Feb
6, 2012
This week's theme
Words to describe people
This week's words
wastrel
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
"I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I
know
how bad I am." Those candid words of Samuel Johnson, lexicographer
extraordinaire, provide a perceptive observation on the human
condition.
A language is a mirror of its people.
As a disinterested record of the language, a dictionary serves as
an
accurate window to the culture. It's not surprising that there are
more
words to describe people who fall on the wrong side than on the
good.
In this week's AWAD we'll look at words for people on both sides.
wastrel
PRONUNCIATION:
(WAY-struhl)
MEANING:
noun: A good-for-nothing, wasteful person.
ETYMOLOGY:
Via French from Latin vasatre (to lay waste), from vastus (desert,
empty) +
-rel (a diminutive or pejorative suffix). Earliest documented use:
1589.
USAGE:
"With Greece at the center of a cyclone that threatens the global
economy,
foreign citizens believe that their taxes have been raised to bail
out
the wastrel Greeks."
Nikos Konstandaras; Orwell's Elephant; Kathimerini (Athens,
Greece);
Oct 3, 2011.
Explore "
wastrel" in the
Visual Thesaurus.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the
clearer we should see through it. -Jean-Paul Sartre, writer and
philosopher (1905-1980)