My word of the week

snollygoster. (U.S. dial. and slang).

This has to be the best word I have found in a long time.

Text from OED

[Perh. connected with snallygaster, which is, however, of more recent appearance.]
A shrewd, unprincipled person, esp. a politician. Also in other more or less fanciful uses (see quots.).
1846 Commonwealth (Frankfort, Kentucky) 7 Apr. 2/6 Now here I am a rale propelling, double revolving locomotive Snolly Goster, ready to attack anything.
1863 D. Emmett Black Brigade 5 We am de snolly-gosters, An' lubs Jim Ribber oysters.
1895 Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch 28 Oct. 4/3 A Georgia editor kindly explains that _a snollygoster is a fellow who wants office, regardless of party, platform or principles, and who, whenever he wins, gets there by the sheer force of monumental talknophical assumnacy'.
1912 Dialect Notes III. 590 Snolly-goster, a shyster.
1915 Nebraska State Jrnl. 7 Sept. 6/3 We once knew a miserly old snollygoster who used to look in a mirror to see the reflection of a saint.
1952 N.Y. Herald Tribune 3 Sept. 17/2 President Truman_said some people like to pray in public so that others will view them as honorable and religious men._ _I wish some of these snollygosters would read the New Testament and perform accordingly.'
1953 Cavalier Daily (Univ. of Virginia) 12 Nov. 1/2 Former President Truman may have been making a talknophical assumnacy when he said a snollygoster is what Southerners call a man born out of wedlock.
1972 A. Roudybush Sybaritic Death xx. 168 The deaths of a middle-aged tart and an elderly snollygoster are of little moment.

15:54 Wed 15th Aug 2012