malapert · adj — cheeky, impudent, saucy. It carries an Arena rating of 1821, earned across 64 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, malapert ranks #919 of 17,201 for Funniest Words, #1,492 of 17,146 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #2,246 of 17,197 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,766 of 17,177 for Most Whimsical Words.
malapert is pronounced /ˈmæləpɜːt/.
Why “malapert” is a great word
MALAPERT — [Adjective, Noun] Offensively bold; impudently cheeky. From Middle English, from Middle French malappert or Old French mal apert, a compound of mal ("badly," from Latin male) and apert ("skilled, clever," from Latin apertus, "open, revealed"). Unlike a sycophant, who cloaks ambition in servile flattery, or one merely pert, whose sauciness can be spirited, malapert is insolence naked and unadorned. It is the apprentice correcting the master before the guild, the uninvited guest who corrects the host's grammar, the child naming the adult hypocrisy in the room—a social friction born not of ignorance, but of an ungovernable and unwelcome clarity.
❧ Essay by Lexicurio’s AI · definition, etymology & citations from published sources
Etymology
From mal- (“not, badly”) + apert (“open, revealed; direct, straightforward; clever, expert”), or from Middle French malappert, Old French mal apert (“ill-skilled”).
adj
- Cheeky, impudent, saucy.e.g.“The follest slouen ondyr heuen, / Prowde, peuiche, lyddyr, and lewde, / Malapert, medyllar, nothyng well thewde, […]” — a. 1530 (date written), John Skelton, “Poems against Garnesche. Skelton Laureate Defendar ageinst Lusty Garnyshe Well Beseen Crystofer Chalangar, et cetera.”, in Alexander Dyce, editor, The Poetical W
name
- A personification of impudence or malapertness.
noun
- A cheeky, impudent, or saucy person.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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