Pronounced: fih-luh-pro-JEH-nuh-tihv, adj
Notes: Quite a word, but I didn’t know it
Yesterday’s word
The word canaille means “the common people; the masses; riffraff”
First usage
Our word came into English in the late 1600s
Background / Comments
I am pretty sure that I have run across our word somewhere, but I cannot recall it to mind. Our word came from the French word canaille (villain; rabble), which came from the Italian word canaglia (pack of dogs; rabble), which came from cane (dog), which came from the Latin word canis (dog).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 