HUMDUDGEON/ˌhʌmˈdʌdʒən/
An imaginary illness.
Seemingly a blend of humbug and dudgeon, it is first recorded in Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue in 1785, in which he says “He has got the hum dugeon, the thickest part of his thigh is nearest his arse; i.e. nothing ails him except low spirits”. The word was obsolete, according to Partridge, by the 1890s.
Page created 7 Mar 1998
New and updated pages
Most visited pages
Some random picks
New companion site
Affixes. Explaining the building blocks of English. All the key components of the language explained in detail: 1,250 entries plus 10,000 examples.