Thing-Finder

Wodehouse is a great logo coach (word coach?). I never realized quite how much he probably contributed to the development of my youthful vocabulary until I recently reread Jeeves in the Morning and was struck by how many allusions he made to things that ought to be known but that I probably did not really know enough about or used words that I have always just interpreted from the context of his use.

Plug-ugly for instance. I have managed to work it, improbably, into a conversation or two over the years but actually never had a precise definition beyond my inference from Wodehouse.

I had also had to be similarly firm with Jeeves, who had repeatedly hinted his wish that I should take a cottage there for the summer months. There was, it appeared, admirable fishing in the river, and he is a man who dearly loves to flick the baited hook. "No, Jeeves," I had been compelled to say, "much though it pains me to put a stopper on your simple pleasures, I cannot take a risk of running into that gang of pluguglies. Safety first." And he had replied, "Very good, sir," and there the matter had rested.

From Merriam-Webster.

Main Entry: plug-ug ly
Function: noun
Date: 1856
: thug, tough; especially : one hired to intimidate