blackguard

English

Alternative forms

blaggard

Etymology

From black +‎ guard, thought to have referred originally to the scullions and lower menials of a court, or of a nobleman's household, who wore black liveries or blacked shoes and boots, or were often stained with soot.

Pronunciation

(UK) IPA^(key): /ˈblæɡəd/
- Audio (UK) (file)
(US) IPA^(key): /ˈblæɡɚd/
Rhymes: -æɡə(ɹ)d

Noun

blackguard (plural blackguards)

The lowest servant in a household charged with pots, pans, and other kitchen equipment.
(old-fashioned, usually used only of men) A scoundrel; an unprincipled contemptible person; an untrustworthy person.
- 1830, Thomas Macaulay, Review of Robert Southey's edition of Pilgrim's Progress, in the Edinburgh Review
  A man whose manners and sentiments are decidedly below those of his class deserves to be called a blackguard.
- 1899, Knut Hamsun, “Part I”, in George Egerton [pseudonym; Mary Chavelita Dunne Bright], transl., Hunger: Translated from the Norwegian, London: Leonard Smithers and Co. […], OCLC 560168646; republished New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, October 1920 (December 1920 printing), OCLC 189563, page 58:
  Pawn another man's property for the sake of a meal, eat and drink one's self to perdition, brand one's soul with the first little sear, set the first black mark against one's honour, call one's self a blackguard to one's own face, and needs must cast one's eyes down before one's self? Never! never!
- 2006, Jan Freeman, 'Blaggards' of the year – Boston Globe
  "Arrr, keelhaul the blaggards!" wrote Ty Burr in the Globe last summer, pronouncing sentence on the malefactors who brought us the second "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie.
(archaic) A man who uses foul language in front of a woman, typically a woman of high standing in society.

Derived terms

blackguardism
blackguardly

Translations

scoundrel — see scoundrel

Verb

blackguard (third-person singular simple present blackguards, present participle blackguarding, simple past and past participle blackguarded)

(transitive) To revile or abuse in scurrilous language.
- 1850, Robert Southey, English Manners
  Persons who passed each other in boats upon the Thames used to blackguard each other, in a trial of wit
- 1962 August, “Let's have plain speaking”, in Modern Railways, page 73:
  The Southern Region takes, in the main, a candid line with its public. [...] An ill-informed attempt to blackguard the railway publicly is likely to see the complainant put politely—but very firmly—in his place.
(intransitive) To act like a blackguard; to be a scoundrel.