Word of the Day for Saturday, March 17, 2012
selcouth \SEL-kooth\,
adjective:
Strange; uncommon.
Its English is not more quaint than that of De Brunne himself; it contains no names more selcouth than he himself is in the custom of introducing…
-- Sir Walter Scott, "The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott"
To whom there's hardly any selcouth thing, but seems a juggling trick, that would delude their fancies with an empty wondering; therefore against it they with thundering words do ring.
-- George Starkey, "An Exposition Upon the Preface of Sir George Ripley"
Selcouth has odd Old English roots. It is related to the word seldom and the Old English word couth meaning "to know."
Dictionary.com Word of the Day
