Lynne Kiesling
Today’s word from A Word A Day is reprobate, a great word:
reprobate (REP-ruh-bayt) adjective
Depraved.
noun
A wicked person.
verb tr.
To disapprove or condemn.
[From Middle English, from Late Latin reprobatus, from reprobare (to
disapprove), from re- + probare (to test, approve), from probus
(good).]
AWAD is also good for the quotes that come at the end of every entry. Today’s is a good one from everyone’s favorite wag (OK, my favorite wag) H.L. Mencken:
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)
Here’s what AWAD said in 1997 about a word I used last week to describe Putin’s re-nationalization of Yukos:
retrograde
adj. 1. Moving or tending backward.
2. Inverted or reversed.
3. Reverting to an earlier or inferior condition.
4. Astron. Having a direction of motion opposite to that of the earth on its axis or of the planets around the sun.
5. Archaic. Opposed; contrary.
-intr.v. 1. To move or seem to move backward. 2. To decline; degenerate.
[ME [Lat. retrogradus : retro-, back + gradus, step]