Word of the Day

: May 31, 2013

dudgeon

noun DUJ-un

What It Means

: a fit or state of indignation

dudgeon in Context

The customer stormed out of the store in high dudgeon after the manager refused to give her a refund for her purchase.

"Hollywood's critics are in high dudgeon. The motion-picture industry has sunk into a moral morass, they say, one that threatens our national self-understanding and traduces simple decency." - From an article by Sonny Bunch in Literary Reference Center, April 12, 2013.

Did You Know?

"Dudgeon" is today most often used in the phrase "in high dudgeon" (which in turn sometimes gives rise to playful variations such as "middling dudgeon," "intermediate dudgeon," "towering dudgeon," "lofty dudgeon," and so on). The word has been a part of the English language since at least 1573, but its earlier history is a mystery. Conjectures as to a connection to a Welsh word, "dygen," meaning "malice," have no basis. Also, there does not appear to be any connection whatever to the very old "dudgeon"-a now obsolete term once used for a dagger or a kind of wood out of which dagger handles were made.