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Word of the Day for Friday, July 18, 2008tatterdemalion \tat-uhr-dih-MAYL-yuhn; -MAY-lee-uhn\, noun: 1. A person dressed in tattered or ragged clothing; a ragamuffin. Last time peasant blouses surfaced, in the 1960s and '70s, they were part of an epidemic of Indian bedspread dresses, homemade blue-jean skirts, Army surplus jackets, Greek bookbag purses and love beads, the whole eclectic tatterdemalion mix meant to express egalitarian sentiments and countercultural solidarity with underdogs everywhere. I was expecting a wild hair, clanking jewelry, a tatterdemalion velvet cape from whose folds wafted the scent of incense, a house full of candles, dream catchers, cats, and bad art. To my ear, though, the prose has the tatterdemalion feel of something hooked together by commas, tacked together by periods. Tatterdemalion derives from tatter + -demalion, of unknown origin, though perhaps from Old French maillon, "long clothes, swadding clothes" or Italian maglia, "undershirt." | |||||||||
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