It's the Word of the Day podcast for February 13th.

Today's word is Rapscallion, spelled R-A-P-S-C-A-L-L-I-O-N. Rapscallion is a noun.

It refers to someone who causes trouble, often in a mischievous way.

It appears in the same sorts of contexts as the words rascal and scamp. Here's the word used in a

sentence from the record of Bergen County. Charlie Brown evolved into a world-class underdog. Originally, Charlie Brown was a bit of a

rapscallion, a bit of a wise ass, Moutner said. There is a certain point after a year or two when he

starts to become the butt of jokes, when he starts being a lonely kid. Once Charles Schultz hit

upon that, Charlie Brown got it pretty bad for a long time.

The word rascal has been part of English since the 15th century, but it apparently failed to

fully capture the disagreeable nature of the wily knaves of yore. By the 16th century, English speakers

had expanded rascal to Raskallion. But it seems that even

that term didn't sound quite mischievous enough. Eventually, Raskallion was further altered,

resulting in the snappier plosive enhanced word Rapscallion. And although Rapscallion has

zero connection with scallion, it does add a figuratively

spicy kick to one's speech, not unlike Chew Bacon and other cheeky insults that may be of

interest and use. With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.

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