Bitchcakes!

[melannen]

Today, I missed my bus stop and had to walk an extra half-mile across campus in the drizzle. Then, every single printer on campus refused to print my paper. Next, the library caught on fire. Finally, on the way home, the train's brakes failed. Today has been an exceptional day.

Fortunately, I brought along my new dictionary of dirty words, so I did not once find myself at a loss for vocabulary. Moron! Mossback! Motherfucker! Muckmouth! Mugwump! Mule!

Also, there's this.

Comments

[melannen.livejournal.com]

Mugwump originated as a word used in the 1884 US presidential elections, specifically to refer to Republicans who supported the Democratic candidate because they thought the Republican nominee was a fraud and a liar. (It's a term that deserves a rennaissance! Especially since their guy won, and routed out the rampant cronyism which is again infecting the Republican administration, see: New Orleans.)

However, it has accrued other meanings. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mugwump_(disambiguation)) My new book says 'a political independent', and adds that it was in use in the US as early as the 1820s to refer to people who aren't nearly as important as they think they are, which I hadn't known. It has two competing etymologies: from an early transliteration of an Algonquin Indian term for a tribal leader; and as deriving from somebody who has their 'mug' on one side of the aisle and their 'rump' on the other.

I'm learning a lot from this book.