Word of the Day

: December 17, 2015

unclubbable

adjective un-KLUB-uh-bul

What It Means

: having or showing a disinclination for social activity : unsociable

unclubbable in Context

However fascinating her research is, the professor is decidedly unclubbable and not likely to make a good dinner party guest.

"Journalists are always fun on screen. This is because journalists are such fun in real life. Gossipy and unclubbable, they make the best company." — Rachel Cooke, The New Statesman, 25 July 2011

Did You Know?

The word unclubbable dates to the late 1770s, a time when lexicographer Samuel Johnson was still riding a wave of fame in the wake of the publication of his 1755 A Dictionary of the English Language. Johnson himself likely coined unclubbable. Earliest evidence of the word in use is from a 1778 entry in author Fanny Burney's diary, in which she quotes Johnson as using the word to describe a friend. Burney herself may have coined the unflattering descriptor's antonym: in a 1781 diary entry, she describes Johnson himself as clubbable—an adjective that has stuck to him ever since. For Johnson, a person's clubbability was likely determined by how well the person might do in a very particular club: "The Club"—later known as "The Literary Club"—established by Johnson and the artist Joshua Reynolds in 1764.