Is there an English word for one who participates in skulduggery? The form I'm looking for is something like 'skuldugger', but I wasn't able to find that word anywhere in the OED. There are probably other options that I'm not thinking of.
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Swindler or con-artist.– Joe DarkCommented Nov 5, 2014 at 18:42
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1@ermanen: Given we're supposed to be linguists, etymologists, and {serious} English language enthusiasts, we should all either know the word already, or be able to easily look it up. And given there are apparently no words etymologically related to skulduggery, I can't see what good it would do for OP to offer any such links as evidence of "prior research".– FumbleFingersCommented Nov 5, 2014 at 19:00
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@ermanen: oic. I'll leave it for a bit, otherwise what we're saying now might look even more odd. I don't yet have an opinion regarding whether/why it might be OT, so I guess I'm open to persuasion either way. Might it be relevant that I get the impression from OED that it's a variant of an earlier "nonce word" sculduddery?– FumbleFingersCommented Nov 5, 2014 at 19:36
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2If you mean 'what is the agent noun corresponding to skulduggery', I'd say that the fact that the OED (if you really mean the OED and not one of its smaller relatives) doesn't give one is a strong argument that there isn't such a word. There are plenty of synonyms for shyster with a wide variety of connotations to choose from.– Edwin AshworthCommented Nov 5, 2014 at 19:42
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1@Oldcat: and somebody who commits trickery is a trickerer, while somebody who commits forgery is an forgerer? I thought the words were trickster and forger.– Peter ShorCommented Nov 5, 2014 at 20:43
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1 Answer
Consider skulduggerist. Although not a “dictionary word”, it has appeared with appropriate sense in a number of web pages, eg:
• Prizefighter. Whiskey drinker. Habitual skulduggerist. International vagabond. – from Brett Koshkin's self-description at mixcloud
• ...the lovely little matilda,her crooky parents,the dumb or even crooky brother,the gusty and adventrous dainty friends ,the perfect skulduggerist, and the tyrannical bellowing miss trunchbull... – from a review of Roald Dahl's Matilda at goodreads.com
• Stupid science has put an end to those glorious days when skulduggerist scholars would forge entire museum wings worth of false antiquities to advance their careers or sell on the black market. – from a Cancer horoscope at thelmagazine.com
answered Nov 5, 2014 at 20:07
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@ermanen: I dunno. OED does actually list the verb form to skuldug (defined as to extract by trickery), and that has what looks like maybe a couple of hundred relevant written instances in Google Books. And such "regular derivations" is sufficiently common in English that it doesn't require evidence supporting the principle itself. Perhaps the real question is "Which (and why) would native speakers prefer: skuldugger, skulduggerer or skulduggerist"? Commented Nov 5, 2014 at 21:45
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@ermanen: In this case, the numbers aren't important. I assume to a first approximation we all agree dictionaries in general don't list any word for OP's context which is etymologically related to his "original". And in any case I believe it's valid to post an answer to a swr question saying "There is no such word". I like that jwpat starts by saying consider "skulduggerist", and acknowledging that it doesn't appear in dictionaries... Commented Nov 5, 2014 at 22:21
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...I assume the current "Unclear" closevote is yours. If the OP simply wants any word that could reasonably be used to designate a person who habitually engages in skulduggery, then I will consider it "Too Broad" or "POB". But as a general principle I'm not keen on casting an "Unclear" CV unless there's a comment pinpointing the nature of the vagueness, and/or sufficient time has passed to been allow the OP to improve things. I'm really trying not to be awkward here, please accept my apologies if it seems that I am. Commented Nov 5, 2014 at 22:21