circumbendibus

comparative more circumbendibus · superlative most circumbendibus

1. humorousoftenindirect or roundabout

   “We’re all circumbendibus, / Wherever we may be, / We’re all circumbendibus, / On land or on sea. / Rich or poor or middling, / Wherever we are found, / We’re all circumbendibus, / We’re all going round.”

   1918, Sidney Watson, In the Twinkling of an Eye, Bible institute of Los Angeles, page 66

   1 more example

   The only irresistible inference that can be deduced from a bare perusal of this judgment is that it is circumbendibus in its tenor vague and conjectural in its logic and in fine it is a remarkable piece of a political document.

   1987 Syed Tassadque Hussain, Reflections on Kashmir politics,Rima Pub. House, p59

plural circumbendibuses · plural circumbendibi

1. humorousoftenA roundabout route or process

   Before tea-time my circumbendibus brought me to the hospitable residence of Tommy’s chief supporter, whom we will call Mr Goodhart.

   1968, George William Erskine Russell, Afterthoughts, Ayer Publishing, page 152

   2 more examples

   If, as Coleridge says, “a knave is a fool with a circumbendibus,” then by instructing the knave you do but make the circumbendibus a wider one.

   1899, Herbert Spencer, Social Statics; Or, the Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Specified, and the First of Them Developed, D. Appleton and company, page 383

   After he had moved into the house and repaired it Mrs. Mary L. Bacon remembers standing with him one day and looking over the winding flag stones leading up to his front door. “And what is this,” he said, “a circumbendibus?”

   1907 Albert Temple Swing, James Harris Fairchild; Or Sixty-Eight Years with a Christian College, F. H. Revell company, p155

2. humorousoftenA roundabout, indirect, or confusing manner of speech or writing