From today's "A Word a Day" subscription: " malkin"

[annabanana]

"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone.
"When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."

Alice and Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass might as well have been talking about this week's set of words. While these words do not have as many meanings as the word "set" (the Oxford English Dictionary devotes 26 pages to it), each of this week's hard-working words has many unrelated meanings. And they are not bland, like the word set.

With these words, one could say, we get our money's worth.


malkin (MO-kin, MAL-kin) noun

1. An untidy woman; a slattern.

2. A scarecrow or a grotesque effigy.

3. A mop made of a bundle or rags fastened to a stick.

4. A cat.

5. A hare.



A related word is grimalkin, referring to an old female cat or an ill-tempered old woman.

-Anu Garg (garg wordsmith.org)

"And speaking o' cats, gray malkins hunt through the forest as well."
Cecilia Dart-Thornton; The Battle of Evernight; Aspect; 2003.

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Pronunciation:
http://wordsmith.org/words/malkin.wav
http://wordsmith.org/words/malkin.ram

Permalink: http://wordsmith.org/words/malkin.html

(My thought? Maybe the meanings of this particular word aren't so "unrelated" as all that.)

[DesEtoiles]

1. you just beat me to it!

An untidy woman; a slattern.


And you know - Malkin is not her real name. She chose that name.

[annabanana]

2. So she's all that and really really dumb too!

sweet.

[stranger]

3. doncha think we give her..

FAR more attention than her miniscule influence
and intellect warrants?

she's a foxy little bimbo, with little esle going for her,
who only appears on fox news
to preach to the converted-and entertain horny old repub men
who are stuck with an ugly shrewish wife,
who wont let hem watch girls gone wild videos.

Mainstream americans from all walks of life
are unimpressed with this cackling little harpy
who wrote a book supporting the interment camps for
of Japanese americans in ww-2.

She totally marginalized herself with that one.

Let her remain anonymous.
She's just an impudent
(cosmetically gifted) little shrew who craves attention.

You can bet her husband is inadequate-therein lies the problem.
(i use the word "lie" advisedly)

[annabanana]

4. And yet she continues to throw herself up there. . .

for our continued amusement. Kind of like Katherine Harris on a loop.

(on edit: Welcome to DU "disabled".)

[Journeyman]

5. Thnaks for the links -- the Visual Thesaurus is great. . .

n/t

[annabanana]

6. (word-a-day has been a long time addiction of mine. . eom)

[ChazII]

7. Thanks for this information

being a teacher this will help my ELL and visual learners.