MEANING:

adjective: Complete; thorough.

Here’s a word that has had both its spelling and meaning bent out of shape from use. It’s a variant of errant (wandering). Earlier the word was used in the sense of wandering or vagrant, for example, an arrant thief or an arrant knave. Over time the word began to be taken as an intensifier so an arrant fool was no longer a vagrant fool, but a complete fool.

I wish that my peers who subject others repeatedly to a rant would/could understand that they are complete fools to undermine friendly conversation and congenial eating in this endlessly exhausting style. Other conversational choices are bountiful and much more stimulating. It’s a big world with open choice in America – and free will in God’s benevolence.

I wish to state firmly that ranting without offering a solution is whining. It is as simple as that.

Whining wasn’t attractive when they were 2-3, just as it isn’t when they are 20-30 times that age! It serves no purpose.

And, purpose is what life is all about!