Home > Terms > English (EN) > lubricious

lubricious

Lubricious is the prettier of the two variants, with a sound that suggests its meaning, so we prefer it. Both variants come with adverbs created by simply adding -ly to the end. The noun for lubricious is lubricity. Both forms are related to the verb lubricate, hence the implication of oiliness.

This is the adjective to use in describing eels, snails, jelly-fish, throats, eyeballs, and things of similar texture: "Mary Jo then placed upon the table a bowl of boiled okra so lubricious the diners had trouble holding it on their forks." However, this word works just as well describing things that are figuratively slippery: "Phil Anders asked Marian Kine to his apartment with such a lubricious smile on his face that she called a cab to take her home."

Lubricous, which could have resulted from the omission of the I (i) before the suffix -ous or simply an adjustment of the word back toward its Latin ancestor, lubricus "slippery". The Latin word comes from a Proto-Indo-European word, sleubh- "to slip", with an initial Fickle S. As usual, the Fickle S was lost in Latin but remained in the Germanic languages, so sleubh- went on to become sleeve in English, something we slip our arms into. English slip and slop share the same origin.

0
Collect to Blossary

Member comments

You have to log in to post to discussions.

Terms in the News

Billy Morgan

Sports; Snowboarding

The British snowboarder Billy Morgan has landed the sport’s first ever 1800 quadruple cork. The rider, who represented Great Britain in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, was in Livigno, Italy, when he achieved the man-oeuvre. It involves flipping four times, while body also spins with five complete rotations on a sideways or downward-facing axis. The trick ...

Marzieh Afkham

Broadcasting & receiving; News

Marzieh Afkham, who is the country’s first foreign ministry spokeswoman, will head a mission in east Asia, the state news agency reported. It is not clear to which country she will be posted as her appointment has yet to be announced officially. Afkham will only be the second female ambassador Iran has had. Under the last shah’s rule, Mehrangiz Dolatshahi, a ...

Weekly Packet

Language; Online services; Slang; Internet

Weekly Packet or "Paquete Semanal" as it is known in Cuba is a term used by Cubans to describe the information that is gathered from the internet outside of Cuba and saved onto hard drives to be transported into Cuba itself. Weekly Packets are then sold to Cuban's without internet access, allowing them to obtain information just days - and sometimes hours - after it ...

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)

Banking; Investment banking

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is an international financial institution established to address the need in Asia for infrastructure development. According to the Asian Development Bank, Asia needs $800 billion each year for roads, ports, power plants or other infrastructure projects before 2020. Originally proposed by China in 2013, a signing ...

Spartan

Online services; Internet

Spartan is the codename given to the new Microsoft Windows 10 browser that will replace Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer. The new browser will be built from the ground up and disregard any code from the IE platform. It has a new rendering engine that is built to be compatible with how the web is written today. The name Spartan is named after the ...

Featured Terms

  • 0

    Terms

  • 40

    Blossaries

  • 4

    Followers

Industry/Domain: Design Category: Graphic design

Simplenote

Simplenote is my favorite cross-platform note taking app because it's just so fast and simple to use. A recent update to its Android app brings the ...