roughage

English

WOTD – 10 February 2022

Etymology

Corn silage used as roughage (sense 2) or cattle fodder.

A selection of food with a high roughage (sense 3) or dietary fibre content.

From rough (“not smooth; crude, unrefined”) +‎ -age (suffix forming nouns with the sense of appurtenance or collection).[1]

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɹʌfɪd͡ʒ/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
Audio (GA) (file)
Hyphenation: rough‧age

Noun

roughage (countable and uncountable, plural roughages)

Originally (archaic), garbage, rubbish, or waste; later (agriculture) the portions of a crop which are discarded, such as husks, stalks, etc.; also, agricultural waste such as weeds.
Antonym: nonroughage
(agriculture) Coarse or rough plant material such as hay and silage used as animal fodder.
Synonym: (US) roughness
(nutrition) Substances, generally of plant origin, consisting mostly of complex carbohydrates which are undigested when eaten by humans, and which therefore help the passage of food and waste through the alimentary tract; dietary fibre.
Antonym: nonroughage

Alternative forms

ruffage (archaic)

Derived terms

nonroughage

Descendants

→ Hindi: रफ़ेज (rafej)
→ Urdu: رفیج‎‎ (rafej)

Translations

garbage, rubbish, or waste — see garbage,‎ rubbish,‎ waste

portions of a crop which are discarded; agricultural waste such as weeds

coarse or rough plant material used as animal fodder

Bulgarian: груб/твърд материал (grub/tvǎrd material)
Finnish: rouhe (fi), karkearehu, silppu (fi)
German: Raufutter n (ecology, farming)

substances which are undigested when eaten by humans, and which therefore help the passage of food and waste through the alimentary tract — See also translations at dietary fibre

Hindi: रफ़ेज m (rafej)
Urdu: رفیج‎‎ m (rafej)

References

“roughage, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2020; “roughage, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.