ostrobogulous
English
WOTD – 27 June 2007
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌɒ.stɹəʊˈbɒɡ.jʊ.ləs/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˌɑː.stɹəˈbɑːɡ.jə.ləs/
Audio (US) (file)
Adjective
ostrobogulous (comparative more ostrobogulous, superlative most ostrobogulous)
- (humorous) Slightly risqué or indecent; bizarre, interesting, or unusual.
- 1951, Arthur Calder-Marshall, The magic of my youth, R. Hart-Davis, 1951, →ISBN, page 31:
- "The Beast and the Devil tried to hold a serious business conversation, but Vickybird kept chipping in with questions of a purely 'ostrobogulous'* nature until Crowley became so enraged that he turned Vickybird into a zebra, rode him into a zoo, where he remained for two years before regaining human shape."
- 1982 Charles Richard Johnson - Oxherding
- A tissue of ostrobogulous lies, he calls them.
- 1990 Jean Overton Fuller - The Magical Dilemma of Victor Neuberg: a biography
- He would speak of an ostrobogulous tale or a passage in the classics.
-
Related terms
- ostrobogulation
References
- OED (online) 2004