skulduggery

PRONUNCIATION: (skuhl-DUHG-uh-ree)
MEANING:
noun: Underhand dealing: trickery, bribery, etc.
ETYMOLOGY:
An American coinage, apparently from the alteration of Scots sculduddery (fornication, obscenity). Earliest documented use: 1867.
USAGE:
"In the 1980s [the Vatican Bank] was accused of involvement in financial skulduggery and responsibility for the still-mysterious death of a prominent Italian banker, Roberto Calvi."
God's Bankers; The Economist (London, UK); Jul 7, 2012.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
A grain of poetry suffices to season a century. -José Martí, revolutionary and poet (1853-1895)
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SKILDUGGERY - high order duggery. ex: the duggery at the Vatican.

Comment on the THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
It seems the media has seasoned the 21st Century with a hatred for all things American; football, motherhood, and apple pie. - Rice Miller, bluesman and poet (1898-1963)