6:2 - Nefarious

When & Where: I heard this word on The Rachel Maddow Show on Friday night. She was talking about the vice presidential debate. She drew attention to a particular moment of hypocrisy during the debate, pointing out that, "when Paul Ryan condemned defense cuts as some nefarious democratic idea that he is fighting valiantly against, he did not mention that he voted in favor of those exact same defense cuts."

Definition: As defined by dictionary.com, nefarious means: (typically of an action or activity) wicked or criminal.

Level of Familiarity: I have heard and seen this word before. I knew that it meant something bad. I did not know how severe it was, though. I would say that in terms of levels of bad, "wicked" and "nefarious" are probably more extreme.

Reflective Commentary: I think this is a word worth knowing. It comes up in the media, in writing, and in music. For the amount of times I've seen it in context, I never knew how to use it because I didn't know exactly what it meant. Now that I know what it means, and have thought about it as compared to other words I know, I will probably try to incorporate it into the vocabulary I use more regularly.

In case you are interested:

Clip from TRMS with "nefarious"