Filthy Wealthy

Filthy rich sounds right. Filthy Wealthy doesn't.

Where does the saying filthy rich come from?! I know money, the actual metal or paper has been through a thousand hands and maybe some toilets (the metal ones), but what does filth have to do with rich?!

Filthy is not just dirty. Filthy also means obscene or morally foul.

A poor person must have assumed all rich people were morally unjust. Or maybe a jealous person.

Rich is a great word. a noun and an adjective. Means full, intense, abundant, complete, thick, dense, creamy, opulent, luxuriant, not just the state of owning many possesions and a large bank account.

Utterly Amazing

"That's utterly amazing," she uttered. She must have been watching John Weir at the NGH convention. That's what I thought when I saw him demonstate the NLP technique of collapsing anchors under hypnosis at his workshop last weekend!

Utter is a verb, which means to vocalize, express or pronounce; also to put forth or out, send.

Utter is also an adjective, which means absolute, total.

Utterly is an adverb which means extremely, totally.

So how are these related? They all come from Old English, ut, which means out.

Sometimes my blogs are related. For more about John's amazing demonstration, see Verbal Impact (link on upper right).

Vile Villain

Vile is a monosyllabic word with several meanings.

1. common, of little value.
2. morally despicable or physically repulsive.
3. disgustingly or utterly bad. obnoxious, contemptible

It is from Latin.

I have never actually heard it used the first way.

It is related to villian, of course.

Villain means a scoundrel, criminal or uncouth person.

Dither

I've recently heard these two uncommon words.

Blather means to speak foolishly. From Old Norse.

Dither means a state of nervous excitement or anxiety. no root language given, but it is an alternate form of "didder" (to shake or tremble).

Before you get in a dither, I'll stop blathering.