This week’s theme
Tosspot words

This week’s words
pinchfist
makeweight
rakeshame


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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(RAYK-shaym)

MEANING:

noun: A disreputable person.

ETYMOLOGY:

From rake, from Old English raca (to gather) + shame, from Old English sceamu (disgrace). Earliest documented use: 1598.

NOTES:

While a muckraker rakes up other people’s scandals, a rakeshame is strictly self-employed, raking up his own. A related term is rakehell. Regency romance novelists are practically the sole wildlife preserve keeping words like rakeshame and rakehell alive in modern print,

USAGE:

“I shall do everything within my power to preserve our good name ... whatever is left of it, that is, after your history as the greatest rakeshame in London.”
Nina Pykare; The Innocent Heart; Dell; 1981.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: