SQUALID

[Dr. Goodword]

• squalid •

Pronunciation: skwah-lid • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: 1. Filthy, incredibly dirty, dilapidated, run-down. 2. Sordid, morally degenerate.

Notes: Rather than create a noun like squalidity by its own devices, English rather wisely borrowed the Latin noun accompanying this adjective, squalor. This word is far lovelier than its meaning deserves but at least we can utter it without cringing.

In Play: Today's word basically refers to physical dilapidation: "The Elbow Room was a squalid little bar on the wrong side of the tracks where you wouldn't want your worst enemy to come for a drink." However, we shouldn't forget that it also covers moral dilapidation: "The squalor of contemporary politics discouraged even Polly Graf from running for Congress."

Word History: English borrowed squalide from Middle French, making the silent E also invisible. French inherited the word from its grandparent, Latin squalidus "rough, coated with dirt, filthy", from squales "filth". All these words come from squalus "filthy". Latin had another squalus that referred to some type of large sea fish. These two words differed only in the length of the A (Latin distinguished words with long and short vowels.) Now since we know that fish become quite squalid in a short time without refrigeration, we might wonder if the two words are related. Our curiosity is only fed by the verb from squalus (= filth), squalare which, according to Etymonline, meant "to be covered with a rough, scaly layer, be coated with dirt, be filthy". If these two forms of squalus are related, the stem of today's Good Word came from the same source as English whale.

[Slava]

Well, Doc, you beat me to the picking on the politicians, so I'll have to follow up and toss in the fishy Russian proverb.

"A fish rots from the head." Applicable to politics everywhere, non?

[LukeJavan8]

Squalid politicians. Thought of this, too, upon reading
today's email for word of the day. Getting more and
more so. Squalid fish: there used to be a fish market
here, when, as a boy, I went in with my grandmother.
I absolutely detested that trek to the market. But she
always made me go, to carry the purchase. Yeach!

[saparris]

Is it just a coincidence that squalor and scholar are so similar?

[LukeJavan8]

Are they related?

Slava's sentence about politicians on another
thread deserves repeating here:

Bloviating blatherskites piling the codswallop upon us.

[saparris]

I have known a few squalid scholars--encouraging their students to eschew obfuscation while bloviating endlessly on topics of extraordinary disinterest.

[LukeJavan8]

Sounds like a few teachers I've had, also some caroliner
guy when bloviating about grammar. Know him????

[saparris]

Know him????

We're kin.

[LukeJavan8]

Kith and kin.
both on Kudzu.

[saparris]

I thought there for a minute you had developed a speech impediment (which is an odd term, since most of them don't really impede speech).

[Slava]

I thought there for a minute you had developed a speech impediment (which is an odd term, since most of them don't really impede speech).

And, let's face it, a speech impediment on an Internet discussion board would be really unique.

[saparris]

And, let's face it, a speech impediment on an Internet discussion board would be really unique.

Nor am I sure there could be such a thing. If you spelled "lisp" with a th (lithp), you're not lisping. Rather, you're emulating unusual pronunciation via unusual spelling.

Same would apply for st-st-stuttering.

Now a writing impediment would truly be a problem on a discussion board.

[Slava]

Now a writing impediment would truly be a problem on a discussion board.

Would we call that "writer's block?"

[saparris]

Would we call that "writer's block?"

A novel idea--although with a case of writer's block, the novel idea would always be just an idea.

[LukeJavan8]

In his state even writer's block would be an
improvement, epecially in grammar. Wait for it, slava,
wait for it, it will come: will fill pages.