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Feb 4, 2026
This week’s theme
Words formed in error

This week’s words
trialogue
marquee
roister

roister
The Dissolute Household, c. 1663-64
Art: Jan Steen

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

roister

PRONUNCIATION:
(ROY-stuhr)

MEANING:
verb intr.:
1. To revel noisily and boisterously.
2. To behave in a swaggering manner.

ETYMOLOGY:
From the verb use of the noun roister, via French from Latin rusticus (rustic). Earliest documented use: 1663.

NOTES:
Roister began life as a noun meaning someone who revels noisily. English speakers later mistook it for a verb and obligingly created the noun roisterer. We will update you as soon as roisterer becomes a verb, producing the inevitable noun roistererer. Also see roister-doister.

USAGE:
“They drank and they roistered and laughed.”
Matthew Engel; The Irreverent Reverend; New Statesman (London, UK); Jun 25, 2021.

See more usage examples of roister in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
There comes a point when a man must refuse to answer to his leader if he is also to answer to his own conscience. -Hartley Shawcross, barrister, politician, and prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes tribunal (4 Feb 1902-2003)

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