Quockerwodger: Tharoor takes dig at govt with ‘word of our era’

New Delhi: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, known for throwing rarely-used and often difficult-to-pronounce English words into the X lexicon, on Sunday. Spetember 20, shared what he called the “word of our era” — “quockerwodger”.

Tharoor, the MP from Thiruvananthapuram, also shared its meaning and took a dig at the government.

“‘Quockerwodger’ — A political puppet, a person who is controlled by someone else and acts on their instructions,” Tharoor posted on X along with a screenshot of the definition.

“Word of our era! I think our ruling party has spawned a few of these in the last dozen years…,” he said.

This is not the first time Tharoor has spoken about the word. In April 2022, he had shared its meaning and described it as a useful addition to our political vocabulary.

The author-politician-wordsmith has often left social media users scurrying for their dictionaries to confirm whether such a word indeed exists.

Tharoor has also taken digs at the BJP government using rarely used words such as ‘allodoxaphobia’, which he explained as an irrational fear of opinions.

In the past, he has also stumped people with words such as ‘farrago’ and ‘troglodyte.’ While ‘farrago’ means a confused mixture, a ‘troglodyte’ means a person regarded as being deliberately ignorant or old-fashioned.