Thursday, August 25, 2005

The Word of the Day for August 25

peccadillo \peck-uh-DIL-oh\, noun:
A slight offense; a petty fault.

No peccadillo is too trivial: we learn that the mogul once blew his top because his laundry came back starched ("'Fluff and fold!' he screamed").
--Eric P. Nash, "High Concept," New York Times, May 10, 1998

And besides, "what do they say? 'Don't judge lest you be judged.' Everybody has their peccadilloes."
-- "Tyson has a friend in his corner," Irish Times, October 21,1999

Child of a dominant mother, victim of a guilt-ridden conscience, [St. Augustine] wrote bewilderingly haunted 'Confessions,' in which infantile peccadilloes like stealing apples and adolescent fumblings with instinctive sexuality are bewailed with all the anguish of a frustrated perfectionist.
--Geoffrey Parker, "True Believers," New York Times, June 29, 1997

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