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So I’m listening to The Sound of Music soundtrack today, and singing along to the pre-feminist Sixteen Going On Seventeen when I encounter a line I’ve never really heard before:

Eager young lads, and roues and cads
Will offer you food and wine

What the hell is a roue? Dictionary.com explains:

rou·é (noun)

A lecherous dissipated man. Also, one devoted to a life of sensual pleasure; a debauchee; a rake.

[French, from past participle of rouer, to break on a wheel (from the feeling that such a person deserves that punishment), from Old French, from Latin rotre, to rotate. See rotate.]

A particularly interesting etymology, don’t you think?

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 9th, 2003 at 11:05 am and is filed under Music. Tag Testing Project: No Tags. Photo by . You can skip to the end and leave a response, or trackback from your own site. If you don't see your comment within a day or so, drop me an email. Sometimes my comment spam filter gets overly zealous.