circumbendibus
Americannoun
plural
circumbendibusesnoun
Etymology
Origin of circumbendibus
1675–85; circum- + bend 1 + Latin -ibus ablative plural ending
Explanation
Anything circumbendibus is rambling and roundabout. If you’re late for school, you could explain to the teacher that construction work blocked the road, forcing you to take a circumbendibus that added half a mile to your drive. The teacher may or may not be impressed. The word circumbendibus isn't used as much as it used to be. It was more common in the 17th and 18th centuries. A circumbendibus can be any roundabout route, or it could be something said in a roundabout way. The word can also be used as an adjective: For example, you might read, “After his lengthy, circumbendibus digression, he finally got to the point of the story." The word is built from the combining form circum-, "around"; the English word bend; and a deliberately misapplied Latin ending, -ibus, to humorously fancy it up.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
I’m goin’ to ask one of you fellers to ride away up north and foller them sheepmen down, so they can’t come a circumbendibus on us again.
From Hidden Water by Dixon, Maynard
Divil such a circumbendibus ever a man had as I had in gettin' as far as the nose, where I had to give up until this evenin' as I said.
From The Black Baronet; or, The Chronicles Of Ballytrain The Works of William Carleton, Volume One by Carleton, William
It was not for an hour afterwards--I needed a long circumbendibus before I could take heart to bring this melancholy business to an end--that I found myself knocking at Sebastian's door.
From Barbarossa and Other Tales by Heyse, Paul
Well, with much ado, and a great circumbendibus, and floods of tears, and all sorts of deprecations and confusions, out came the murder at last.
From The House by the Church-Yard by Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan
And believe I will just fancy I see this place too; it sounds rather a "circumbendibus" for us this journey.
From From Edinburgh to India & Burmah by Burn Murdoch, W. G. (William Gordon)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
