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Oct 11, 2011
This week's theme
Negative words

This week's words
disingenuous
picaresque
venal
miasma
vituperation

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

picaresque

PRONUNCIATION:
(pik-uh-RESK)

MEANING:
adjective:
1. Of or relating to humorous or satiric fiction describing, in a series of episodes, the adventures of a roguish hero.
2. Of or relating to rogues or scoundrels.

ETYMOLOGY:
Via French, from Spanish pícaro (rogue). Picaresque fiction was popularized in Spain. Earliest documented use: 1827.

USAGE:
"The Russian film Silent Souls was a picaresque tale about a newly widowed man and his friend taking the body of his dead wife on a road trip of thousands of miles to say goodbye to her according to the rituals of the ancient Merja culture."
Geoffrey Macnab; Cinema Weathers the Storm in Venice; The Independent (London, UK); Sep 10, 2010.

See more usage examples of picaresque in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than even malice and wickedness. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher (1749-1832)

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