different between blackguard vs wretch

English

Alternative forms

• blaggard

Etymology

From black +? guard, thought to have referred originally to the scullions and lower menials of a court, or of a nobleman's household, who wore black liveries or blacked shoes and boots, or were often stained with soot.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?blæ??d/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?blæ??d/
• Rhymes: -æ??(?)d

Noun

blackguard (plural blackguards)

1. The lowest servant in a household charged with pots, pans, and other kitchen equipment.
2. (old-fashioned, usually used only of men) A scoundrel; an unprincipled contemptible person; an untrustworthy person.
   • 1830, Thomas Macaulay, Review of Robert Southey's edition of Pilgrim's Progress, in the Edinburgh Review

     A man whose manners and sentiments are decidedly below those of his class deserves to be called a blackguard.}}

   • 2006, Jan Freeman, 'Blaggards' of the year – Boston Globe

     "Arrr, keelhaul the blaggards!" wrote Ty Burr in the Globe last summer, pronouncing sentence on the malefactors who brought us the second "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie.

3. (archaic) A man who uses foul language in front of a woman, typically a woman of high standing in society.

Derived terms

• blackguardism
• blackguardly

Translations

See also

• blagger

Verb

blackguard (third-person singular simple present blackguards, present participle blackguarding, simple past and past participle blackguarded)

1. (transitive) To revile or abuse in scurrilous language.
   • 1850, Robert Southey, English Manners

     Persons who passed each other in boats upon the Thames used to blackguard each other, in a trial of wit
2. (intransitive) To act like a blackguard; to be a scoundrel.

Further reading

• Blackguard in the 1920 edition of Encyclopedia Americana.
• “blackguard”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English wrecche, from Old English wre??a (“exile, outcast”), from Proto-Germanic *wrakjô (“exile, fugitive, warrior”), from Proto-Indo-European *wreg- (“to track, follow”). Doublet of garçon.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??t?/
• Rhymes: -?t?
• Homophone: retch

Noun

wretch (plural wretches)

1. An unhappy, unfortunate, or miserable person.
2. An unpleasant, annoying, worthless, or despicable person.
   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 532:

     […] Alaeddin ate and drank and was cheered and after he had rested and had recovered spirits he cried, "Ah, O my mother, I have a sore grievance against thee for leaving me to that accursed wight who strave to compass my destruction and designed to take my life. Know that I beheld Death with mine own eyes at the hand of this damned wretch, whom thou didst certify to be my uncle; […]
3. (archaic) An exile. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Derived terms

• wretched

Translations

Etymology 2

Verb

wretch (third-person singular simple present wretches, present participle wretching, simple past and past participle wretched)

1. Misspelling of retch.

Further reading

• wretch in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• wretch in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• wretch at OneLook Dictionary Search
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “wretch”, in Online Etymology Dictionary