{"id":180666,"date":"2017-02-12T18:26:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-12T23:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2017\/02\/12\/just-call-me-nostra-dumbass\/"},"modified":"2017-02-12T18:26:00","modified_gmt":"2017-02-12T23:26:00","slug":"just-call-me-nostra-dumbass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2017\/02\/12\/just-call-me-nostra-dumbass\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Call Me Nostra Dumbass"},"content":{"rendered":"

In late 2003, I observed that the Mirriam Webster Dictionary was dropping the word “Snollygoster” from its dictionary, and that this must not stand<\/a>: (PDF)<\/p>\n

To Revive a Word<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

The word \u201csnollygoster\u201d has been dropped from the 11th edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.<\/p>\n

Harry Truman was among the last public figures to use this word in public, and I mean to use the word, meaning \u201ca shrewd, unprincipled person, especially a politician\u201d, as often as I can.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, over the past few years, I have engaged in a lonely effort to revive the word on this blog<\/a>, and now the Merriam Webster Dictionary has brought the word back<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

And as recently as Tuesday morning, Merriam-Webster staff noted they had re-added the word \u201csnollygoster\u201d to the dictionary. It means \u201ca shrewd and unprincipled person, especially an unprincipled politician.\u201d <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It even found use during the contentious Brexit campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I won’t claim to be responsible for this, I think that the various machinations of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump have had more influence on this development, but I am feeling remarkably smug about this development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In late 2003, I observed that the Mirriam Webster Dictionary was dropping the word “Snollygoster” from its dictionary, and that this must not stand: (PDF) To Revive a Word The word \u201csnollygoster\u201d has been dropped from the 11th edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. Harry Truman was among the last public figures to use this word …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[573,371,515,374],"class_list":["post-180666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-donald-trump","tag-europe","tag-language","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180666"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180666\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}