Brian Bình
The English suffix "-ard" (as in "drunkard", "laggard", "braggard", and "sluggard") is used to make adjectives into deprecating nouns.
"He's drunk" is just a description.
"He's a drunkard" is a moral judgment that finds the subject lacking.
The same process turned "he's wise" into "he's a wizard".
"Wizard" was the medieval equivalent of "smartass".
Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell:
Brian Bình
@bluedragon It's actually true! Adding -ard to words in Middle English was equivalent to slang today adding -ass. A drunkard was a drunkass motherfucker. A dullard was a dullass motherfucker. A bollard was a bole (tree trunk)-ass thing.
Jeremy
@BrianBinh i don't know if I like this better if its true or if you made it up. Either way; top shelf.
Nitin Pai
@BrianBinh @harshad And a bastard is a…
😀
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Which, in French from roughly seventy years ago, was indeed used as a derogatory term for a rich person (although no one would use it as such nowadays)
Richard Sheridan
@BrianBinh worrisome implications for my name...
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