Today's Word "blackguard"
Published in Vocabulary
blackguard \BLAG-uhrd\ (noun) - 1 : A rude or unscrupulous person; a scoundrel. 2 : A person who uses foul or abusive language.
(adjective) - 1 : Scurrilous; abusive; low; worthless; vicious; as, "blackguard language."
(transitive verb) - 1 : To revile or abuse in scurrilous language.
"In spite of his fine manners and rich clothing Ross was, at heart, little more than a common blackguard, capable of stabbing someone in the back and utterly destroying them if it would get him further in his world."
Blackguard is from black + guard. The term originally referred to the lowest kitchen servants of a court or of a nobleman's household. They had charge of pots and pans and kitchen other utensils, and rode in wagons conveying these during journeys from one residence to another. Being dirtied by this task, they were jocularly called the "black guard."
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