furibund

English

WOTD – 24 November 2020

Etymology

From French furibond (“furious”) and Middle English furybound, furybounde, both borrowed from Latin furibundus (“frantic, frenzied; maddened, raving; inspired”), from furō (“to rave, rage”) + -bundus (suffix forming adjectives with an active or transitive meaning). The further etymology of furō is uncertain; a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“smoke; haze, mist”) has been suggested.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfjʊɹɪbʌnd/, /ˈfjʊə-/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfjʊɹɪbʌnd/
• Hyphenation: fu‧ri‧bund

Adjective

furibund (comparative more furibund, superlative most furibund)

1. (formal, literary) Having a propensity to be furious; choleric, irate.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:angry

   Antonyms: see Thesaurus:calm

   • 1537, Wilfride Holme, On the Fall and Evil Success of Rebellion; quoted in Geo[rge] Steevens, “Act V”, in Annotations by Sam. Johnson and Geo. Steevens, and the Various Commentators, upon Midsummer Night’s Dream, Written by Will. Shakespeare (Bell’s Edition of Shakspere’s Works; 50), London: […] John Bell, […], 1787, →OCLC, page 87, line 150:

     Fie, frantike, fabulators, furibund, and fatuate, / Out, oblatrant, oblict, obstacle, and obsecate.

   • [1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act IV:

     Tibullus. O, terrible, windy words! / Gallus. A ſigne of a windy Braine. / Criſpinus. O—Oblatrant—Obcæcate—Furibund—Fatuate—Strenuous.— / Horace. Heer's a deale: Oblatrant, Obcæcate, Furibund, Fatuate, Strenuous. / Cæſar. Now, all's come vp, I trow. What a Tumult he had in his Belly!]

   • 1730, Andrew Brice, Freedom: A Poem, Written in Time of Recess from the Rapacious Claws of Bailiffs, and Devouring Fangs of Goalers, […], Exon [Exeter, Devon]: […] [T]he author, […], →OCLC, page 80:

     Or burley Hero [Ajax the Great] Sev'nfold Targe who bore, / With Choler furibund, vindictive Steel / Plunging in Brutal Gore; [...]

   • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, “At Versailles”, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book VII (The Insurrection of Women), page 266:

     [...]—And so poor Louison Chabray, no asseveration or shrieks availing her, fair slim damsel, late in the arms of Royalty, has a garter round her neck, and furibund Amazons at each end; is about to perish so,—when two Bodyguards gallop up, indignantly dissipating; and rescue her.

   • 1853 July, “Sir Nathaniel” [pseudonym], “American Authorship. No. IV.—Herman Melville.”, in William Harrison Ainsworth, editor, The New Monthly Magazine, volume XCVIII, number CCCXCI, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 308:

     The story itself is a strange, wild, furibund thing—about Captain Ahab's vow of revenge against one Moby Dick. And who is Moby Dick? A fellow of a whale, who has made free with the captain's leg; [...]

   • 1863, [William] Wilkie Collins, “Fragments of Personal Experience.—I. Laid Up in Lodgings.”, in My Miscellanies. […], volume I, London: Sampson Low, Son, & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 130–131:

     But I soon discover that she grins at everything—at the fire that she lights, at the cloth she lays for dinner, at the medicine-bottles she brings upstairs, at the furibund visage of Mrs. Glutch, ready to drive whole baskets full of creases at her head every morning.

   • 1890 February, Jas[on] G. Kiernan, “Anti-syphilitics of the Sixteenth Century”, in The Medical Standard, volume VII, number 2, Chicago, Ill.: G. P. Engelhard & Co., →OCLC, page 43, column 1:

     About 1540 the furibund character of syphilis began to disappear. Probably inherited immunity played a part in this as well as the fact that the Galenical physicians, stirred up by the assaults of Paracelsus, took a more active part in treatment. Dr. Antoine Lecocq, in 1540, notices the fact that syphilis was beginning to lose its furibund, galloping character.

   • 1910 January 12, Ameen Rihani, “Subtranscendental”, in The Book of Khalid, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published October 1911, →OCLC, book the second (In the Temple), page 116:

     And what mean these outbursts and objurgations of his, you will ask; these suggestions, furtive, rhapsodical, mystical; this furibund allegro about Money, Mediums, and Bohemia; [...]

   • 1918 May 9, Lytton Strachey, “[Cardinal Manning.] Chapter V”, in Eminent Victorians: Cardinal Manning, Florence Nightingale, Dr. Arnold, General Gordon (Library of English Literature; LEL 11347), London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 55:

     [Nicholas] Wiseman's encyclical, dated "from without the Flaminian Gate," in which he announced the new departure, was greeted in England by a storm of indignation, culminating in the famous and furibund letter of Lord John Russell, then Prime Minister, against the insolence of the "Papal Aggression."

Translations

having a propensity to be furious — see also choleric,‎ furious,‎ irate

• Catalan: furibund
• French: furibond (fr)
• Latin: furibundus
• Portuguese: furibundo (pt)
• Spanish: furibundo (es)

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin furibundus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [fu.ɾiˈβun]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencian) [fu.ɾiˈbunt]

Adjective

furibund (feminine furibunda, masculine plural furibunds, feminine plural furibundes)

1. furious, irate

Further reading

• “furibund” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French furibond, from Latin furibundus.

Adjective

furibund m or n (feminine singular furibundă, masculine plural furibunzi, feminine and neuter plural furibunde)

1. furious

Declension

Declension of furibund

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	furibund		furibundă	furibunzi	furibunde
	definite	furibundul		furibunda	furibunzii	furibundele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	furibund		furibunde	furibunzi	furibunde
	definite	furibundului		furibundei	furibunzilor	furibundelor