Today's Word "Snollygoster"
Published in Vocabulary
snollygoster \SNA-li-gah-stehr\ (noun) - (Regional slang) An unscrupulous but shrewd person; a hob-goblin that preys on naughty boys, girls and poultry (sometimes called a "snallygaster").
"Horace hired some snollygoster to put siding on his house and now it's falling off and Horace can't find him anywhere."
In some areas of the Eastern United States, parents keep their children ruly with warnings about the evil snollygoster or snallygaster, a nocturnal monster that is part bird, part reptile, and pounces with incredible swiftness when least expected. The name apparently derives from Pennsylvania Dutch schnelle geeschter "quick spirit," a dialectal variant of German schnell "fast, quick" and German Geist "spirit," the latter akin to English "ghost." "Snollygoster" is apparently the last stage of the progression schnelle geeschter > snallygaster > snollygoster. Today's word seems to have originated in the Pennsylvania-Maryland area of the Eastern United States but occurs widely now in the Northeast. There might be a place for it in the general vocabulary.
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