51吃瓜 of the Day
snollygoster
noun
a clever, unscrupulous person.
More about snollygoster
Snollygoster 鈥渁 clever, unscrupulous person,鈥� is an American slang term that first appears in print in 1845 in Marion County, Indiana. As with many, if not most slang terms, there is no reliable etymology for the word. Some authorities have suggested that snollygoster is a variant of snallygaster, a mythical monster that preys on poultry and children and is supposedly found in Maryland, but the earliest citation for snallygaster is 1940, nearly a century after snollygoster.
how is snollygoster used?
But the people will awaken, and all that will be left of the snollygoster will be an unsavory blotch on the history of American politics.
President Reagan has done for succotash what President Truman did for snollygoster: put the spotlight of pitiless publicity on an obscure Americanism.
snollygoster
prosopopoeia
noun
personification, as of inanimate things.
More about prosopopoeia
You can charge a lot for a learned Greek word like prosopopoeia, a term in rhetoric meaning 鈥減ersonification, as of inanimate things; imaging an absent or dead person as speaking or acting.鈥� Prosopoeia is very effective when a master like Demosthenes or Cicero uses it, not so much when it鈥檚 badly bungled in a sermon. Prosopoeia comes via Latin prosopopoeia from Greek 辫谤辞蝉艒辫辞颈铆补 鈥減utting speeches in the mouths of characters, dramatization.鈥� 笔谤辞蝉艒辫辞颈铆补 is composed of the noun 辫谤贸蝉艒辫辞苍 鈥渇ace, countenance, person鈥� and the Greek combining form –辫辞颈铆补 鈥渕aking, creating,鈥� a derivative of the verb 辫辞颈别卯苍 鈥渢o make鈥� (ultimate source of English poesy and poetry). 笔谤贸蝉艒辫辞苍, literally 鈥渙pposite the face (of the other),鈥� is composed of the preposition and prefix pros-, pros 鈥渢oward, in the face of鈥� and the noun 峁损蝉 鈥渆ye, face, countenance.鈥� Prosopopoeia entered English in the mid-16th century.
how is prosopopoeia used?
Over the 14 lines of the sonnet, the poem moves from making a negative comparison to the Colossus of Rhodes to animating the 鈥渘ew Colossus鈥� with a voice, an instance of what literary critics call personification or, to use the more unwieldy term, prosopopoeia …
Lord Byron’s very numerous comparisons, all admirable, and often under the form of a prosopopoeia, are indicative of the warm imagination which clothed inanimate shapes with the breathing realities of life …
prosopopoeia
rueful
adjective
feeling, showing, or expressing sorrow, repentance, or regret.
More about rueful
The adjective rueful is easy to define: 鈥渇ull of rue,鈥� but what is rue? The noun rue comes from Middle English reu(e) 鈥減ity, someone or something causing sorrow, a disgrace鈥� (herte-reue means 鈥渟orrow in one鈥檚 heart鈥�). Reu(e) comes from Old English 丑谤脓辞飞 鈥渟orrow, regret, penitence, repentance,鈥� and is akin to Old Frisian 谤墨辞飞补, Old Dutch rouwe, Dutch rouw, Old High German (h)riuwa, German Reue, all meaning 鈥渞egret, remorse, repentance.鈥� The noun ruth 鈥減ity, compassion; sorrow, grief鈥� comes from Middle English reuth(e) (it has many extravagant spellings), a derivative of the adjective reu(e) plus the suffix –th, which forms nouns of action such as birth, bath, or of state, such as breadth, width. Lastly, the personal name Ruth comes from Hebrew 搁奴迟丑, possibly a contracted form of 谤蓹士奴迟丑 鈥渇riend(s), female friend(s).鈥� Rueful entered English in the first half of the 13th century.
how is rueful used?
A common refrain from writers on Twitter is that writing is hard. Often, this insight is accompanied by the rueful observation that tweeting is easy.
He stood for a moment with his hands held down and a rueful face, staring out over the waste that defied him.
rueful