scurrilous
pronunciation
How to pronounce scurrilous in British English:
UK [ˈskʌrələs]
How to pronounce scurrilous in American English:
US [ˈskɜrələs]
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- Adjective:
- expressing offensive reproach
Word Origin
- scurrilous (adj.)
- "using such language as only the licence of a buffoon can warrant" [Johnson], 1570s, from scurrile "coarsely joking" (c. 1500, implied in scurrility), from Latin scurrilis "buffoonlike," from scurra "fashionable city idler, man-about-town," later "buffoon." According to Klein, "an Etruscan loan-word." Related: Scurrilously; scurrilousness.
Example
- 1. Others exchange scurrilous messages by computer and telephone .
- 2. Her scurrilous performances have already condemned her .
- 3. Today such rumours , scurrilous or not , are not so much whispered as bruited by megaphone by chinese citizens themselves , via websites and microblogs .
- 4. He did not think it consistent with the dignity of that council to waste any more time over this scurrilous amendment .
- 5. Far from harming the established publications , the multimedia gossip barrage may be driving readers to check scurrilous rumours with them .