PopVocab: Beyonce’s “Bills Bills Bills” on Glee (What’s a GRE word for “scrub”?)
The show Glee has recently resurrected this 1999 Destiny’s Child hit:
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-RwDJdOauI
Did you notice the GRE word audacity?
And now you ask to use my car
Drive it all day and don’t fill up the tank
And you have the audacity
To even come and step to me
And ask to hold some money from me
Until you get your check next week
Audacity means “boldness or daring, especially with confident or arrogant disregard for personal safety, conventional thought, or other restrictions.” That is, audacity can be good or bad, depending on the context and on one’s perspective. Here, the man in question has “arrogant disregard” for politeness, reciprocity, and the conventions of romantic relationships, as seen by the speaker.
The speaker also calls her paramour a “trifling, good for nothing type of brother.” Another word for trifling is nugatory, “of no real value; trifling; worthless.”
It also seems that the hapless lover is guilty of cadging. To cadge is to obtain by imposing on another’s generosity or friendship, borrow without intent to repay, or beg or obtain by begging.
You’re slowly making me pay for things
Your money should be handling.
Sounds manipulative! It seems like this guy is a champion cadger, and that his answer to the question “Can you pay my automo’bills?” is certain to be an unsatisfying one.