Saturday, March 11, 2006

Update: "Parvenue" is a Word!

I feel a need to correct a mistake that was made in the 1994 Scipps-Howard Spelling Bee when Dr. Alex Cameron claimed that "there doesn't seem to be any such word" as parvenue. Well, Cameron, a little friend of mine named Merriam-Webster has something to say about that. A parvenue is "[a woman] that has recently or suddenly risen to an unaccustomed position of wealth or power and has not yet gained the prestige, dignity, or manner associated with it." So there!

I totally showed Cameron... aside from the fact that he's been dead for two years.

1 comments:

Wendy Boucher said...

Yes it is a word and it is in the title of my first novel, Parvenue Throws A Party. It's a great word, if you ask me.