Snollygoster is one of the affectionate and fantastic words that originated in the fast-growing U.S. of the nineteenth century, but nowadays it hardly used during the conversations and barely heard. President Truman used the words “Snollygoster” back in 1952 publically and defined it “either in unawareness or in impudence, as “a gentleman born out of wedlock”, but according to an American dictionary 50 years earlier had explained the word as a “shyster”.
However, Oxforg English Directory explained that it started its journey with German word “schnelle geister” which means “quick spirits”. In the 19th Century, “snollygoster” used to calculate doubtful people. Nowadays Oxford English Directory defines it as “a person “particularly a lawyer or politician” who uses unprincipled or immoral methods”.
Snollygoster was a mythological ogre “a huge reptilian bird” of Maryland, US, intended to fright the slaves into not voting. Snollygoster would leap from the sky to take their kids. Nebraska State Journal wrote the word in more appropriate manner in 1915, “We some time ago be acquainted with a stingy old “snollygoster” who used to look in the mirror to see a reflection of a saint.”
It reminded me of “it disburse to amplify your word power”, an article of Reader’s Digest in that article the words used can even stump those people with rationally wide vocabularies.
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