squalid
nounEtymology From taxonomic name Squalidae.
squalid
adj/ˈskwɒlɪd/
Etymology Learned borrowing from Latin squālidus, from squālēre (“to be rough or dirty”).
1
Extremely dirty and unpleasant.
- [...] Mythologists describe Pan the son of Mercury (who was the God of Speech) with the upper part like a man, and the lower like a beast, to signifie that Truth is fair and comely, but a Lye squalid and Deformed.1686, The Refin'd Courtier, or a Correction of several indecencies crept into civil conversation., London: Matthew Gilliflower:
2
Showing or characterized by a contemptible lack of moral standards.
- a squalid attempt to buy votes
- Minister, I hardly think that we can exploit our Sovereign by involving her in some might call a squalid vote-grubbing exercise.1980 March 3, Antony Jay, Jonathan Lynn, “The Official Visit”, in Yes, Minister, season 1, episode 2, spoken by Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne):
1 more example
- [A] demon is just what we’ve been needing for a long, long time for our squalid affairs, to gratify our squalid desires, the sort of demon, of course, who can be persuaded to believe that he is the demon who will take all our own demoniacality on his shoulders, an Antichrist bearing the Iron Cross, and will not insolently slip through our fingers to string himself up before time, as [Nikolai] Stavrogin did.2004, Imre Kertész, translated by Tim Wilkinson, Kaddish for an Unborn Child […], New York, N.Y.: Vintage International, →ISBN, page 39:
- Derived terms
- squalidity, squalidly, squalidness, unsqualid