What does "arruginated" mean?

Question

From James Joyce's Ulysses:

By inserting the barrel of an arruginated male key in the hole of an unstable female lock, obtaining a purchase on the bow of the key and turning its wards from right to left, withdrawing a bolt from its staple, pulling inward spasmodically an obsolescent unhinged door and revealing an aperture for free egress and free ingress.

I admit that I've seen this word for the first time "thanks" to an Internet troll, who, as part of spamming a website with their obscene garbage, claimed their fingers are "arruginated" and they need to see a doctor because of this condition; then they proceeded with some inappropriate wordplay, with the punchline being the above quotation from Ulyssess.

I'm mentioning this only because I wonder if this troll didn't use this word in some precise meaning? Or was it only a meaningless gibberish? Is there any precise meaning to this word? The word is not included in any dictionary I can find—not even Wiktionary or the OED.

What does "arruginated" mean? What did James Joyce mean when he was writing it? What does a modern person mean when they use this word?

Answer 1

Nice one, as the word seems indeed obscure at best.

A bit of googling revealed a wordsmith.org discussion where user Homo Loquens mentions finding a definition:

arruginated on the pattern of rugine + ar- prefix variant spelling of ad- assimilated before r (as in arrive, arrogate).
rugine
v. t. [F. ruginer to scrape.] To scrape or rasp, as a bone;
to scale. [R.] --Wiseman.
n. [F.] (Surg.) An instrument for scraping the periosteum from bones; a aspatory.

To which he adds:

as a back-reference to earlier mention of the key:
The key scraped round harshly twice and, when the heavy door had been set ajar, welcome light and bright air entered.
Telemachus, Ulysses

This would indicate that it is an English adaptation of a French word. Said user gives no clear source for his definition ("a Joyce reader"), which is a pity.

If this definition holds any water, then the meaning would be closer to a well-worn male key than the proposed rusted key.

Answer 2

I don't know if it is legitimate English, but in Italian "arrugginito" means "rusty" and "ruggine" means "rust" (=oxidized iron).

Referred to a key, it must mean rusty, or "working with lot of friction".

The etymology is, either from Latin "rubiginem" (rubeus=red) or "aeruginem" (copper oxide, which is greenish instead). The latter is also supported from the former link.

See also here (Italian, sorry).

Answer 3

Another possible interpretation, according to the following source, is from the term ruga, an anatomical term meaning wrinkle, on the idea of a "corrugated" old key:

• I have no literary support for this, but I believe I can offer insight into what arruginated means. The word "ruga" or its more common plural form "rugae" means in medicine "an anatomical fold or wrinkle especially of the viscera." The lining of the stomach is full of little ridges called rugae.

• The word's relation to the more commonly-encountered "corrugated" should be obvious to this community. I believe that Joyce was describing the appearance of an old-fashioned key, which would have had teeth that were cut in a series of ridges or rugae, with "arruginated" being to rugae as "irradiated" is to radiation.

• This makes sense because of Joyce's use of the word "corrugated" in the episode. Gifford notes that Odysseus's brow is "corrugated" when he sees the state of his palace, and Bloom shows the same reaction when he sees the betting tickets.

(www.goodreads.com)

Answer 4

In an 1888 Bible with commentary¹ it is stated concerning Ecclesiasticus 12:10 of the King James version:

Rather, for as the bronze is covered with rust [ = contracteth rust; Vet Lat. aeruginat]

The Latin verse is:

Non credas inimico tuo in aeternum, sicut enim aeramentum aeruginat nequitia illius

In Italian, there are two examples of "arruginate" (and other examples with the double-g spelling):

First²:

Perchè serve tutto ad ungere le arruginate ruote della Capitale che ancora non puo camminare.

and second³:

Onde si pensava, e si pensa ancora da qualcuno, che l'azione riformatrice di un Ministro possa limitarsi, riuscendo egualmente proficua, a quelle parti e a quelle ruote ritenute, per universale consenso, invecchiate o arruginate e debba, anche in questa modesta funzione ortopedica, procedere con quella gradualità che nel regno della natura evita i salti

Note also that The Soft Beauty of the Latin Word'': Experiencing Latin in James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man says:

Joyce freely integrates Latin intersententially and intrasententially...

This paper also refers to Joyce "adulterating" Latin and singles out Ecclesiasticus as a source of Joyce's Latin.

Overall, I think "corroded" or "rusted" is the meaning of "arruginated".

---

¹ Frederic Cook ed Henry Wace, pub J Murray 1888
² La Frusta: giornale politico morale, 1871, Vol 2, p83
³ La nuova scuola italiana rivista magistrale settimanale

Answer 5

Taking a look at several languages (Basque , Catalan, Italian, Esperanto, Romansh, etc) as well as original Latin I would say "grooved": a ruga is a wrinkle or furrow (implying a worn-in depression) from the Latin, so for me the most apposite meaning for an arruginated key indicates a key worn with use so as to develop grooves, though it could also mean that the metal had developed a bumpy texture (the wrinkled aspect of the word) due to old age: some very old keys develop a bumpyness related to oxidisation and subsequent wearing of the oxides off the main body, usually indicates a high iron content in the item.

Answer 6

In line with previous entries, I suggest Joyce coined 'arruginated' from the Italian 'arruginito' meaning 'rusty' which, in turn implies 'out of use'. That fits - no pun intended - the sexual context of the word's use as male key, which it is, inserted in a female lock, ditto. A clever, metaphorical play on words once again from Joyce about Bloom's sexual frustration.

The Italian definition is from my personal English-Italian Dictionary, 1973, Nicola Zanichellei SpA, Bologna.