Today’s Word of the Day is…

Louche

If you ever need to insult a co-worker, the lousy experience you got at a wine bar, or the guy who did a lousy job detailing your car, you could call them a Louche!

Louche is an adjective that describes a person in a disreputable manner.

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Do you want to know why I started this Word of the Day series?

I read lots of books, and often come upon words that I’ve never seen before, so I look up the definition. Then I decided to elucidate my readers…

Yet, what is interesting; in the real world, if you call someone a louche or say “I’m feeling contrite right now.” I guarantee you, 95% of people would say “What? What is Louche?” and so you’d to explain the word.

Right… still with me?

And yet, when these words pop up in novels, this is what usually transpires:

“Jane, you louche, you need to wear boots when it is snowing! Not flipflops!”

“Oh, fine,” mutters Jane as she searches for matching boots.

In this case, Jane fully understands the meaning of louche.

But, that is a very weird word, and Jane can be a dim light bulb, hence the flipflops.

So, I’m thinking the more likely response would be:

“What did you just call me?” demands Jane, “Louche!? Did you just call me Lunch?! Go make your own lunch!” Jane would be seen storming out the door into a snow drift wearing flipflops…

Haha!

The point is: in books, the characters seem to know what these words are, even if no definition is provided to them.

Do I make sense?

Have a good one!