Word of the Week: Dubious

The last few days have had me all in a tizzle over dubious.



It's a pretty ordinary word, defined as
1. doubtful.
2. questionable.
3. of uncertain outcome.
It appeared in the mid-sixteenth century and comes from the Latin dubiosus ("doubtful"), though the original root is duo, meaning "two" - like being undecided between two things.

Now that's fascinating and all, but today I want to focus on dubious and how I use it. Say it out loud: dubious. Dubious. Dubious. Do you feel the way it rolls around in your mouth, how that /u/ reverberates in the back of your throat, skittering forward like a wave into the /b/?

To me, those sounds make dubious mean so much more than "doubtful." It's a dubious situation; we're unsure and a little concerned - everything here is suspicious. That questionable character becomes ever so slightly darker when he's dubious instead.

See what I mean? It's a beautiful thing.

definition
etymology