pasquinade

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The Word of the Day for October 19 is: 

pasquinade   \pass-kwuh-NAYD\   noun
     1 : a lampoon posted in a public place 
    *2 : satirical writing : satire 

Example sentence:
      The article, a pasquinade mocking the proposed education reform, 
generated a lot of mail from readers.

Did you know?
          In 1501, a marble statue from ancient times was unearthed in Rome and 
erected near that city's Piazza Navona. The statue depicted a male torso and 
was christened "Pasquino" by the Romans, perhaps after a local shopkeeper. It 
became a tradition to dress up the statue on St. Mark’s Day, and in its honor, 
professors and students would write Latin verses that they would then post on 
it. Satires soon replaced these verses, and the Pasquino statue became a prime 
location for posting anonymous, bitingly critical lampoons. In the mid-17th 
century, these postings became known in English as "pasquinades" (from the 
Italian “pasquinata”). The term has since expanded in usage to refer to any 
kind of satirical writing.





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