Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Too frequent use of r.
- n. Erroneous pronunciation of r; utterance of r with vibration of the uvula.
- n. Conversion of another sound, as s, into r.
- n. Also spelled rotacism.
Wiktionary
- n. An exaggerated use of the sound of the letter R.
- n. countable, linguistics : A linguistic phenomenon in which a consonant changes into an R, such as Latin flos becoming florem in the accusative case.
- n. Inability to pronounce the letter R; derhotacization.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An oversounding, or a misuse, of the letter
r ; specifically (Phylol.), the tendency, exhibited in the Indo-European languages, to changes tor , aswese towere .
Etymologies
- From New Latin rhotacismus ("excessive or peculiar use of [r], especially the conversion of another sound (usually [s] or [z]) to [r]"), from Ancient Greek * ῥωτακισμός, from ῥωτακίζω (rhotakizō, "I incorrectly use ρ"), from ῥῶ (rhō, "rho (the Greek equivalent of r)") (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Sounds like proper Ringlish if you'll excuse an exaggerated intervocalic rhotacism.”
“Since then he's discussed rhotacism in Venezuela (eg «\er negro\» for el negro 'the black one'), leísmo in Madrid (the use of the indirect pronoun as a direct object), and Occitan/Provençal, among other things.”
“They comprise chiefly: sigmatism or imperfect pronunciation of s; rhotacism or imperfect pronunciation of r; lambdacism or imperfect pronunciation of l; gam -”
“They show more plainly (at least concerning rhotacism) than my own notes, some imperfections of articulation of the child in the second year, which occur, however, only in single individuals.”
“She also speaks with a rhotacism, mirroring that 'classless' pronunciation of Jonathan Ross and David Bellamy.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘rhotacism’.
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phrontistery-r
from phrontistery.info
raad, rabanna, rabbet, rabble, Rabelaisian, rabic, racemation, raceme, racemiferous, rach, rachidian, rachiometer and 514 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Terms of Phonetics
Phonetic concepts that are fascinating or novel.
An open-ended list, so this can also include abstract or linguistic terms.tessaraphthong, samprasarana, great vowel shift, phonotactics, t-glottalization, hushing, bilabial, lexicostatistics, hachek, surd, ɲɟǃǃʎ, isogloss and 32 more...
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Medical terms or linguistic terms?
That's a terrible ablative case. Get me some morpheme, stet!
stet, stat, morpheme, morphine, ablative case, salmonella, morphology, nephrology, alethic modality, anaphoric clitic, bolus, hyperbole and 54 more...
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All The Words
I enjoy collecting words, for I have no fear of them ever running out.
anacoluthon, defenestration, hypnopomp, hypnagogue, idioglossia, panopticon, tatterdemalion, abalone, caltrop, miasma, paroxysm, smalt and 476 more...
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Most Obscure Words
acatalectic, acosmism, acuate, acuminate, adscititious, adytum, akratisma, alieniloquy, allelomorph, allochiria, allodium, alnage and 620 more...
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inkhorn's Words
inkhorn, aplomb, apotheosis, asinine, avatar, bombastic, boorish, bromide, bucolic, cagey, canvass, digress and 991 more...
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epeolatrist's list
epeolatry, syzygy, sphallolalia, lucubration, lugubrious, cacology, mellifluous, tmesis, synecdoche, anathema, eschatological, razbliuto and 349 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3251 more...
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rduke's Words
misguggle, ken, sere, etiolated, gelid, digladiate, popinjay, bathykolpian, conglaciation, hyperborean, callipygian, vagile and 1253 more...
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Interesting Words 1
Some words that piqued my interest
catachresis, rhotacism, mytacism, metanalysis, logomachy, cacoepy, cacodoxy, sesquipedalian, acyrology, cacozelia, brachylogy, solecism and 11 more...
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I've Been Cornobbled!
From Uncle John's Unstoppable Bathroom Reader:
"You won't find these archaic words in most dictionaries, but take our word for it--they're real. And just for fun, try to use them in a ...hobberdehoy, faffle, dasypygal, cornobble, collieshangie, wem, calcographer, bodewash, twiddlepoop, liripoop, leptorrhinian, bridelope and 61 more...
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Linguistics
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alphabet sounds
I seem to keep running into words like these. The definitions of them are pretty vague but I think I get the idea.
sibilant - a consonant characterized by a hissing sound (like s or sh...sibilant, fricative, spirant, rhotacism, rotacism, lambdacism
Tweets
Looking for tweets for rhotacism.

bilby Wouldn't that be rrrrhotacism? Jan 26, 2009
tbtabby Noun: Excessive use of the letter R. Jan 25, 2009