frumious

Pronounced: FROO-mih-us, adj

Notes: I think many people, especially if they have read classic books, have probably run across this word

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Yesterday’s word

The word Demogorgon is “a mysterious spirit or deity often explained as a primeval creator god who antedates the gods of Greek mythology”

First usage

This word showed up in the late 1500s

Background / Comments

This word (name) is not seen as much these days, but it was popular in Renaissance writings: it appears in Edmund Spencer’s The Faerie Queen; in Paradise Lost by John Milton; and in Christopher Marlow’s play Doctor Faustus. The usage these days tends to be pretty generic – it describes something that is bizarre or monstrous. The origin of the word (name) is uncertain, but it did appear in a work in the 1300s describing the genealogy of ancient mythological deities.