

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. wastrelPRONUNCIATION: 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)www.wordsmith.org |