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"Lack of Hygiene" Dictionaries and thesauri aren't helping.

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Onelook's reverse dictionary gives its typical lots-of-chaff answer, but I think the number 1 offering looks pretty good.

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Uk English would use the word, "scruffy" for a general lack of hygiene and tidyness


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That works in AmE, too, but it's not exactly what I would call sophisticated.

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Interesting. I've always understood scruffiness to be a matter of appearance only, that sanitation is a separate, though not necessarily unrelated, issue.

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inhygienical

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A friend who wishes to stay anonymous suggested "Pestilent or pestilential."

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Originally Posted By: Rhubarb Commando
Uk English would use the word, "scruffy" for a general lack of hygiene and tidyness
Sounds sophisticated enough to me. It's even English! Why would one need a sophisticated word for an unsophisticated state of being anyway? Is it rude, inpolite, offensive, arrogant or derogatory to ask this?

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I guess it depends upon context, to some extent, Branny. It could be offensive or arrogant, I spose. But it is certainly impolite and might well be a little bit rude or offensive.

Last edited by Rhubarb Commando; 05/16/13 09:48 PM.

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Originally Posted By: BranShea
Why would one need a sophisticated word for an unsophisticated state of being anyway?


Dunno. That's what Sorrow asked for.

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