Word of the Day: peccant

peccant (adj)

Offensive, guilty, unprincipled.

"'There you have it. Make the most of it. Your frock's too filthy, but I came to sacrifice myself.' Maisie looked at the peccant places; there were moments when it was a relief to her to drop her eyes even on something so sordid."
--Henry James, What Maisie Knew

Why do I find this humorous? Getting so bent out of shape over some spots on someone's "frock" is over-the-top enough to make me giggle, at least in the context of over-the-top belletrist Henry James, with his endless dependent clauses. The uncharacteristically curt and nasty quote above presses my literary absurdity button. Or maybe I'm just way too tired.

(Peccant, by the way, is one of the words that the late David Foster Wallace circled in his dictionary.)