Pronounced: LUHS-trate, verb
Note: When I saw this word, I saw the ‘lus-‘ and thought it had something to do with light… not quite right.
Yesterday’s word
The word espiègle means “frolicsome; roguish”
Background
The word comes from the French language, as you might think. It is a corruption of Ulespiegle – the French name for a peasant German prankster, Till Eulenspiegel. The tales of this prankster were translated into French and then English in the mid-1500s, but our word didn’t show up until later (see below).
First usage
Sir Walter Scott introduced the word in the 1800s, and other writers began using it.