declension of furibund
singular plural
masculine neuter feminine masculine neuter feminine
nominative/
accusative 		indefinite furibund furibundă furibunzi furibunde
definite furibundul furibunda furibunzii furibundele
genitive/
dative 		indefinite furibund furibunde furibunzi furibunde
definite furibundului furibundei furibunzilor furibundelor
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