Holy bullshit, Batman! 2: Electric Boogaloo
Word of the Day for Friday February 25, 2005
blackguard \BLAG-uhrd\, noun:
1. A rude or unscrupulous person; a scoundrel.
2. A person who uses foul or abusive language.
adjective:
Scurrilous; abusive; low; worthless; vicious; as, "blackguard
language."
transitive verb:
To revile or abuse in scurrilous language.
Douglas was not a saint, though, so his behaviour and
attitude were, as he wrote, 'neither better nor worse than
my contemporaries -- that is to say, [I became] a finished
young blackguard, ripe for any kind of wickedness'.
--Douglas Murray, [1]Bosie: A Biography of Lord Alfred
Douglas
The years, as time went on, imparted to him that peculiar
majesty that white-haired blackguards, successful (and
unpunished) criminals, seem generally to possess.
--Saul David, [2]Prince of Pleasure
Monroe wondered, but did not ask, what could have driven a
young lady of such fine bearing and aristocratic attraction
to leave home at a tender age and follow the fortunes of a
blackguard like Reynolds.
--William Safire, [3]Scandalmonger
When we want to talk friendly with him, he will not listen
to us, and from beginning to end his talk is blackguard.
--Tecumseh, quoted in [4]Tecumseh: A Life, by John Sugden
_________________________________________________________
Blackguard is from black + guard. The term originally referred
to the lowest kitchen servants of a court or of a nobleman's
household. They had charge of pots and pans and kitchen other
utensils, and rode in wagons conveying these during journeys
from one residence to another. Being dirtied by this task,
they were jocularly called the "black guard." [emph mine]
I'm sorry, but come on, Dictionary.com. Did you fall asleep during the dictionary scene in Malcolm X?
blackguard \BLAG-uhrd\, noun:
1. A rude or unscrupulous person; a scoundrel.
2. A person who uses foul or abusive language.
adjective:
Scurrilous; abusive; low; worthless; vicious; as, "blackguard
language."
transitive verb:
To revile or abuse in scurrilous language.
Douglas was not a saint, though, so his behaviour and
attitude were, as he wrote, 'neither better nor worse than
my contemporaries -- that is to say, [I became] a finished
young blackguard, ripe for any kind of wickedness'.
--Douglas Murray, [1]Bosie: A Biography of Lord Alfred
Douglas
The years, as time went on, imparted to him that peculiar
majesty that white-haired blackguards, successful (and
unpunished) criminals, seem generally to possess.
--Saul David, [2]Prince of Pleasure
Monroe wondered, but did not ask, what could have driven a
young lady of such fine bearing and aristocratic attraction
to leave home at a tender age and follow the fortunes of a
blackguard like Reynolds.
--William Safire, [3]Scandalmonger
When we want to talk friendly with him, he will not listen
to us, and from beginning to end his talk is blackguard.
--Tecumseh, quoted in [4]Tecumseh: A Life, by John Sugden
_________________________________________________________
Blackguard is from black + guard. The term originally referred
to the lowest kitchen servants of a court or of a nobleman's
household. They had charge of pots and pans and kitchen other
utensils, and rode in wagons conveying these during journeys
from one residence to another. Being dirtied by this task,
they were jocularly called the "black guard." [emph mine]
I'm sorry, but come on, Dictionary.com. Did you fall asleep during the dictionary scene in Malcolm X?