rhubarb rhubarb
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.67 in modern English
28
Scrabble Score
14
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
intj
Background noise of simultaneous conversations, none of which is decipherable since the actors are repeating the word rhubarb or other words with similar attributes.
British usage
intj
Speech which is undecipherable to the listener because it is in a language he or she does not understand; mumbo jumbo.
British usage; Derogatory
Example Sentences
- "Those glottals glugged like poured pop, each /rebarbative syllable, remembrancer, raise /‘mob' rhubarb-rhubarb to a tribune's speech /crossing the crackle as the hayracks blaze..."
- "(stage direction) They all rise and drink. Rhubarb, rhubarb...To convey the next stage of To convey the next stage of general inebriation, the remarks that follow are spoken in a sing-song."
- "(film stage direction) Pan to a shot of the crowd of humanists surging forward and murmuring "Rhubarb, rhubarb"."
- "Human beings and human speech are historical inventions as well: our actual experience for long enough was of ‘ourselves', the local tribes of people, dogs and horses, and of the ‘others', theria (wild beasts) and barbaroi (who make noises that only vaguely sound like speech, as "rhubarb, rhubarb")."
- "‘Barbarians' who made noises which sounded like ‘rhubarb-rhubarb' to Greeks who could not (and did not want to) understand them."
- "I heard my name amongst so much mumbo jumbo. “Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb, Robert.”"
Etymology
Chosen as a word for producing indistinct background noise because it contains no very sharp or recognizable phonemes: see rhubarb (“noise”).
Usage
- British usage
- Derogatory