mudsill
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A particularly low or dirty place/state; the nadir of something (see rock bottom)
Example Sentences
- "The Pre-Historic Era was the mudsill of human development."
- "1861, Theodore Winthrop, Washington as a Camp, The Following Is the Oath We were now miserable mercenaries, serving for low pay and rough rations. Read the Southern papers and you will see us described. “Mudsills,” — that, I believe, is the technical word."
- "General Lee throw down his sword and surrender his invincible Southern legions to that poor little Northern mud-sill, a late tanner from Illinois!"
- "Though the mudsill of the labor world, he whistles as he hoes, and no dark broodings or whispered conspirings mar the cheerful acceptance of the load he bears."
Etymology
"1685, 'lowest sill of a house,' from mud + sill. The word entered U.S. political history in a speech by James M. Hammond of South Carolina, March 4, 1858, in U.S. Senate, alluding to the very mudsills of society, and the term subsequently was embraced by Northern workers in the pre-Civil War sectional rivalry." (OED, 2007)