auruption, n. an unsettling sound; a loud, displeasing noise. auruptic, adj.
From the Latin, auris, ear, and rupt, break.
Auruption was originally the final element of a treatment used by apothecaries in the late middle ages to correct melancholy and phlegmatic dispositions. The subject of treatment would be administered a tincture, predominantly made of pepper, before being sent home. The apothecary would then set about surprising the subject at unpredictable intervals using loud noises: gunshots, schreeching cats, womens' screams, and so on.
Noted medieval historian Sir Horace Morris, in his book Apothecary Lore, published in 1791, "From what scanty records remain, the results of auruptic treatment appear to have been variable, though it proved a reliable cure for hiccoughs."
Gradually auruption moved from medical terminology into colloquy, as can be seen in this excerpt from the original, unedited manuscript of Conan Doyle's Hound of the Baskervilles:
"Really," I admonished Holmes as the terrible wail faded over the moor's eerie wastes. "'Unusual' is hardly an apt description for that horrendous auruption!"
Despite archaic roots, the term auruption was last used in print in a 1996 letter to the editor of NME entitled "Ban the Power Ballad":
"The ejaculation of orchestral string arrangements over guitar frenzies bolstered by a singer's violent, multi-octave auruptions typefies this genre, and has in the process damaged eardrums and psyches from New York to New Zealand. Let it end."
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