Meretricious!
An anecdote (and a Christmas pun) from acclaimed science fiction author Isaac Asimov
The late science fiction writer, Isaac Asimov, told this story:
Once Horace Gold [my editor] went too far. He rejected a story of mine which he called “meretricious.” The word is from the Latin meretrix, meaning “prostitute,” so that the implication was that I was prostituting my talent and was writing a bad story that would get by on my name alone because I was too lazy to write a good one. (This was not true, by the way. This particular story was sold elsewhere and received considerable acclaim.)
Swallowing my annoyance, I said mildly, “What was that word you used?”
Obviously proud at knowing a word he felt I didn’t know, Horace enunciated carefully, “Meretricious!”
Whereupon I said, “And a Happy New Year to you.”
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