boondoggle

Pronounced: BOON-dah-gull, noun

Notes: I’ve heard this word used, but I did not know the correct meaning

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Yesterday’s word

The word unshirted means

• serious; unmitigated
• plain; undisguised

First usage

Our word came into English in the 1930s

Background / Comments

As noted yesterday, our word does not mean shirtless, which means “poor”. There is another word “shirty” that means “bad-tempered”. Our word is un- (not) combined with shirt, which comes from the Old English word scyrte.