Since 1992
Print and digital marketing
By Barbara McAllister
Word of the Day: Rebarbative
A recent book used the word “rebarbative” to describe a character. I had to look it up to find out that it means unattractive, objectionable, irritating or repellant. I have also seen the word used to describe modern art. An interesting word, as it comes from the Latin barb for beard. Does that mean beards are repellant? Not exactly. Rebarbative evolved from an adjective meaning “beard to beard” in the sense of confronting an enemy face to face to repel him. As it developed in the French language, repellant came to mean unattractive.
Beards seems to have gotten a bad rap throughout history. The word “barbarian,” meaning uncivilized, savage or vicious comes from the Greek word meaning foreigner. Scratch the Greek word and eventually it comes back to the barb root, because foreigners were originally associated with bearded people. Other related words include the barb of an arrow and barbed wire, so called for the pointed shapes or beard-like appendages. Of course, there are barbers, once the most important men in the community. Their history goes back more than 6,000 years to the ancient Egyptians when barbers shaved faces with sharpened oyster shells. During the Middle Ages barbers also practiced medicine and were known as barber-surgeons. It wasn’t until 1745 the two professions were legally separated into two different trades. The barber pole used to identify them is one of the best know symbols in the world but it’s less well known that the red and white stripes on the pole originally represented blood and bandages.
