ETYMOLOGY
of uncertain origin;
possibly an alteration of savagerous (barbarously savage); perhaps influenced by vigorous
EXAMPLE
“… It now came to Spivey’s turn. There was nothing remarkable in his person or manner. He took his place, lowered his rifle slowly from a perpendicular, until it came on a line with the mark — held it there like a vise for a moment, and fired.
” Pretty sevigrous, but nothing killing yet,” said Billy Curlew, as he learned the place of Spivey’s ball. …”
From: Georgia Scenes, Characters, Incidents, &c. : in the first half century of the republic,
By Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, 1835
“The Shooting Match”
PRONUNCIATION
suhr-VIGH-gruhss
Lexicophilia 