Skullduggery

I heard a word used today that I'd all but forgotten about and the hearing of it made me remember what a fantastic word it is. It's the kind of word that when I was young was regularly used in newspapers, in general conversation, and even on 'Blue Peter' - particularly around Guy Fawkes night.

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It is such a great word.

Skullduggery

Yes, I know it should be spelt with a single - but how much darker is it with that other 'l'?

It conjours up visions of grave robbers at midnight digging deep to remove the bodies of the dead as they lie wrapped in their shrouds. The worms wriggling... well... you can fill in the rest, I'll leave it to your imagination.

Or maybe it's about pirate treasure? Was it a pirate law to place the 'Jolly Roger' on top of the booty ready for the finders? Maybe it was some sort of pirate curse and they would be blinded at the sight, or choke on their own tongues?

Or perhaps it has something to do with poets and philosophers? You know, the ones that used to keep a skull on their desks to remind them of their own mortality as they wrote their odes to long lost consumptive lovers - wasn't that called a 'momento mori'?

Skulduggery - what a magnificent word. Today it means 'underhand practices', but what of its origins?

Nobody really knows where it came from but it is probably an American word first coined in America to describe political intrigue - how disappointing.

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Some experts think that it is probably a Scottish word, most likely from 'sculduddery' which meant fornication, adultery, unchaste - a little more intriguing perhaps.

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Despite me wanting it, it isn't cockney rhyming slang - which is a real pity because I can only think of one other word that it rhymes with.

Skulduggery, skulduggery, skulduggery, skulduggery, skulduggery.

Skulduggery - I'm going to start using it whenever I can because there are so many situations in these dark days that it applies to.

SKULDUGGERY...go on make up your own definition.