Pariah

Use this forum to discuss past Good Words.
User avatar
Dr. Goodword
Site Admin
Posts: 7417
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:28 am
Location: Lewisburg, PA
Contact:

Pariah

Postby Dr. Goodword » Wed Jul 16, 2014 10:34 pm

• pariah •

Pronunciation: pê-rai-yê • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. An untouchable in the Hindu hereditary caste system, someone beneath the lowest of the castes. 2. A social outcast, a tainted person ostracized from normal company and avoided.

Notes: We should find an abstract noun expressing the state of being a pariah, but writers have not been able to agree on one. William Faulkner in Absalom, Absalom! used pariahhood, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has recently resorted to the rather clunky pariahism. Pariahship sounds better, but pariahdom has been used most widely in recent publications.

In Play: Pariahdom is usually evoked only by the most heinous of crimes: "Saddam Hussein's crimes against his own people made him a pariah in the civilized world." However, be careful, for even the smallest prank can sometimes lead to this brutally shameful repercussion: "Justin Case has been a pariah in the office since it was discovered that he was the one who put the goldfish in the water cooler."

Word History: Today's good and scary word probably originated as Tamil paraiyar, the plural of paraiyan "drummer, pariah caste", from parai "festival drum". (Tamil is a Dravidian tongue unrelated to Indo-European languages like Hindi and English.) The Tamil word originally referred to a tribe of South Indian sorcerers and ceremonial drummers who became untouchables when they took on unsanitary jobs as laborers and servants. British colonialists brought the word home from India; it first appeared in print in England in 1613. (Today we thank Kyle McDonald, a Lexiterian who is very socially integrated into the Alpha Agora, for suggesting today's word there.)
• The Good Dr. Goodword

User avatar
Slava
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 8039
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
Location: Finger Lakes, NY

Re: Pariah

Postby Slava » Fri Jul 18, 2014 4:08 am

Perhaps an excellent synonym for pariah here on the Agora is "spammer". Bottom-feeders who post worthless garbage or ads here are deleted with great pleasure.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.


Return to “Good Word Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 47 guests