Not much time to post today, I've been having too much fun playing with the Merriam-Webster online top ten lists.
Some of my favourites include:
Words For Things You Didn't Know Have Names (What's a PHILTRUM?)
Top 10 Words with Bizarre Meanings (SPANGHEW?)
Strange Words for Body Functions (MICTURATE?)
The user-submittted lists are also mostly hilarious (SLACKTIVISM - "(noun) : activism (such as signing an online petition) that requires very little commitment or action").
Of course none of these begin with R, but I was pleased to find two entries in the 'Top 10 Charming Words for Nasty People' list that do.
#1: Ruffian
 Definition:
a brutal person; bully
Examples:
"'You try me too much. A ruffian – a common brawling ruffian – that's what you have become.'" – Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World, 1912
"Tintin always moves (unless he's been knocked out by some ruffian). Motion is his appeal and the reason Steven Spielberg's representation rings true." – Matt Easton, The Michigan Daily, January 4, 2012
About the Word:
Ruffians specialize in roughness, and between the 16th and 18th centuries, they were also synonymous with pimps – men who solicit clients for prostitutes.
|
#4: Rapscallion
 Definition:
rascal; an idle worthless person
Examples:
"The devil fetch ye, ye ragamuffin rapscallions; ye are all asleep. Stop snoring, ye sleepers, and pull." – Herman Melville,Moby Dick, 1851
"In his personal life [Christopher Hitchens] was no less the 'rapscallion iconoclast,' as historian Douglas Brinkley once described him. He left his pregnant first wife for another woman." – Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times, December 15, 2011
About the Word:
There are no scallions in rapscallion. Rapscallion is an alteration of rascallion, which is itself an irregular formation of rascal, a term born in Old French.
Finally, one to get you through the weekend that I have long known to be true:
Top 10 Latin Words to Live By#2: In Vino Veritas
|
Onya, Pliny.
No comments:
Post a Comment