- 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.
(adjective) Lacking substance, interest, or mature thought; naive and simplistic in a way that reveals inexperience.
The critic dismissed the debut novel as jejune — competently written, technically adequate, and utterly devoid of anything worth remembering.
Jejune derives from the Latin jejunus, meaning “fasting” or “empty” — literally describing a stomach that has not been fed. The same root gives us jejunum, the section of the small intestine named for its tendency to be found empty after death. It entered English in the 17th century carrying its literal sense of emptiness before acquiring its figurative meaning of something intellectually or creatively hollow — content that has the form of nourishment without any of the substance.