Sunday, June 12, 2011

Word of the day: rebarbative

The word of the day is rebarbative:
< French rébarbatif repellent, disagreeable (14th cent. in Middle French) < Middle French rebarber to oppose, stand up to (13th cent. in Old French; < re-re- prefix + barbebarb n.1, hence probably literally ‘to stand beard to beard against’) + -atif-ative suffix.

Repellent; unattractive; objectionable.  (OED)


"Nonetheless, She, haunted by their lost love, has seen all his stage performances; He has watched every one of her 'Law & Order' episodes.  In a sense, 'Stage Kiss' is a ghost play in which both the play-within-the-play and the rebarbative lovers keep the past present.  Is life imitating art?  Or is art imitating life?  Ruhl, in her gleeful counterpoint, gets to have it both ways."

 - John Lahr, "Mouth to Mouth: Sarah Ruhl on attraction and artifice", 30 May 2011 The New Yorker

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