Dictionary.com Word Of The Day
Sep. 20, 2016
circumbendibus\sur-kuh m-BEN-duh-buh s\noun
1. Informal. a roundabout way; circumlocution.
QuotesIt took what that literal fellow, Captain Lawton, calls a
circumbendibus, a route never taken by the swords of his men,
notwithstanding the multiplied pains I have been at to teach him how to
cut scientifically.
-- James Fenimore Cooper, The Spy, 1821
Origin of circumbendibusCircumbendibus blends the prefix circum-
meaning "round about, around" with the nounbend and the Latin plural
ending -ibus. It is a humorous formation that arose in the late
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