This Week’s Fun & Fancy Word: Snollygoster!
This Week’s Fun & Fancy Word Is:
Lots of words could be used to describe a dishonest politician. But if you’re looking for one that isn’t gonna get you in trouble with your mom, try snollygoster.
Origins Of The Word Snollygoster
The first written evidence of the ridiculously fun to say word is from 1846.[1] And it was used with some regularity in the American south.
Georgia legislator H.W.J. Ham is credited with popularizing the term when he used it in 1893 to describe a certain class of politician, those who had “an unquenchable thirst for office with neither the power to get it nor the ability to fill it.”[2]
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Endnotes:
[1] Political Dictionary. https://politicaldictionary.com/
[2] Merriam Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/whats-a-snollygoster
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