Fwd: "persiflage, n." - Word of the Day from the OED

[Mark Kohut]

In which Stephen King uses the word-of-the-day (perhaps in the full 1799 sense)
in a rant worth reading.....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/01/stephen-king-tax-the-rich


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Subject: Fwd: "persiflage, n." - Word of the Day from the OED

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Subject: "persiflage, n." - Word of the Day from the OED
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OED Online Word of the Day

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Your word for today is: persiflage, n.

persiflage, n.
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈpəːsᵻflɑːʒ/, /ˌpəːsᵻˈflɑːʒ/,  U.S. /ˈpərsəˌflɑʒ/
Etymology: <  French persiflage (1735) <  persifler to banter lightly
(although this is first attested slightly later: see persiflate v.) +
-age -age suffix.
  Light raillery or mockery; bantering talk; a frivolous or mildly
contemptuous manner of treating any subject.
1757  Ld. Chesterfield Let. 17 Oct. (1932) (modernized text) V. 2251 Upon
these delicate occasions you must practise the ministerial shrugs and
persiflage.
1799  H. More Strict. Mod. Syst. Fem. Educ. (ed. 4) I. 15 The cold compound
of irony, irreligion, selfishness, and sneer, which make up what the
French‥so well express by the term persiflage.
1827  Scott Jrnl. 13 Jan. (1941) 6 There is [a] turn for persiflage, a fear
of ridicule among them.
1853  C. Kingsley Hypatia II. vi. 128 All his smooth and shallow persiflage,
even his shrewd satiric humour, had vanished.
1893  A. Dobson H. Walpole ix. 254 The element in which his easy persiflage
delights to disport itself.
1923 Daily Mail 22 June 7 Urbane persiflage directed against ‘footlers’,
bores, and busybodies.
1942  H. Footner Maryland Main & Eastern Shore xxvi. 285 The cafeteria style
of serving‥deprives you of the opportunity to exchange a bit of persiflage
with the charming waitresses.
1996 Daily Tel. 9 Feb. 29/3 Worlock complained that such persiflage had
deprived him of a cardinal's hat.

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