{"id":7075,"date":"2025-07-18T02:34:56","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T02:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/?p=7075"},"modified":"2025-07-18T02:36:58","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T02:36:58","slug":"word-of-the-day-farraginous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/2025\/07\/18\/word-of-the-day-farraginous\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Day: Farraginous"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today\u2019s word of the day, courtesy of Words Coach (https:\/\/www.wordscoach.com\/dictionary<\/a>), is farraginous<\/em>. Pronounced \/ f\u0259\u02c8r\u00e6d\u0292 \u0259 n\u0259s \/, with the stress on the second syllable, farraginous is an adjective meaning \u201cconsisting of a farrago or mixture; heterogeneous; mixed\u201d (https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/browse\/farraginous<\/a>). Of course, we all love those circular definitions in which the definition takes you to just a different form of the word. In this case, a farrago is \u201ca confused mixture; hodgepodge; medley\u201d (https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/browse\/farrago<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Etymonline.com does not have an entry for farraginous<\/em>, but it does for farrago<\/em>, saying that it appears in the language in the \u201c1630s, from Latin farrago<\/em> \u2018medley, mixed fodder, mix of grains for animal feed,\u2019 from far<\/em> \u2018grain\u2019 (see farina<\/strong><\/a>)\u201d (https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/search?q=farrago<\/a>). Farina appears in the language in \u201c1707, \u2018dust, powdery substance,\u2019 from Latin farina<\/em> \u2018ground wheat, flour, meal,\u2019 from far<\/em> (genitive farris<\/em>) \u2018husked wheat, emmer; grain, flour,\u2019 from Proto-Italic *fars<\/em> \u2018flour,\u2019 from PIE *bhars-<\/em>, with cognates in Old Irish bairgen<\/em> \u2018bread, loaf,\u2019 Welsh bara<\/em> \u2018bread,\u2019 Serbo-Croatian bra\u0161no<\/em> \u2018flour, food,\u2019 Latvian bariba<\/em> \u2018food,\u2019 Gothic barizeins<\/em> \u2018from barley,\u2019 Old Norse barr<\/em> \u2018grain,\u2019 Old English bere<\/em> \u2018barley;\u2019 according to de Vaan perhaps a loan-word from a non-IE language\u201d (https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/word\/farina<\/a>). Also, when I was a kid growing up in eastern Pennsylvania, my mother regularly served us Farina for breakfast: \u201cFarina is a form of milled wheat popular in the United States. It is often cooked as a hot breakfast cereal, or porridge\u2026. Farina is milled from hard red wheat (spring or winter variants)\u201d (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Farina_(food)<\/a>). My recollection may be faulty, but I believe I much preferred oatmeal and Cream of Wheat, by a long, long shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we went from having a noun farrago<\/em> referring to a \u201cmix of grains for animal feed\u201d to the adjective farraginous meaning \u201cFormed of different materials,\u201d as Samuel Johnson defines in his 1755 Dictionary. As a source (Johnson\u2019s Dictionary is often credited as the first English dictionary founded upon historical examples, in much the same way that the Oxford English Dictionary would be over 100 years later), Johnson provides this quotation: \u201cBeing a confusion of knaves and fools, and a farraginous<\/em> concurrence of all conditions, tempers, sexes and ages, it is but natural if their determinations be monstrous, and many ways inconsistent with truth. Brown\u2019s<\/em> Vulgar Errours<\/em>\u201d (https:\/\/johnsonsdictionaryonline.com\/views\/search.php?term=farraginous<\/a>). I feel certain that my \u201cknaves and fools\u201d Brown is not referring to any kind of grain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merriam-Webster contributes this: \u201cIn the 1600s, English speakers began using farrago<\/em><\/a> as a noun meaning \u2018hodgepodge\u2019 and farraginous<\/em> as an adjective meaning \u2018consisting of a mixture.\u2019 The creation of the adjective was simply a matter of adding the adjectival suffix -ous<\/em> to farragin<\/em>– (although at least one writer had previously experimented with farraginary<\/em>, employing a different adjectival suffix)\u201d (https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/farraginous<\/a>). I think I like farraginary<\/em>; I know I like it more than I like Farina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this date in 1937, according to On This Day, \u201cElmer Fudd, originally Egghead, is a Warner Bros. cartoon character created by Tex Avery and Chuck Jones for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series, first debuting as Egghead in \u2018Egghead Rides Again\u2019\u201d (https:\/\/www.onthisday.com\/events\/july\/17<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, it may not be that simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is true that Egghead appeared for the first time on July 17, 1937. According to Wikipedia, \u201cEgghead<\/strong> initially was depicted as having a bulbous nose, a voice like Joe Penner<\/a> (provided by radio mimic Danny Webb) and an egg-shaped head. Many cartoon historians believe that Egghead evolved into Elmer over a period of a couple of years. However, animation historian Michael Barrier<\/a> asserts that \u2018Elmer Fudd was not a modified version of his fellow Warner Bros. character Egghead\u2019 and \u2018the two characters were always distinct. That was evidenced by Elmer’s early prototype being identified in a Warner publicity sheet for Cinderella Meets Fella<\/em> (filed with the Library of Congress<\/a> as a copyright description) as \u201cEgghead’s brother\u201d\u2019\u201d (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Elmer_Fudd<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elmer Fudd became a popular cartoon character for Warner Brothers. He was briefly voiced by the famous Mel Blanc, and then by Danny Webb, and then for about 20 years by Arthur Q. Bryan, who was famous for his role on the radio show Fibber McGee and Molly<\/em>. Then, in 1960, after Bryan\u2019s death, Mel Blanc took over the role again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elmer Fudd was a failure. He was usually portrayed as a hunter, trying to bag either Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck, but he never succeeded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of Elmer Fudd\u2019s most notable characteristics was his speech: \u201cHe exhibits the speech sound disorder<\/a> known as rhotacism<\/a>, replacing his Rs and Ls with Ws thus referring to Bugs Bunny as a \u2018scwewy\u2019 (screwy) or \u2018wascawwy (rascally) wabbit.\u2019 Elmer’s signature catchphrase is, \u2018Shhh. Be vewy, vewy quiet, I’m hunting wabbits\u2019, as well as his trademark laugh\u201d (ibid.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was a kid, we got to watch cartoons on Saturday mornings only. There was no Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon. We had the three major networks on VHF and PBS on the UHF, and maybe one other network out of Philadelphia. So on Saturday mornings my brothers and I got to watch the Saturday morning cartoons. Looney Tunes. Merrie Melodies. Fractured Fairy Tales. Bugs Bunny. We loved those shows. What farraginous entertainment! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s image is of Elmer Fudd, of course (https:\/\/ar.inspiredpencil.com\/pictures-2023\/elmer-fudd-and-bugs-bunny-rabbit-season<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s word of the day, courtesy of Words Coach (https:\/\/www.wordscoach.com\/dictionary), is farraginous. Pronounced \/ f\u0259\u02c8r\u00e6d\u0292 \u0259 n\u0259s \/, with the stress on the second syllable, farraginous is an adjective meaning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[238,845,395,844,284],"class_list":["post-7075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-word-of-the-day","tag-dictionary","tag-elmer-fudd","tag-etymology","tag-farraginous","tag-linguistics","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7075"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7077,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7075\/revisions\/7077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}