Pecksniffian: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 10 is:

Pecksniffian \pek-SNIFF-ee-un\ adjective
: unctuously hypocritical : sanctimonious

Example sentence:
"His book suffers from excessively long harangues against Pecksniffian prigs and temperance types who, he claims, are still trying to ruin our fun." (Mark D. Fefer, _Seattle Weekly_, January 22, 2003)

Did you know?
Seth Pecksniff, a character with a holier-than-thou attitude in Charles Dickens's 1844 novel _Martin Chuzzlewit_, was no angel, though he certainly tried to pass himself off as one. Pecksniff liked to preach morality and brag about his own virtue, but in reality he was a deceptive rascal who would use any means to advance his own selfish interests. It didn't take long for Pecksniff's reputation for canting sanctimoniousness to leave its mark on English; "Pecksniffian" has been used as a synonym of "hypocritical" since 1849.

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