Revised as of
29 Sept 2022
I had to assume from the context that when the “rouge went south”, the writer actually meant that the “rogue fled south”. Otherwise I’d be thinking that the rogue had purchased some poor quality rouge, and it was dripping down his cheek.
Of course the rogue could have gone rouge with embarrassment . . .
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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| Rogue | Rouge |
|---|---|
He Seems Alive, Though He is Feelin’ Blue . . . The Sun is Shinin’ He is Super Cool by Abe Novy under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Flickr. — Rogues are sometimes men, sometimes women. |
Lucky Number, 17 by Greg Montani is under the Pixabay License, via Pixabay. — Lucky Number, 17, in rouge et noir. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Adjective; Noun; Verb, intransitive & transitive Plural for the noun: rogues Third person present verb: rogues |
Noun, mass 1, 2; Verb 1, intransitive & transitive Plural for the noun: rouge Third person present verb: rouges |
| Adjective: Always before the noun [Of an animal] Having an abnormally savage or unpredictable disposition No longer obedient, belonging, or accepted and hence not controllable or answerable
Large, destructive, and anomalous or unpredictable Noun:
[Zoology] An elephant or other large wild animal driven away or living apart from the herd and having savage or destructive tendencies
Verb, intransitive: [Agriculture] To remove diseased or abnormal plants Verb, transitive: [Agriculture] To uproot or destroy (plants, etc., that do not conform to a desired standard) To perform this operation upon |
Mass noun: A red powder or cream used as a cosmetic for coloring the cheeks or lips 1 A reddish powder, chiefly ferric oxide, used for polishing metal, glass, etc. [Canadian football] A single point awarded when the receiving team fails to run a kick out of its own end zone 2 Verb, intransitive: Verb, transitive: Cause to redden, blush |
| Examples: | |
| Adjective: Notify the ranger’s station that we have a rogue elephant. It’s a rogue cop; he’s gone vigilante. We have a rogue union local. Shut ’em down. It’s a rogues’ gallery of bureaucrats and cold-hearted advocates of “progress”. Notify the media that we have a rogue tornado heading west. It was a single rogue trader who brought down the MFB. Noun: Thou art a rogue, sir. Cenzo, you old rogue! Notify the ranger’s station that we have a rogue. He hacked into data and ran rogue programs. Be sure to pull that rogue in the east field. That, Mary . . . she’s such a fun-loving, lovable rogue. Verb, intransitive: Donald Trump has gone rogue! Verb, transitive: Rogue the bed of those rogue seedlings. Jim is out roguing the field. |
Mass noun: It’s so hard to find the right rouge for my skin color. Isn’t that rouge a little too yellow for you? I found the best cream rouge at Neiman’s. She wore patches of rouge on her cheeks. A little jeweler’s rouge will polish that right up. Nothing happened, and eventually the referees whistled the play dead and ruled it was a rouge. Verb, intransitive: They say this version is rouged with chili oil and traces of peppercorn. Verb, transitive: They can rouge up the incident, make it look less horrible than it really was. She rouged her lips and cheeks in a soft peach. |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adjective: roguish Noun: roguery, rogueries, underrogue Verb, transitive: outrogue, outrogued, outroguing |
Adjective: rouged, unrouged |
| History of the Word: | |
| Mid-16th century denoting an idle vagrant and probably from the Latin rogare meaning beg, ask, and related to the obsolete slang roger meaning vagrant beggar. (Many such cant terms were introduced towards the middle of the 16th century.)
Prior to 1555–65, it was spelled roge, roag. |
|
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Rogue versus Rouge
Apple Dictionary.com
The Free Dictionary: rogue
Pinterest Photo Credits:
In Danger of Being Seduced, a lithographed caricature depicting an 18th century scene published in Berlin in 1855, was uploaded by Churchh and is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
