Ironic that SB Bill (Hinesburg SBs) sends this on the day that Grendel: The Four-Chord Opera makes its official debut!
A.Word.A.Daywith Anu Garg
musicaster
PRONUNCIATION:
MEANING:
noun: A mediocre musician.
ETYMOLOGY:
From music + -aster (a pejorative suffix). Earliest documented use: 1838.
NOTES:
The pejorative suffix -aster (meaning something that is inferior, small, or shallow) gives us some delightful words when it comes to name-calling. A reviewer brands a poet a poetaster (an inferior poet) and the poet might call the reviewer a criticaster. There are also the terms mathematicaster and philosophaster, but let’s remember that a grandmaster is not an inferior grandma.
USAGE:
“It was no longer a sanctuary, but a howling place. … indigent musicasters … chanted unfortunately.”
J.K. Huysmans; En Route; Dutton; 1895.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:It is by character and not by intellect the world is won. -Evelyn Beatrice Hall, biographer (28 Sep 1868-1956)
We welcome your comments. Post them here.
Or email us at words@wordsmith.org

Grendel: The Four-Chord Opera is here!
Part 1 is available for your viewing and listening pleasure on the Grendel page at silverbackdigest.com