Word of the Day

: November 17, 2010

banausic

adjective buh-NAW-sik

What It Means

: relating to or concerned with earning a living -- used pejoratively; also : utilitarian, practical

banausic in Context

The heiress dismissively declared that she would never have to worry about such banausic concerns as holding down a job.

"At the far end was a wooden board on which were hung saws, chisels, knives and other banausic instruments of the trade." -- From Sebastian Faulk's 2005 novel Human Traces

Did You Know?

The ancient Greeks held intellectual pursuits in the highest esteem, and they considered ideal a leisurely life of contemplation. A large population of slaves enabled many Greek citizens to adopt that preferred lifestyle. Those who had others to do the heavy lifting for them tended to regard professional labor with contempt. Their prejudice against the need to toil to earn a living is reflected in the Greek adjective "banausikos" (the root of “banausic”), which not only means “of an artisan” (from the word for artisan, "banausos") but “nonintellectual” as well.