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roor·back

(rrbăk′)

A false or slanderous story used for political advantage.

[After Baron von Roorback, invented author of the imaginary book Roorback's Tour Through the Western and Southern States, to whom Whig opponents of Democratic presidential candidate James K. Polk attributed a fabricated passage falsely stating that Polk branded his slaves in an attempt to discredit him during the 1844 presidential election campaigns (the passage was originally published in an Ithaca, New York, newspaper and was subsequently widely reproduced in the Whig press).]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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