doggerel

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The Word of the Day for March 25 is: 

doggerel   \DOG-uh-rul\   adjective
     : loosely styled and irregular in measure especially for burlesque or 
comic effect; also : marked by triviality or inferiority 

Example sentence:
     Murray disparaged the new poetry anthology by saying that it contained 
little more than doggerel verse.

Did you know?
     "Doggerel" comes from the Middle English word "dogerel" of the same 
meaning. Beyond that, etymologists aren't certain of the word's history. They 
think "dogerel" is probably the diminutive of the Middle English word "dogge" 
(meaning "dog"), though the connection between man's best friend and bad poetry 
is unclear. "Doggerel" is often used as a noun, too, meaning "doggerel verse." 
Stephen Crane uses the noun form in this excerpt from _The Red Badge of 
Courage_: "As he marched he sang a bit of doggerel in a high and quavering 
voice: 'Sing a song 'a vic'try, / A pocketful 'a bullets, / Five an' twenty 
dead men / Baked in a -- pie.'"





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