9th February 2012
Post
roue
PRONUNCIATION:
(roo-AY, ROO-ay)
MEANING:
noun: A debauched man, especially an elderly man from a wealthy or aristocratic family.
ETYMOLOGY:
From French roué (literally, broken on a wheel), from rouer (to break on the wheel), from Latin rota (wheel). The word arose from the belief that such a person deserved this punishment. Earliest documented use: 1781.
NOTES:
The word was first applied to the companions of Philippe II, Duke of Orleans. The breaking wheel was an instrument of torture on which a victim was put and bludgeoned to death.
USAGE:
“Patrick Lichfield, the Queen’s dandified cousin, invested in the shop because its founders were, as he said with a roue’s smirk, ‘two of my old girlfriends’.”
Peter Conrad; The Big Picture; The Observer (London, UK); Nov 20, 2011.
