That’s A Great Word I’m Gonna Use More Often
There’s an editorial in today’s Houston Chronicle:
Scofflaws. That’s the word I’ve been hunting for months. I checked the official definition just to be sure it meant what I thought it meant – something Republicans don’t do near enough.
Scofflaw means “a person who flouts the law, especially by failing to comply with a law that is difficult to enforce effectively.” I guess I’ve heard it used for parking tickets or parking in handicapped zones without a sticker. They scoff at the law, and by golly it’s a word.
The article has an interesting thought.
The opposition may be noisy, but they are out of step with the overwhelming majority of Texans who see the wisdom using facial coverings to limit the spread of the virus. In a Quinnipiac University survey released late last month, 80 percent of voters said they approved of Abbott’s face mask order. Only 19 percent said they disapproved.
So, 19% are driving the whole you-can’t-make-me-wear-a-mask thing. We can take ’em, y’all. We can wrestle them to the grown and take them down to the river and baptize them with the truth. And make them pay $250 for the honor.
I can go with that.
As has been suggested frequently, anybody not wearing a mask goes to the end of the line for treatment when they (inevitably) show up asking for it (demanding, more like.)
1The wicked flee when none pursueth. Proverbs 28:1
~ True Grit
2BillR, if only!
3Ms. Juanita Jean Herownself, please no wrestling to the ground with covidiots. Really. You don’t want to touch them for all the potential nasty diseases they carry in addition to COVID-19. A nicely executed leg sweep plants them without the risk of your hands being anywhere near the mangy scofflaws. Also a great excuse to insist Judge Bubba buy you some new footwear after each planting; maybe some additional back up pairs for when you’re feeling particularly feisty.
4Has the HPD Union scofflaw made a statement yet? He seems to always be in opposition to Turner or is he busy defending the six narcotics officers under criminal indictment?
5JJ & PKM–how about a nice lasso instead of a wrestling to the ground or leg sweep. It will work well to social distance and seems like it would fit in Texas.
6Off-topic, and from two years ago: a Trumpoid about my age who infested my local barber shop was going on about how all those “illegal immigrants” were breaking the law and therefore should not be allowed in the US. That no criminal should be allowed to remain in the US. He could not identify what law they were breaking, but Trump had told him they were all rapists and murderers.
By chance a week before I had been going through my old stuff and ran across my draft card from 1969. After reading it I checked up, and sure enough the law still requires you to carry it on your person at all times, and to surrender it only on entry to the armed forces. Sorta like the law that a man with a red flag must go a half mile in advance of a motor vehicle, so that horses don’t get scared and run wild. Nobody ever pays attention to it because it’s outdated and ridiculous. Still, I threw it into my backpack to show my wife as a historical artifact.
So I asked Mr. All Laws Are Sacred to show me his draft card. Hunh? was his reaction. So I told him that since he was not a vet, and since it was a felony to not have the draft card with him, he was a criminal and did not deserve to be in the US. The joy was when he said “where’s yours?” and I produced it. And told him to read the requirements it listed on the back.
One of the barbers chimed in “yeah, and I saw you driving over 35 mph on the street in front, and the speed limit is 30, so you’re a multiple criminal”. Trumpoid left in a huff, and I have not seen him since. The barbers are not what I’d call a bunch of liberal progressives, but were happy to have him gone. I only had to put up with him while getting shorn, but they had him hanging around like an irritating mosquito for hours at a time.
I’m sure that now he’s going around without a mask and still haranging people about whatever Fox News has pumped into him lately. I’d love it if he could be nailed with a $250 fine.
7I do curbside grocery pick-up. One thing I bring with me are my expired eggs (it’s difficult for me to finish them before expiration dates. If I pull up and see an idiot get out and sauter into a store, I make use of a couple. It’s hot in Houston in August. Those eggs cook quickly on a windshield. Just sayin’.
8saunter
9Scofflaws, Neer-do-wells, Mountebanks, Hucksters, Running Dogs, Vermin.
They all work on this bunch.
10@Philquat
Great synonyms.
Amazing how trump’s reign of terror has sent us back to the dictionary for relevant words: kakistocracy, scofflaw, ilk, odious are some of the greatest hits.
11Great word! This is the origin according to https://www.etymonline.com/word/
scofflaw (n.)
121924, from scoff (v.) + law (n.). The winning entry in a national contest during Prohibition to coin a word to characterize a person who drinks illegally, chosen from more than 25,000 entries; the $200 winning prize was split between two contestants who sent in the word separately: Henry Irving Dale and Miss Kate L. Butler. Other similar attempts did not stick, such as pitilacker (1926), winning entry in a contest by the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to establish a scolding word for one who mistreats animals (submitted by Mrs. M. McIlvaine Bready of Mickleton, N.J.).
My son (still looking for a job, not in Tyler TX) informed me the plural of octopus is octopodes as octopus is a Greek, not Latin, word. Were it Latin is would be octopi. Ah, word trivia!
From etymonline:
octopus (n.)
1758, genus name of a type of eight-armed cephalopod mollusks, from Greek oktōpous, literally “eight-foot,” from oktō “eight” (see eight) + pous “foot,” from PIE root *ped- “foot.” Used figuratively since at least 1882 of powers having far-reaching influence (usually as considered harmful and destructive).
The proper plural is octopodes, though octopuses probably works better in English. Octopi (1817) is from mistaken assumption that -us in this word is the Latin noun ending that takes -i in plural.
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