A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Mon Dec 1 12:01:02 AM EST 2025 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--quidam X-Bonus: One trouble with living beyond your deserved number of years is that there's always some reason to live another year. And I'd like to live another year so that Nixon won't be President. If he's re-elected I'll have to live another four years. -Rex Stout, novelist (1 Dec 1886-1975) [Nixon resigned in 1974.] Birdwatchers have their sparrows and buntings. Plant lovers their sedums and ferns. Why should people-watchers settle for plain old _folks_, _dudes_, and _that guy over there_? Whether you study the human animal in its natural habitats (coffee shops, checkout lines, Zoom meetings) or simply enjoy observing their colorful plumage and confusing mating calls, precision is key. You need the right taxonomy to identify everyone from the faceless stranger to the officious bureaucrat. Consider this week's A.Word.A.Day as your field guide to _H. sapiens_ in all their lexical variety. quidam (KWEE-dam, KWID-uhm) noun 1. An unknown person. 2. An unimportant person. [From Latin quidam (someone), from quis (who). Earliest documented use: 1579.] NOTES: Depending on how it's used, a quidam can be just a stranger, or a stranger so unremarkable they barely cast a linguistic shadow. Think of it as the Renaissance version of "some rando". It's the verbal equivalent of a blurred face in a documentary. It's the perfect word for when someone asks about that guy over there, and you reply, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a quidam." "The Son of Man", 1964 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/quidam_large.jpg Art: René Magritte https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Son_of_Man "It's pretty risky to invite quidams from the audience, nameless strangers, onto the stage." Liz Nicholls; Cirque's Quidam Delivers the Magic; Edmonton Journal (Alberta, Canada); Jun 29, 2004. -------- Date: Tue Dec 2 12:01:01 AM EST 2025 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--rudesby X-Bonus: The question is whether or not you choose to disturb the world around you, or if you choose to let it go on as if you had never arrived. -Ann Patchett, writer (b. 2 Dec 1963) This week's theme: Words for people rudesby (ROODZ-bee) noun A rude, boorish person. [From Old French ruide, from Latin rudis (rough, crude). Earliest documented use: 1566.] NOTES: The same root gives us rudimentary and the rudiments you wish this person had learned. Quidam vanishes into the crowd, the rudesby forces the crowd to part -- usually with his elbows. He thinks he's the Great Gatsby, but he's only the Great Rudesby. Detail from "The Peasant Dance" 1567 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/rudesby.jpg Art: Pieter Bruegel the Elder "'If you'll pardon my saying so, Mrs. Chestnut, your husband should toss that gent... person... out on his ear. Imagine the effrontery to insult the hostess.' https://wordsmith.org/words/effrontery.html 'Thank you for your timely rescue, Mister Toombs, but I really don't think that rudesby knew I was from South Carolina.'" F.J. Freitag; Dissolution; Xlibris; 2002. -------- Date: Wed Dec 3 12:01:01 AM EST 2025 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--galoot X-Bonus: All a man can betray is his conscience. -Joseph Conrad, novelist (3 Dec 1857-1924) This week's theme: Words for people galoot or galloot (guh-LOOT) noun A clumsy, eccentric, or foolish person. [Of unknown origin. Earliest documented use: 1808.] NOTES: The term is often used affectionately. Unlike the rudesby (who is intentionally rude), the galoot is physically or socially awkward. It's often used as a term of exasperated affection: "Aw, you big galoot!" It's the sort who knocks over a vase, apologizes to the vase, then trips on the apology. See also schlemiel https://wordsmith.org/words/schlemiel.html . "Pierrot", c. 1718-1719 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/galoot_large.jpg Art: Jean-Antoine Watteau See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/galoot "Sometimes lumbering though always well-intentioned, ["Day of the Fight" is] an ode to tales of lovable, scrappy galoots who keep a glint in their pummeled eyes." Robert Abele; Movie Review; Los Angeles Times; Dec 12, 2024. -------- Date: Thu Dec 4 12:01:02 AM EST 2025 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--jobsworth X-Bonus: Is there any religion whose followers can be pointed to as distinctly more amiable and trustworthy than those of any other? If so, this should be enough. I find the nicest and best people generally profess no religion at all, but are ready to like the best men of all religions. -Samuel Butler, writer (4 Dec 1835-1902) This week's theme: Words for people jobsworth (JOBZ-wuhrth) noun A petty official who insists on following trivial rules at the expense of common sense. [From the expression “It’s more than my job’s worth”. Earliest documented use: 1970.] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd0ATvyrswI Purple Crocodile, a 2004 ad for the Dutch insurance company OHRA NOTES: Picture a minor official in a petty position insisting on following the rules to a T and saying "It’s more than my job’s worth to not follow the rules (and risk getting fired)." The term was immortalized by Jeremy Taylor's late-60s song "Jobsworth", a gentle roast of the man who says: "I don't care, rain or snow, whatever you want, the answer is no." See the performance here: https://youtu.be/fz44_Sp0K8A (video 4 min.) The word was popularized by the 1970s British TV show "That's Life!" While English speakers complain of red tape, a Dutch ad inspired a far more colorful term in the Netherlands: purple crocodile (Paarse krokodil). This comes from a famous 2004 insurance company ad where a jobsworth refuses to give a little girl her lost inflatable crocodile, which is sitting right there, until her mother fills out a form (front and back, block letters) and returns the next morning between 9 and 10 am. If you've ever been told "Computer says no" or had a form rejected because you used the wrong shade of blue ink, congratulations: you've met a jobsworth in the wild. "Can a government jobsworth tell us why we can't hold matches in partially-filled outdoor stadiums with fans appropriately distanced and masked?" Shougat Dasgupta; Though Games in Front of Empty Stands Make Little Sense, the Action Continues Unabated; India Today (New Delhi); Sep 28, 2020. -------- Date: Fri Dec 5 12:01:02 AM EST 2025 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--roturier X-Bonus: Once a man has tasted freedom he will never be content to be a slave. That is why I believe that this frightfulness we see everywhere today is only temporary. Tomorrow will be better for as long as America keeps alive the ideals of freedom and a better life. -Walt Disney, entrepreneur and animator (5 Dec 1901-1966) This week's theme: Words for people roturier (ro-TOOR-ee-ay, -uhr) noun A person of low rank; a commoner. [From Old French roture (newly cultivated land), from Latin rumpere (to break). Earliest documented use: 1586.] NOTES: Old money has been looking down on new money, old land on new land, and old titles on new ones, since forever. Before the French Revolution rearranged the social furniture, a roturier was someone who held land by paying rent rather than by bloodline. It was considered a few rungs below the nobility who held feudal estates. The aristocrats broke bread; the roturiers broke soil. See also, plebeian. https://wordsmith.org/words/plebeian.html "The Stone Breakers", 1849 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/roturier_large.jpg Art: Gustave Courbet "Propose to her, marry her. Her parents aren't here any more to say you can't because you're a roturier." Peter De Polnay; The Loser; W.H. Allen; 1973.