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Apr 17, 2013
This week's theme
Words coined after proper names

This week's words
peeping Tom
nice nelly
nosy parker
doubting Thomas
lazy Susan

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

nosy parker or nosey parker

PRONUNCIATION:
(NOH-zee PAHRK-uhr)

MEANING:
noun: An overly inquisitive person.

ETYMOLOGY:
From nosy + the name Parker. It's not clear who this person was. Earliest documented use: 1890. Also see, quidnunc.

USAGE:
"Rural societies are relatively transparent: the nosy parker can sniff out all the gossip after mass or in the pub."
Fintan o'Toole; Gossip is Dead. Long Live Gossip; The Irish Times (Dublin); Dec 3, 2011.

See more usage examples of nosy parker in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on "I am not too sure." -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

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