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May 8, 2026
This week’s theme
Words to describe people

This week’s words
cadgy
querimonious
bombaster
canescent
cumberground

cumberground
The Land of Cockaigne, 1567
Art: Pieter Bruegel the Elder

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cumberground

PRONUNCIATION:
(KUHM-buhr-graund)

MEANING:
noun: A useless person.

ETYMOLOGY:
From cumber (to hinder or encumber), from Anglo-French acumbrer (encumbrer) + ground. Earliest documented use: 1657.

NOTES:
A cumberground is someone who encumbers the ground while adding nothing of value. The image echoes Luke 13:7, in the parable of the barren fig tree: “Why cumbereth it the ground?” A synonym is cumberworld.

USAGE:
“Tuli, sweetheart, can you fetch me more cake? And put it on this side, far away from my friend the cumberground here.”
Evelyn Puerto; Flight of the Spark; Open Water Books; 2019.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers. -Thomas Pynchon, novelist (b. 8 May 1937)

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