mugient

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin mūgiēns, present participle of mūgiō (“to bellow”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmjuːd͡ʒi.ənt/, /ˈmjuːd͡ʒənt/

Adjective

mugient (comparative more mugient, superlative most mugient)

1. (rare) Lowing; bellowing.
   • 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:

     That a bittern maketh that mugient noise, or as we term it, bumping, by putting its bill into a reed, as most believe […]

   • 1833, William Ellis Wall, Christ Crucified: An Epic Poem, in Twelve Books, Oxford, page 220:

     Dire groans arose, / And late laments came plaining upward high / From the sepulchral cavern, that reclos'd / With roar of loudest mugient thunders dire.

   • 1918, George Jean Nathan, The Popular Theatre, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, page 64:

     This Hodge has made a great fortune, so say persons interested in such extrinsic matters, out of his annual laudation of God's Kansas and Ohio noblemen who drink out of the fingerbowl, pick their teeth with the oyster fork and clean their nails with the fruit knife; and he has thus provided unfailing copy for the mugient professors in the matter of bienséance and punctilio.

   • 1939, Michael Innes, Stop Press (Inspector Appleby), London: Ipso Books, published 2017, →ISBN, page 49:

     Timmy’s voice and the rattle of the train’s subterraneous plunge were alike drowned in awful and bewildering clamour. A pandemonium of sound, latrant, mugient, reboatory, and beyond all words, reverberated between the walls of the tunnel.

     • 1940 June 23, “Dogs Would Not Lie Doggo Here”, in The Sunday Sun and Guardian, number 1943, Sydney, page 7:

       Sounds, latrant, mugient and reboatory, echoed above the city’s noise as, yelping and barking, the heterogeneous pack raced down the street, while boys and girls, armed with rulers and schoolbags, manoeuvred it to a vacant allotment.

   • 1960 July 16, D. G., “Day After Good-By”, in Chicago Daily Tribune, volume 119, number 170, Chicago, Ill., part 1, page 14:

     Now in the mugient flutes new anguish comes, / With pain progresses to the aches of / Suddenly piercing, and my rendezvous drums.

Further reading

• “mugient”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• gun time, time-gun

Latin

Verb

mūgient

1. third-person plural future active indicative of mūgiō