An article published in Harvard Men’s Health Watch in 2012 shows heavy coffee drinkers live longer. The researchers examined data from 400,000 people and found out that men who drank six or more coffee cups per day had a 10% lower death rate.
TAWDRY
cheapjack, shoddy, tawdry
(adjective) made of inferior workmanship and materials; “cheapjack moviemaking...that feeds on the low taste of the mob”- Judith Crist
brassy, cheap, flash, flashy, garish, gaudy, gimcrack, loud, meretricious, tacky, tatty, tawdry, trashy
(adjective) tastelessly showy; “a flash car”; “a flashy ring”; “garish colors”; “a gaudy costume”; “loud sport shirts”; “a meretricious yet stylish book”; “tawdry ornaments”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Noun
tawdry (uncountable)
(obsolete) Tawdry lace. [17th c.]
(obsolete) Anything gaudy and cheap; pretentious finery. [17th–19th c.]
Adjective
tawdry (comparative tawdrier, superlative tawdriest)
(of clothing, appearance, etc.) Cheap and gaudy; showy.
(of character, behavior, situations, etc.) Unseemly, base, shameful.
Synonyms
• (of clothing, personal appearance, etc.): See gaudy
• (unseemly, base, shameful): sordid
Source: Wiktionary
Taw"dry, a. [Compar. Tawdrier; superl. Tawdriest.] Etym: [Said to be corrupted from Saint Audrey, or Auldrey, meaning Saint Ethelreda, implying therefore, originally, bought at the fair of St. Audrey, where laces and gay toys of all sorts were sold. This fair was held in Isle Ely, and probably at other places, on the day of the saint, which was the 17th of October.]
1. Bought at the festival of St. Audrey. [Obs.] And gird in your waist, For more fineness, with a tawdry lace. Spenser.
2. Very fine and showy in colors, without taste or elegance; having an excess of showy ornaments without grace; cheap and gaudy; as, a tawdry dress; tawdry feathers; tawdry colors. He rails from morning to night at essenced fops and tawdry courtiers. Spectator.
Taw"dry, n.; pl. Tawdries (.
Definition: A necklace of a rural fashion, bought at St. Audrey's fair; hence, a necklace in general. [Obs.] Of which the Naiads and the blue Nereids make Them tawdries for their necks. Drayton.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
25 November 2024
ONCHOCERCIASIS
(noun) infestation with slender threadlike roundworms (filaria) deposited under the skin by the bite of black fleas; when the eyes are involved it can result in blindness; common in Africa and tropical America
Coffee Trivia
