word of the day: guayabera

The word of the day is guayabera:

Etymology:  < Spanish guayabera (1888 or earlier in this sense), of uncertain origin, perhaps ultimately showing a derivative of either guayaba guava or guayabo guava tree.

Chiefly U.S.

A lightweight, loose-fitting shirt for men, typically having two breast pockets and two lower front pockets, a number of vertical pleats, and short sleeves, and usually worn untucked. (OED)

"A slim, friendly man with a shaved head, Rodríguez was derssed in the informal manner of many of Chávez's ministers: a crisp white guayabera over black jeans and running shoes."

 - Jon Lee Anderson, "Slumlord: What has Hugo Chávez wrought in Venezuela?", 28 January 2013 The New Yorker

word of the day: lumpen

The word of the day is lumpen:

adj. boorish, stupid, unenlightened, used derisively to describe persons, attitudes, etc., supposed to be characteristic of the lumpenproletariat; also ellipt. or as n. (OED)

which brings us to lumpenproletariat:

Etymology:  < German lumpenproletariat (K. Marx 1850, in Die Klassenkämpfe in Frankreich and 1852, in Der achtzehnte Brumaire des Louis Bonaparte), < lumpen , rag (lump ragamuffin: see lump n.¹) + proletariat (see proletariat n.)

 

 A term applied, orig. by Karl Marx, to the lowest and most degraded section of the proletariat; the ‘down and outs’ who make no contribution to the workers' cause.

"One journalist friend, Boris Muñoz, told me that the building was run by 'empowered lumpen', who controlled the residents with the same violent system that rule life inside Venzuela's prisons."

 - Jon Lee Anderson, "Slumlord: What has Hugo Chávez wrought in Venezuela?", 28 January 2013 The New Yorker