Word of the Week 2021 – Malversation

Matthew Steeples

2 years ago

In sharing the meaning of ‘malversation,’ Susie Dent sums up the morally bankrupt regime currently in power in Britain

Consistent in her ability to supply many a ‘Word of the Week’ for The Steeple Times, etymologist and Countdown ‘Dictionary Corner’ stalwart Susie Dent has gone and done it again.

Tweeting on Thursday and following up on her brilliant use of ‘thunderplump’ earlier this week, Dent remarked on a word of Middle French origin that sums up Boris Johnson’s Conservative government. Her missive read:

Word of the day is ‘malversation’ (16^th century): the corrupt administration of power.

In a week when ‘Bosie The Clown’ has shown his true colours in his inept handling of ‘Owen Paterson-gate,’ we have most definitely seen ‘malversation.’

That anyone views it acceptable that an already handsomely paid MP and former minister took over £500,000 extra to lobby for private companies is bad enough, but that his cretinous colleagues were then forced to march through the lobbies in support of this charlatan is an utter disgrace.

Forever more a ‘malverser,’ Paterson – who was quite happy to sit in Parliament for 24 years without previously moaning about how “cruel” a place he supposedly now believes it to truly be – will be remembered now as a ‘King of Sleaze.’ Equally, if this prized prig thinks he’ll now be “clearing his good name,” he’s about as likely to see another pig fly across the sky above his vast Shropshire mansion.

Shame on Owen Paterson, but more so shame on Boris Johnson and his wholeheartedly rotten government.

Owen Paterson was able to live in palatial splendour in a vast Shropshire mansion courtesy of not only his salary as a Conservative Member of Parliament, but also because he greedily and without hesitation or consideration for morality took over £500,000 from private companies. That he said he’d “do it all again” about sums up the arrogance of this grubby piece of toerag.

According to Merriam-Webster, ‘malversation’ – first knowingly used in 1549 – can be defined as “misbehavior and especially corruption in an office, trust, or commission” or more simply as a “corrupt administration.” Going further they add: “The form ‘mal-’ is often a bad sign in a word, and malversation is no exception. In Middle French, ‘mal-’ (meaning ‘bad,’ from the Latin word for ‘bad,’ ‘malus’) teamed up with ‘verser’ (‘to turn, handle,’ from the Latin verb ‘vertere,’ ‘to turn’) to create ‘malverser,’ a verb meaning ‘to be corrupt.’ This in turn led to the French noun ‘malversation’, which was adopted by English speakers in the mid-16th century. Some other ‘mal-’ words that entered English from Middle French are ‘maladroit’ (‘inept’), ‘malcontent’ (‘discontented’), and ‘maltreat’ (‘to treat badly’).”