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Sep 29, 2008
This week's themeInsults This week's words politicaster quidnunc analphabet wifty gormandizer Missed a word? Check the archives chronological alphabetical thematic or search the site 
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with Anu GargThe pejorative suffix -aster (meaning something that is inferior, small or shallow) gives us some delightful words when it comes to name-calling. A reviewer brands a poet a poetaster (an inferior poet) and the reviewee might return the favor by calling the former a criticaster (an incompetent critic). In the same vein, we can have a philosophaster, an astrologaster, and a theologaster. Lest we get carried away here, let's remember that a grandmaster is not an inferior grandma. This week we'll review five words you can use to put people down. politicasterPRONUNCIATION:
(puh-LIT-i-kas-tuhr)
MEANING:
noun: A petty politician.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Italian politicastro, from Latin politicus (political), from Greek
politikos, from polites (citizen), from polis (city) + Latin -aster
(pejorative suffix).
USAGE:
"The politicaster is looking for small opportunities -- for such pickings
and stealings as a careless public may leave for those of his kind. The
great politician is looking for great opportunities."Samuel McChord Crothers; In Praise of Politicians; The Wall Street Journal (New York); Jan 5, 2004. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Corporation: n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. -Ambrose Bierce, author and editor (1842-1914)
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