Thursday, April 3, 2008

Word of the day

Tortfeasor: In law, one who commits a tort, a civil (as opposed to criminal) wrong.

I've acknowledged my new addiction in reading appellate (sorry, Greg, I misspelled it previously) court opinions. Nothing is as bizarre as the reality of life and the twisted (at times) legal logic of appellate judges. As I've said, it's like Cops, Judge Judy, Dr. Phil et al rolled into one. And the sweet extra benefit in reading these is the new vocabulary words I'm learning.

Which brings me to tortfeasor. I do believe it is the ugliest word I've ever encountered, not counting vulgar words. It sounds ugly; it doesn't roll off the tongue easily. It seems to imply nastiness. I'm sure if you went into a bar and called someone a "son of a tortfeasor" you would surely be punched out. You probably wouldn't even need to go into a bar.

I challenge you to come up with an uglier word.

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