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Examples
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It’s bad enough that Long has diminished local illustrator Gene Leun Yang’s accomplishments by claiming that his book American Born Chinese should be ineligible for the National Book Award because it is composed of pictures, but Tony Long, a superlative skybald content to toss around his uninformed opinions the way culinary naïfs want to take you to Domino’s for “really good pizza,” hasn’t even read the book in question.
Tony Long: Chickenhead of the Month : Edward Champion’s Reluctant Habits 2006
reesetee commented on the word skybald
a good-for-nothing; a worthless person, animal or thing
July 20, 2007
slumry commented on the word skybald
With piebald, pieintheskybyeandbyebald? "Someday I will have hair again, I just know it." Plays toupee pitch baseball.
July 20, 2007
slumry commented on the word skybald
More about skybald here: http://books.google.com/books?id=FckRAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA196&dq=skybald
Thanks for another fine word, R.
July 20, 2007
reesetee commented on the word skybald
I do love Google's Book Search feature.... Thanks, s. :-)
July 20, 2007
slumry commented on the word skybald
I love the book search feature too. In fact, I have been meaning to thank John for separating it out for us. Thanks John!!
July 20, 2007
avivamagnolia commented on the word skybald
From A Dictionary of Lowland Scotch by Charles Mackay:
"Skybald, apparently the same as the English skewbald and piebald, terms to designate a horse of two colours, marked as cows and oxen usually are...in Scotland, skybald signifies a base, mean fellow, a worthless person...it is also applied to a man in rags and tatters...Locke, the celebrated English metaphysician, uses piebald in a similar sense, "a piebald livery of coarse patches." In Yorkshire...skeyl'd signifies parti-coloured, which is apparently from the same Gaelic root as sky and skew.".
* Thanks for the tip on searching Google Books, reesetee and slumry! *
January 18, 2009