Selcouth

Word of the Day for Saturday, March 17, 2012

selcouth \SEL-kooth\, adjective:

Strange; uncommon.

Its English is not more quaint than that of De Brunne himself; it contains no names more selcouth than he himself is in the custom of introducing…
-- Sir Walter Scott, The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott

To whom there's hardly any selcouth thing, but seems a juggling trick, that would delude their fancies with an empty wondering; therefore against it they with thundering words do ring.
-- George Starkey, An Exposition Upon the Preface of Sir George Ripley

Selcouth has odd Old English roots. It is related to the word seldom and the Old English word couth meaning "to know."

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