When looking for my R word, I came across a new one for me: rebarbative.  I haven’t met that one before and now I’ll be looking out for an opportunity to use it. My trusty Readers Digest Wordpower dictionary tells me it means unattractive and objectional.

 

It can be applied to things, physical and conceptual, and to people of either sex. However it’s origins are pretty masculine. It comes from the Old French verb se rebarber, meaning to confront aggressively or ‘face each other beard to beard’.