28 November 2013

reprobate

[rep-ruh-beyt]

noun, adjective, verb, rep·ro·bat·ed, rep·ro·bat·ing.

noun

1. a depraved, unprincipled, or wicked person: a drunken reprobate.
2. a person rejected by God and beyond hope of salvation.
adjective
3. morally depraved; unprincipled; bad.
4. rejected by God and beyond hope of salvation.
verb (used with object)
5. to disapprove, condemn, or censure.
6. (of God) to reject (a person), as for sin; exclude from the number of the elect or from salvation.
Origin:
1400–50; late Middle English reprobaten < Latin reprobātus; past participle of reprobāre to reprove

Related forms
rep·ro·ba·cy [rep-ruh-buh-see] Show IPA , rep·ro·bate·ness, noun
rep·ro·bat·er, noun
un·rep·ro·bat·ed, adjective

Synonyms
1. tramp, scoundrel, wastrel, miscreant, wretch, rascal, cad, rogue. 2. outcast, pariah. 3. wicked, sinful, evil, corrupt. 5. reprehend, blame, rebuke, reprove.

Today’s quote

‘Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment…But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors. It is this preposterous idea which has lately deluged Europe in blood. Their monarchs, instead of wisely yielding to the gradual change of circumstances, of favoring progressive accommodation to progressive improvement, have clung to old abuses, entrenched themselves behind steady habits, and obliged their subjects to seek through blood and violence rash and ruinous innovations, which, had they been referred to the peaceful deliberations and collected wisdom of the nation, would have been put into acceptable and salutary forms’.

– Thomas Jefferson, in his letter to Samuel Kercheval.

On this day

28 November 1968 – death of Enid Blyton, British author of numerous series of children’s stories, including ‘Noddy‘, ‘Famous Five‘, and ‘Secret Seven‘. (Born 1897).

28 November 1990 – UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher formally tenders her resignation following disendorsement by her Cabinet on 22 November 1990.

28 November 1994 – U.S. serial killer and cannibal, Jeffrey Dahmer, bashed to death while cleaning a prison toilet. Dahmer was serving 15 life sentences for the murder of 15 men and boys. He had initially faced 17 murder charges, but this had been reduced.