prettygoodword (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
prettygoodword) wrote2013-02-28 07:23 am
prettygoodword) wrote2013-02-28 07:23 am
irriguous
irriguous (ih-RIG-yoo-uhs) - adj., (poet.) well-watered, watery, providing or supplied with water.
I first met this in a 17th century poem, and since then only in 17th century poetry, so am not surprised to see it listed as both a poeticism and archaic in dictionaries. Borrowed in the 1640s, apparently by Milton, from Latin irriguus, supplied with water, from riguus, watered -- and so, yes, a close cognate of irrigate, and indeed the providing water sense can also be rendered as providing irrigation.
---L.
I first met this in a 17th century poem, and since then only in 17th century poetry, so am not surprised to see it listed as both a poeticism and archaic in dictionaries. Borrowed in the 1640s, apparently by Milton, from Latin irriguus, supplied with water, from riguus, watered -- and so, yes, a close cognate of irrigate, and indeed the providing water sense can also be rendered as providing irrigation.
---L.
no subject
I, um, read most verse as prose, which is a pretty good way of getting through PL due to all those portentous enjambments. Bounced as an undergrad, but a few years later I was able to read it with some pleasure when I had to co-teach it. (Dunno re: verse as prose--something weird about how my brain handles music/rhythm, possibly.)