- Today's Word
Tatterdemalion
[tat-er-dih-MAY-lee-un]
Definition
- (noun) A person who is dressed in ragged, torn, or shabby clothing. It often refers to someone who appears unkempt, disheveled, or down on their luck.
Example
The once-prosperous businessman, now a tatterdemalion, wandered the streets in his threadbare coat, a shadow of his former self.
Fun Fact
The word “tatterdemalion” has been in use since the 1600s and is thought to be derived from the word “tatter,” meaning a torn piece of cloth, and the name “Malevole,” a character from the 1604 play “The Malcontent” by John Marston, who was known for his ragged appearance.
(noun/verb) A gentle, continuous murmuring sound made by water or a person speaking rapidly and excitedly.
The hikers followed the burble of the stream through the dense forest long before they could see it, the sound guiding them toward water and rest.
Burble is an example of onomatopoeia — a word whose sound imitates the thing it describes. It emerged in Middle English as an imitative word for the sound of bubbling or gurgling water, related to the Old French borboiller, meaning “to bubble.” Lewis Carroll famously used it in Jabberwocky — “the Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, came whiffling through the tulgey wood, and burbled as it came” — cementing its place in the English literary imagination as a word that sounds exactly like what it means.