roughage

English
WOTD – 10 February 2022

Etymology
Corn silage used as roughage (sense 2) or cattle fodder.
A selection of food with a high roughage (sense 3) or dietary fibre content.

From rough (“not smooth; crude, unrefined”) +‎ -age (suffix forming nouns with the sense of appurtenance or collection).[1]

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /ˈɹʌfɪd͡ʒ/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • Audio (GA)(file)
  • Hyphenation: rough‧age

Noun

roughage (countable and uncountable, plural roughages)

  1. Originally (archaic), garbage, rubbish, or waste; later (agriculture) the portions of a crop which are discarded, such as husks, stalks, etc.; also, agricultural waste such as weeds.
    Antonym: nonroughage
  2. (agriculture) Coarse or rough plant material such as hay and silage used as animal fodder.
    Synonym: (US) roughness
  3. (nutrition) Substances, generally of plant origin, consisting mostly of complex carbohydrates which are undigested when eaten by humans, and which therefore help the passage of food and waste through the alimentary tract; dietary fibre.
    Antonym: nonroughage

Alternative forms

Derived terms

Descendants
  • → Hindi: रफ़ेज (rafej)
  • → Urdu: رفیج (rafej)

Translations
garbage, rubbish, or waste — see garbage,‎ rubbish,‎ waste

References
  1. “roughage, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2020; “roughage, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading
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