Word of the Day Archive
Thursday July 29, 1999
raucous \RAWK-uhs\ , adjective:
1. Unpleasantly loud and harsh; strident.
2. Disturbing the public peace; loud and rough.
Where yon wedged line the Nestor leads, Steering north with raucous cry.
-- "Poems", Ralph Waldo Emerson
Our culture may be degraded by the instant availability in new media of the raucous, the vulgar and the sensationalist.
-- "The Prize and the Price: The Social, Political and Cultural Consequences of the Digital Age", The New Statesman Media Lecture, July 6, 1999
Bill Haley may have made the first massive rock hit, and people such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard may have had an equally important creative impact on this raucous new American art form. But it was Elvis who defined the style and gave it an indelible image.
-- "Presley Gave Rock Its Style", New York Times, August 17, 1977
Shaking hands on the street in Newport, population 6,500, he drew raucous laughter from one group of women. What had he said that was so funny? I told him he had a great tan," one of them said. "And he said, 'You do, too."'
-- "Gore's N.H. canoe trip becomes political misadventure", San Jose Mercury News, July 23, 1999
Raucous comes from the Latin raucus, meaning hoarse; harsh sounding.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for raucous
