Nebrundiated

Meaning: One of Sir Thomas' coinages, it's clear from the context that it indicates sexual activity of some kind. Gordon Williams suggests 'energetic pricking'; and helpfully goes on to speculate on etymology:

Neb may return us to the bird’s bill, but Dict. Of the Older Scottish Tongue notes it as ‘the tip of one of the protruding parts of a person’s body’. Rund = to make a grinding noise.

Usefulness: 2 (Since it's a blank slate, we can practise our word-building: one's life may be nebrundiationless, denebrundiated, anebrundiated, omninebrundiated, mononebrundiated, binebrundiated... and so on.) 

Logofascination: 1 (If Williams is correct, Sir Thomas is sneaking Scottish dialect in here; again, though, in the mouth of an outsider in the text, Herr Trippa.* There's a thesis of some sort in there, I'm sure: "Scots Dialect and Sir Thomas Urquhart's Conception of Otherness in Rabelais.")

In the wild: no, but neb turned up recently (in its more innocent incarnation of nose or beak) when the Inky Fool discussed the whinner-neb.

Degrees: 0

Connections: n/a

Used in: the -mancy chapter of G&P (Book the Third, XXV), making an early appearance this week. This is a follow up to last week's catoptromancy post, in which, as you may recall, Herr Trippa tells Panurge:

Thou shalt not need to put on thy spectacles, for in a mirror thou wilt see her as clearly and manifestly nebrundiated and billibodring it.

Since we've finally got to talking about one of Sir Thomas' words relating to sex, (considering how much it's discussed in Rabelais, it's interesting that it's taken this long) we might keep going with this theme for a week or so, while you're desensitised. Billibodring is next done, since there's a sneak peek in the Gordon Williams link above.


*the other example is the Limousin, discussed here.