Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Urinating backward; characterized by or exhibiting retromingency.
  • noun A retromingent animal.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Organized so as to discharge the urine backward.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete An animal that urinates backwards - such as the camel, hippo or raccoon.
  • adjective not comparable That urinates backwards; also used of such urination.
  • adjective slang cowardly

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From retro- + past participle of Latin mingō ("I urinate").

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Examples

  • Other Browne's neologisms which spring immediately to mind include - 'electrical' 'electricity' 'hallucination' 'caricature' 'pathology' 'ambidextrous' 'antediluvian' 'retromingent' 'callyphygae' , 'gymnastically' and many, many others.

    Author, author: Henry Hitchings on neologisms 2011

  • Were he still in power, he would note the profound difference between Chairman Mao's retromingent Great Leap Forward and what Beijing's new entrepreneurial technocrats have in mind.

    Lawyers, engineers and scientists: comparing Chinese and American politician bakcground Sun Bin 2005

  • Today I learned that “retromingent” means urinating backwards.

    Ride through My Mind barbylon 2003

  • The crustacea copulate like the retromingent quadrupeds, fitting their tails to one another, the one supine and the other prone.

    On the Generation of Animals 2002

  • Male animals differ from one another, as has been said, in this particular, but all female animals are retromingent: even the female elephant like other animals, though she has the privy part below the thighs.

    The History of Animals 2002

  • They may have 2 seats in the European Parliament (a huge talking shop with no real power) but I'm counting the hours until OLAF start telling us how venal and shoite the incompetent misbegotten retromingent miscreants of the BNP really are.

    Army Rumour Service 2009

  • They may have 2 seats in the European Parliament (a huge talking shop with no real power) but I'm counting the hours until OLAF start telling us how venal and shoite the incompetent misbegotten retromingent miscreants of the BNP really are.

    Army Rumour Service 2009

  • As to Sproul, there is not much to say about a retromingent.11/16/2006 12:19:00 PM|W|P| 206isCancer.com|W|P|Senator Bee had told me once during the election cycle that it infurated him This might just be my word, I can't actually see Senator Bee mad when he would overhear staffers in the hallway talking about the need to push for their legislation.

    Archive 2006-11-01 2006

  • Examination of reference-book illustrations is likely to confirm that all mammals are retromingent.)

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XIII No 4 1986

Comments

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  • urinating backwards

    February 7, 2007

  • Ouch. I'm not even going to ask.

    February 7, 2007

  • whaaaa?

    February 7, 2007

  • you've got to be plumbed like a raccoon or a camel...

    February 7, 2007

  • Or a cat, I believe. I read a book about books about cats, and seem to recall learning that male domestic cats can micturate backwards, between the legs.

    May 31, 2007

  • One word: eeeew.

    June 1, 2007

  • It can be done by humans...if you can believe pictures on the back of a certain A Grumph (sp?) vinyl record album. Only by women, it appears (with no hands, anyway).

    June 1, 2007

  • "To mark territory, hippos spin their tails while defecating to distribute their excrement over a greater area. Likely for the same reason, hippos are retromingent-- that is, they urinate backwards."

    - From the Wikipedia article on the hippo.

    July 28, 2011

  • Next time, instead of saying "The shit has well and truly hit the fan", I'm going to say, "Utter hippodump, yanno."

    July 28, 2011

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