Foul-mouthed, obscene; using or expressed in language that is coarse, vulgar, and abusive.
→ Synonyms of scurrilous include shameless, indelicate, lewd, smutty, ribald (word 42 of Level 7), irreverent, insolent, disparaging, derisive (di-RY-siv), and contumelious (KAHN-t(y)oo-MEEL-ee-us).
Antonyms of scurrilous include polite, refined, tasteful, cultured, sophisticated, cultivated, decorous (DEK-ur-us), and urbane (urBAYN).
The adjective scurrilous comes from the Latin scurrilis, mocking, jesting, or jeering like a buffoon. Scurrilis comes in turn from scurra, a jester, comedian, buffoon, especially one employed to entertain a rich person. By derivation, scurrilous means talking like a buffoon.
And what precisely is a buffoon, you ask? Any dictionary will tell you that a buffoon is a person who amuses or attempts to amuse others by clowning around and cracking jokes; however, the savvy lexicographers, or dictionary editors, at Random House include a second definition: “a person given to coarse or offensive joking.” That sort of buffoon is the one implied by the word scurrilous, which means, as the second edition of Webster’s New International Dictionary puts it, “using, or given to using, the language of low buffoonery; containing low indecency or abuse.” Scurrilous language is coarse, vulgar, and abusive. A scurrilous rogue is a foul-mouthed joker who spouts insolent obscenities.
There are two corresponding nouns, scurrility (skuh-RIL-i-tee) and scurrilousness; both may refer to coarse, vulgar, and abusive language, or to an expression of foul-mouthed verbal abuse.
