Meanings
comparative more selcouth · superlative most selcouth
- archaicStrange, unusual, rare; unfamiliar; marvellous, wondrous.
The statements in either document are unique and selcouth.
2002, Edward Cline, Sparrowhawk II: Hugh Kenrick, Digitized edition (Fiction), MacAdam/Cage Pub., published 2011, →ISBN, page 3182 more examples
'A selcouth novelty,' muttered the knight, 'to advance to storm such a castle without pennon or banner displayed.'
1814, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe, Reprint edition, Penguin, published 2000, →ISBN, page 244Left to its own devices and without the Web as a vehicle for misinforming others, the selcouth dogmas that forbade sexual relations ...
2007, Mark Youngblood Herring, “Caught in the Web”, in Fool's Gold: Why the Internet is no Substitute for a Library, McFarland, →ISBN, page 37Synonyms: bizarre, odd, weird, infrequent, scarce, uncommon, magnificent, stupendous
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveStrange, unusual, rare; unfamiliar; marvellous, wondrous.
Origin
- Old Englishselcūþ
- Middle Englishselcouth
- Englishselcouth
From Middle English selcouth, from Old English selcūþ, seldcūþ (“unusual, unwonted, little known, unfamiliar, novel, rare”), from seld- (“rarely”) + cūþ (“known”); equivalent to seld + couth.
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish erikoinen, omituinen
- erikoinenstrange, rare, marvellous
- omituinenstrange, rare, marvellous
French merveilleux, étrange
- merveilleuxstrange, rare, marvellous
- étrangestrange, rare, marvellous
- miraculeuxstrange, rare, marvellous
Italian meraviglioso
- meravigliosostrange, rare, marvellous
Spanish maravilloso, extraño
- maravillosostrange, rare, marvellous
- extrañostrange, rare, marvellous
- portentosostrange, rare, marvellous
- asombrosostrange, rare, marvellous
Swedish egendomlig, vidunderlig
- egendomligstrange, rare, marvellous
- vidunderligstrange, rare, marvellous
- besynnerligstrange, rare, marvellous
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with selcouth
Cite this entry
selcouth. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/selcouth
“selcouth.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/selcouth. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “selcouth,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/selcouth.
Source: selcouth on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.