balductum

English

Etymology

From Latin balducta (“the curds of milk”).

Adjective

balductum (comparative more balductum, superlative most balductum)

1. (obsolete) nonsensical
   • 1914 Guy Andrew Thompson, Elizabethan criticism of poetry, George Banta Publishing Company, p4

     Richard Stanyhurst, whose own verse in his translations of Virgil is ridiculed by Thomas Nashe, scoffs at the "drafty poetry" and "rude rhyming and balductum ballads" of the time so objectionable to all the literati.

   • 1911, George Saintsbury, A history of English criticism: being the English chapters of A history of criticism and literary taste in Europe, W. Blackwood, page 50:

     And he suggests that "we beginners" (this from the author of these truly "barbarous and balductum" antics to the author of the Faerie Queene is distinctly precious) have the advantage, like Homer and Ennius, of setting examples.

Noun

balductum (countable and uncountable, plural balductums)

1. a posset
   • 1927, Herbert Leslie Stewart, The Dalhousie review, volume 7, page 66:

     And yet, just for once, it would be an experience to drink a "balductum": "A posset composed of hot milk curdled with ale or wine.

2. (obsolete) senseless talk or writing; balderdash.
   • 1815 Sir Egerton Brydges, Archaica: Harvey's Four letters, and sonnets, touching Robert Greene; Pierce's supererogation; [and] New letter of notable contents. Brathwaite's Essays upon the five senses, From the private press of Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, printed by T. Davison, p142

     […] whose wild and madbrain humour nothing fitteth so just, as the stalest dudgen or absurdest balductum, that they or their mates can invent in odd and awk speeches […]

Synonyms

• (senseless talk or writing): drivel, balderdash, piffle, poppycock, rubbish, twaddle
• See also Thesaurus:nonsense