The Face of Renée

Poor Renée Zellweger, scrutinised and commented on by all and sundry for daring to come out of hiding at a shiny public occasion with a rather different-looking face. Good for her, if nesting with her hirsute companion has made her into a new and happier woman. Good for her, especially, for countering all this impertinent attention by using the word 'nefarious': 'It seems the folks who come digging around for some nefarious truth, which doesn't exist, won't get off my porch until I answer the door', as she is reported to have said. I hope she flummoxed at least a few people with 'nefarious', and may she flummox even more when they realise it means something which is 'extremely wicked or villainous', according to my old Random House Webster's College Dictionary (subtitled 'The right word every time'), and furthermore that it derives from a Latin root meaning an 'offense against divine law' (it's a North American dictionary, hence the spelling of 'offense'). I particularly like the way this kick-ass word leaps out from the folksiness of 'folks', on one side, and the porch-and-door imagery on the other. Go Renée!