Word of the Day for Sunday, December 18, 2011
gangrel \GANG-gruhl\, noun:
1. A lanky, loose-jointed person.
2. A wandering beggar; vagabond; vagrant.
Patrick had a likeness to his father, but was still just a gangrel of a boy with long arms and a slouching posture.
-- David Farland, "Worlds of the Golden Queen"
I longed to tell you so when you threw me over at the meeting for that pretentious pedant, that long-backed Leslie, whom I remember as a gangrel gawky with his sleeves half-way up his arms.
-- Elizabeth Lynn Linton, "The Rebel of the Family"
Gangrel dates back to Middle English and is related to the word gangling. The suffix -rel has a very precise use: to denote nouns that are seen as trivial or worthless, as in mongrel or wastrel.
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