Journey to the end of the word

Mar 27, 20244 min read

When I was a Year 6 teacher, I relished finding new words that would inspire and excite the children when they heard it on their tongues and read it on the page. I still love the discovery of a new word.

Last week, I came across a beautiful book called: “Shedwords: 100 rare words to explore and enjoy.”

With delicious illustrations, and perfect examples of how to use each word in a sentence, it quickly convinced me to BUY NOW!

Even though I’m not a class teacher anymore, I continue to tutor children in the evenings.

But more importantly, I just love words…which obviously helps as a proofreader and copyeditor!

I’m an avid reader, and so I'm constantly meeting new words.

I keep a small journal to jot them down (I know...I'm sad! But I'm also a lover of language!).

Later, I look them up and think about how I’ll use them in my writing to create incredible images for my readers.

Well, my inquisitive attitude towards words, led me to write today’s post…

At the weekend, I came across a conversation in a novel which included: “He copped a right ‘tude with me.”

It caused me to stop…to ponder the meaning. I’d realised that the phrase meant the man was being argumentative and rude. But it got me thinking about the four-lettered word: ‘TUDE.

I clicked straight onto the ‘Urban Dictionary’ and read that ‘TUDE was first used in the 1970s by teenagers, and it was slang for ‘an aggressive, rude, angry manner’.

It clarified that it’s a rude attitude that’s shown through words or body language and includes sarcastic and cynical comments.

In 2008, Daniel Black defined ‘Drunk with ‘tude’ to mean someone who was ‘completely and indefinitely overwhelmed with mass quantities of attitude and sass’.

Then in 2016, the phrase ‘rude dude with a ‘tude’ meant ‘someone of any gender who not only is a legend in their own mind but makes life difficult for the rest of us’ by their attitude.

The word ‘tude is also defined in the Oxford English dictionary and the Cambridge dictionary as ‘an unpleasant way of behaving towards someone’.

So, there you have it! The meaning of ‘TUDE.

But, I also know that these four letters come at the end of many words as a suffix (a letter, or group of letters at the end of a word to make a new word).

In fact, according to The Scrabble Dictionary, there are 49 different words with TUDE at the end!

Nine of these are 11 letters long and 17 of those words have nine letters!

Just in case you play Scrabble, the best word to use would be disquietude which is worth at least 22 points without any bonus! And just in case you have to prove you know the meaning, disquietude is to be ‘in a state of anxiety’.

Well, you really do learn something new every day!

But knowing that ‘TUDE is a suffix at the end of 49 words led me to investigate further, because I also know from my teaching experience that suffixes usually have a history behind them.

When I taught Year 6 children, it was part of the English curriculum for them to ‘understand the history of words and relationships between them.’ They had to use their knowledge of the history of the origin of words (etymology) and the shape of words (morphology) to help them to read and understand the meaning of new words:

And when writing, they had to:

It was quite a challenge for many children, and it continues to be a challenge for adults.

So, here is the etymology behind the ‘TUDE!

It comes from the French ‘tude’ and the Latin ‘tūdin’ or ‘tūdo’.

It means a state or condition.

For example, solitude means the state of being alone…aptitude means to have the natural ability to do something.

As a result, I have come across some great new words that I can’t wait to use...here's just three of them:

Turpitude – depraved, wicked, vile, shameful behaviour. It comes from the Latin word ‘tūrpis’ meaning vile and was recorded in written English in 1490.

It was also used by Robert Louis Stevenson in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde:

As for the moral turpitude that man unveiled to me, even with tears of penitence, I cannot, even in memory, dwell on it without a start of horror.

Pulchritude – physical beauty (despite the fact that the word may suggest the complete opposite!). It comes from the Latin adjective ‘pūlcher’ which means beautiful and was first recorded in 1450-1500 in England.

According to the legends, Helen of Troy was a woman of great pulchritude.

Senectitude – being in the last stage of life…old age! ‘Senectus’ originates from Latin and means old. It was used in 1796 in Modern Gulliver’s Travels by Lumuel Gulliver. But in modern written English, there is less than 0.01 occurrences of the word!

He was the wisest amongst us - probably due to his senectitude.

As a final comment, this all leads me back to the start where I mentioned ‘TUDE was used to mean a confrontational, aggressive behaviour. And yet, it comes from the word ATTITUDE…which is a feeling or opinion about something or someone, and this can be a positive behaviour.