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Apr 16, 2004

This week's theme
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This week's words
chuffed
sententious
endsville
excrescence
simon-pure

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AWADmail 119

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Eponyms

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simon-pure

simon-pure (SY-muhn PYOOR) adjective

1. Genuinely pure; also used to describe an amateur as opposed to a professional.
2. Pretentiously or hypocritically virtuous.

[From the phrase the real Simon Pure, after a character named Simon Pure who was impersonated by another in the play A Bold Stroke for a Wife, by Susannah Centlivre (1669-1723).]

"We get some perverse joy in pulling all but the most simon-pure heroes back into the muck with us."
Bruce Dowbiggin; Bailey-bashing Fashionable, But Undeserved; Calgary Herald (Canada); May 28, 2001.

"Those of us who live Simon-pure lives don't like to admit it, but most of us turn out pretty well only because we were born with the advantage of a normal home life and a reasonably happy childhood."
Bill Hughes; Why I Oppose The Death Penalty; Oakland Post (California); Mar 2, 1994.

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