Through One Eye

In an interview with NPR, E. L. Doctorow once said, “To write anything any good you have to have the sense of transgression, of breaking some rule.”

Read more about Reading and re-reading pleasures, Doctorow, and writing at Narrative, by Richard S. Gilbert.

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nudnik

: a person who is a bore or nuisance

Etymology: The suffix “-nik” came to English through Yiddish (and ultimately from Polish and Ukrainian). It means “one connected with or characterized by being.” You might be familiar with “beatnik,” “computernik,” or “neatnik,” but what about “no-goodnik” or “allrightnik”? The suffix “-nik” is frequently used in English to create nonce words that are often jocular or slightly derogatory. Some theorize that the popularity of the suffix was enhanced by Russian “Sputnik,” as well as Al Capp’s frequent use of “-nik” words in his “L’il Abner” cartoons. The “nud-” of the Yiddish borrowing “nudnik” ultimately comes from the Polish word “nuda,” meaning “boredom.”

Online Etymology Dictionary, free and open to the public.

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And, to borrow the wording from a colleague’s Word Collage blog:

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