Roues and Cads
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?