6 October 2013

blackguard

[blag-ahrd, -erd, blak-gahrd]

noun

1. a low, contemptible person; scoundrel.
2. Obsolete .
a. a group of menial workers in the kitchen of a large household.
b. the servants of an army.
c. camp followers.
verb (used with object)
3. to revile in scurrilous language.
Origin:
1525–35; black + guard; original sense obscure

Related forms
black·guard·ism, noun
black·guard·ly, adverb

Synonyms
1. scamp, rascal, rapscallion, rogue, devil, villain. 3. berate, vilify.

Today’s aphorism

The punters know that the horse named Morality rarely gets past the post, whereas the nag named Self-interest always runs a good race.

– Gough Whitlam, former Prime Minister of Australia, 1972-1975.

On this day

6 October 1961 – President John F. Kennedy advises Americans to build fall-out shelters, as Cold War paranoia continues to grow.

6 October 1966 – LSD, a synthetic hallucinogenic drug, declared illegal in the United States.

6 October 1978 – death of Johnny O’Keefe, Australian rock and roll legend. Known as J.O.K. or ‘The Wild One’. Born 19 January 1935.