phlegmish

English edit

Etymology edit

From phlegm +‎ -ish.

Pronunciation edit

(Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈflɛmɪʃ/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
Audio (GA) (file)
Homophones: Flemish, flemish
Rhymes: -ɛmɪʃ
Hyphenation: phlegm‧ish

Adjective edit

phlegmish (comparative more phlegmish, superlative most phlegmish)

Laden with phlegm, as a cough.
- 1976, Edward Dahlberg, Bottom Dogs, From Flushing to Calvary, Those who Perish, and Hitherto Unpublished and Uncollected Works‎^[1]:
  His front legs doubled under him, and he lay down, his nose in his own water, biting the phlegmish froth and dust around his mouth and gaping like a stuffed animal in a taxidermist's window.
- 2001, Stereophile‎^[2], volume 24, numbers 7-12, page 123:
  This was plainly apparent with solo piano recordings; it seemed as if a layer of phlegmish tubercular congestion had been removed from between the strings.
Characterized by the humor phlegm; apathetic or composed.
- 1966, The American Writer and the Great Depression‎^[3], page 292:
  His concern soothed her and she breathed heavily, densely, with a thick phlegmish pity for herself.
- 2002, Briton Hadden, Henry Robinson Luce, Time‎^[4], volume 160, page 72:
  I was raised among them, though I fled their phlegmish company decades ago to join the chattering classes.
- 2006, The Spectator‎^[5], volume 301, page 33:
  […] 'the Lady Pusillanimous' is a mild echo of his invective against his first wife Pamela Lane whom he was just splitting up from: 'That bitch, that pusillanimous, sycophantic, snivelling, phlegmish yokel, that cow — fortunately I've ceased to care what happens to her' — which didn't stop him sleeping with her now and then after he had remarried, nor from supporting her financially
- 2012, Nabil Shehaby, The Propositional Logic of Avicenna: A Translation from al-Shifāʾ: al-Qiyās‎^[6], translation of original by Avicenna:
  The example (for the third kind) when the (principal proposition) is separative is: 'Either this fever is either yellowish or scarlet, or this fever is either phlegmish or melancholic'.