Another Election Season — Another Round of Snollygosters

In every election season, we expect some unprincipled political practices. Whether it is an attempt to gain votes through mass hypnosis, or an outright stolen election, we all know that politicians don’t have the best of reputations.

There are a lot of words that come to mind to describe a dishonest politician. If you are looking for one that won’t get you in trouble with your mom, we suggest snollygoster.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a snollygoster is “a shrewd, unprincipled person, especially a politician.” An American journalist from the 1890s offered a more, let’s say, colorful definition: “…a fellow who wants office, regardless of party, platform, or principles, and who, whenever he wins, gets there by the sheer force of monumental talknophical assumnacy.”

Sadly, we don’t know what the journalist meant with the words “talknophical” or “assumnacy.” We suspect he didn’t know, either, but they certainly sound appropriate. Since the facts don’t seem to matter in political ads, maybe the definitions of the critique of them aren’t important, either.

Regardless of those words, we have to wonder why snollygoster ever fell out of common use. The word rolls delightfully off the tongue and provides us with a language that, sadly, is much needed in today’s political climate.

We have already given our support to the movement to add “orbisculate” to the dictionary. Perhaps our readers can help us resurrect another much-needed word.

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