rubric

English

WOTD – 27 July 2008

A manuscript page with rubrics.

Alternative forms

• rubrick (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English rubrich, rubrik, through Old French rubrique, from Latin rubrīca (“red ochre”), the substance used to make red letters, from ruber (“red”), from Proto-Indo-European *reudh-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹuːbɹɪk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

rubric (plural rubrics)

1. A heading in a book highlighted in red.
2. A title of a category or a class.

   That would fall under the rubric of things we can ignore for now.

   • 2008, Chris Dodd, Senator Dodd Speaks in Opposition to FISA Bill on Floor of U.S. Senate:

     And in one swoop, the Attorney General conceded to the president nearly unlimited power, just as long as he finds a lawyer willing to stuff his actions into the boundless rubric of “defending the country.”

3. (Christianity) The directions for a religious service, formerly printed in red letters.
   • Hook

     All the clergy in England solemnly pledge themselves to observe the rubrics.

4. An established rule or custom; a guideline.
   • De Quincey

     Nay, as a duty, it had no place or rubric in human conceptions before Christianity.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Cowper to this entry?)

5. (education) A printed set of scoring criteria for evaluating student work and for giving feedback.
6. A flourish after a signature.
7. Red ochre.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:class

Related terms

• rubricate

Translations

heading in a book highlighted in red

• Finnish: rubriikki (fi), otsikko (fi)
• German: Rubrik (de) f
• Irish: rúibric f, ceannteideal m, ceannscríbhinn f
• Latin: rubrica f
• Latvian: rubrika (lv) f

• Romanian: rubrică (ro) f
• Russian: кра́сная строка́ (ru) f (krásnaja stroká)
• Spanish: rúbrica f
• Swedish: rubrik (sv) c

category or classification

• Czech: rubrika f
• Dutch: rubriek (nl) f
• Finnish: kategoria (fi)
• German: Rubrik (de) f

• Hungarian: rubrika (hu)
• Latvian: rubrika (lv) f
• Portuguese: rubrica (pt) f
• Russian: катего́рия (ru) f (kategórija)

established rule or custom, a guideline

• Finnish: ohje (fi), ohjeistus (fi)
• Maori: pūraranga

• Spanish: rúbrica f

printed set of scoring criteria

• Spanish: matriz de evaluación, rúbrica f

Adjective

rubric (comparative more rubric, superlative most rubric)

1. Coloured or marked with red; placed in rubrics.
   • Alexander Pope

     What though my name stood rubric on the walls / Or plaistered posts, with claps, in capitals?

2. Of or relating to the rubric or rubrics; rubrical.

Verb

rubric (third-person singular simple present rubrics, present participle rubricking, simple past and past participle rubricked)

1. (transitive) To adorn with red; to redden.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Johnson to this entry?)

Further reading

• rubric in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• rubric in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911