A Fiend By Any Other Name?

Two of my favorite words today, for the price (!) of one:

Fiend: Noun - a. Devil b. Demon c. a person of great wickedness or maliciousness (but the secondary meaning approximates fanatic or - fan!)

And the word lends itself in adjective form to "fiendish". A most delectable word for creating an image of a most horrible character.

According to Webster's 9th Collegiate: 1. perversely diaboloical and, in a less intense definition, 2. extremely cruel or wicked.

For example:



And when one is a fiend, one tends to have helpers in one's fiendish endeavors. Rather than "helper" of course (such a benign and generic word) or "assistant" (too clinical), I prefer the word:

MINION - a servile dependent.

And isn't "servile" too perfect?

"D" is for....DROLL

Droll can be an adjective (amusing in an odd way, waggish, whimsically humorous says Dictionary.com), a noun (a jester or a wag, ibid), or an intransitive verb (to jest or to joke) (what, pray tell, is THAT? I really have to start hanging out more with Strunk & White - I've heard they're fun guys, right?).

From the French for scamp, and the Middle Dutch for imp, it is a short, sweet and oh, so evocative word. Use it in dialogue and you can immediately characterize both the speaker AND the object of derision (because when someone calls another person "droll" is usually not a "good" thing).

Synonyms: Witty, a clown. Antonyms: serious (or another of my favorite "d" words, DOUR!)

"Oh, my dear boy, do tell us another of your droll little tales!" said the Duchess of Dingleberry to the Tsar of Tumescence.

See? You know that someone in the scene is seething, right? And that one Duchess is due for a comeuppance .....

"C" is for Chrematistic. (huh?)

Chrematistic (adjective and noun)

Adjective: Of, pertaining to, or engaged in the accumulation of wealth.

Noun: The branch of knowledge that deals with wealth; economics.

Never heard this word before. But I can think of lots of people it applies to. Do the names Enron, Exxon, Halliburton, AIG mean anything?

Some synonyms (off the top of my head): Greedy and grasping?

Antonynms: US middle class taxpayer.

I'm just saying .....

"B" Is For ...

Besmirch. verb. trans.

From the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (my latest acquisition): Dull or discolor, as with smoke or mud; dim the brightness of; and fig. sully (as in a reputation); besmutch.

From Wikitionary: additionally, to tarnish

and Wiki breaks it down further into the various verb usages - third person singular simple present" besmirches; present participle: besmirching; and simple past and past participle: besmirched.

similarly from the OED:

Besmear. verb. trans. (smear over, cover or soil with a greasy or stick substance; sully or defame.

Beslubber (verb trans.) smear or daub over with liquid or sticky matter.

and, my favorite:

Besmut (verb. trans) - blacken as with soot; defame.

And from MSN Encarta: Synonyms - sully, defame, tarnish, damage, slander, and drag through the mud. Antonym - praise