Roister

Use this forum to discuss past Good Words.
User avatar
Dr. Goodword
Site Admin
Posts: 7417
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:28 am
Location: Lewisburg, PA
Contact:

Roister

Postby Dr. Goodword » Wed Aug 20, 2014 11:37 pm

• roister •

Pronunciation: roy-stêr • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, intransitive

Meaning: 1. To revel boisterously, to party noisily and obnoxiously, usually as a result of overdrinking. 2. To speak loudly, boastfully, like a swaggering bully.

Notes: People who roister are roisterers and their behavior is roisterous. However, if you think the doubling of the suffix -er a bit too much, simply omit one: a roister is also a roisterer.

In Play: When the fun at a party begins to offend some people, it has become roistering: "Noah Sarque finally had to give up roistering with his buddies when resting up from a roister took him longer than getting tired." Roistering is closely associated with alcohol intake: "Harley and his mates roistered from bar to bar until they were all picked up and tucked safely into a paddy wagon in the wee hours of the morning."

Word History: Today's Good Word came from French rustre "peasant, lout", a variation of Old French ruste "farmer" from Latin rusticus "rustic, related to the country". The Latin word is the adjective of rus "country(side)", ruris "of the country(side)", with the shift of S to R (rhotacism) that was common in Latin. The R-form went into the making of the adjective ruralis "related to the country", which English also borrowed as rural. It may seem odd that roister is unrelated to boisterous, given its adjective roisterous with its similarity in spelling and meaning. That similarity, however, is purely coincidental. (Let's all thank Alan Janesch not too roisterously for finding today's Good Word and bringing it to our attention.)
• The Good Dr. Goodword

User avatar
call_copse
Senior Lexiterian
Posts: 668
Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2009 7:42 am
Location: Southampton

Re: Roister

Postby call_copse » Thu Aug 21, 2014 6:39 am

Whether or not he took his name from the French or Latin I think the popularisation of this term came from the play Ralph Roister Doister by Nicholas Udall:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Roister_Doister

At least in the UK roister doister (sometimes written royster doyster) is a fairly commonly used, always humourously applied term for a certain sort of mildly roguish type. 'You old royster doyster' one might say to an acquaintance seen wandering home dishevelled as one was on the way to work. Or something.

Seen in Brit comedies including 'Only fools and horses' and 'Blackadder'.
Iain


Return to “Good Word Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot], Google [Bot] and 44 guests