ordure
/ˈɔɹd͡ʒʊɹ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.35 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Something regarded as contaminating or perverting the morals; obscene material.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "But there has none employed my Thoughts of late ſo much, as a very nice inquiſition, or inſpection, into the frequent differences we meet with Human Ordure. The World may ſay, perhaps, I had very little to do, and that ſo ſolemn and ſerious a Preface, ill became ſo foul a Subject; but let what will be ſaid, I can't help communicating my Sentiments, but will endeavour to wrap 'em up in as cleanly a manner, as the dirtineſs of the Theme will admit."
- "If a Man throws upon a Woman's body, from the Navel upwards to beneath the Neck, any Spue, or Urine, or Ordure, or Semen, the Magiſtrate ſhall fine him One Hundred and Twenty Puns of Cowries."
- "It seems at first sight a strange thing that Paris, with its apparently pure air, should be by no means so healthy a place to live in as London. [...] Another cause, not so sensible to the eye as to another organ, we have long believed to be, the universal accumulation of ordures in pestiferous cess-pools under or near almost every house. [...] The removal of these ordures is periodical, and must take place in the night. [...] From the cleaned-out dwellings the ordures are taken to the greatest laystall in the world, the Boyauteries of Montfaucon, famous for its filth, its carrion, and countless myriads of rats. Thence they are bought up by growers as manure for the land; [...]"
- "Also, they say that Margaret Samon, Nicholas Alastre, Thomas de Stanley, John Etwall, Richard Etwall, and William, son of Hugh Spicer, block up the common cavern of the aforesaid town on the northern side with ordure, weeds, and cinders, to the serious damage of the whole town aforesaid, etc."
- "Only Madame herself seeing Jacob out had about her that leer, that lewdness, that quake of the surface (visible in the eyes chiefly), which threatens to spill the whole bag of ordure, with difficulty held together, over the pavement. In short, something was wrong."
- "The invention consists in a method of dehydrating animal ordure wherein the ordure is caused to move along a path and subjected to the simultaneous action of a hot air flow, and of ultrasonic and/or microwave radiation during such movement."
Etymology
From Middle English ordure, ordure, borrowed from Middle French ordure and Anglo-Norman ordure, ordeur(e), ordor(e), ordour from Old French ordure (“dirt, filth, refuse; dung, excrement; moral filth”) (modern French ordure), from ord (“filthy”) + -ure (suffix forming nouns describing the results of actions). Ord is derived from Latin horridus (“dreadful, frightful, horrid”), from horreō (“to stand erect, stand on end; to shiver, tremble; to be afraid of, dread; to be frightful”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰers- (“stiff; surprised”)) + -idus (suffix meaning ‘tending to’).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *ǵʰers-, ordure, horridus
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɔɹd͡ʒʊɹ/
- British English: /ˈɔːdj(ʊ)ə/