Pronounced: my-AH-luh-jee, noun
Notes: Not a word I’ve run across
Yesterday’s word
The word boondoggle is
- a braided cord worn by Boy Scouts as a neckerchief slide, hatband, or ornament
- a wasteful or impractical project or activity often involving graft
First usage
Our word came into English in the 1930s
Background / Comments
Some people say that the origin of our word is unknown, but others indicate that Robert Link, a scoutmaster in the 1920s, created the term for the braided leather cords made an worn by scouts. A boondoggle was presented to the Prince of Wales at the 1929 World Jamboree, and the word thereafter spread. It isn’t quite clear how the term came to be used in the second meeting. I have heard boondoggle used to describe unnecessary trips taken by politicians at the taxpayer’s expense. I’ve heard it used at work, where it seemed to be applied to trips taken on expense accounts that were not actually necessary.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 