churl ˈchər(-ə)l noun
1. a crude uncouth ill-bred person lacking culture or refinement
2. a bad-tempered person
3. a selfish person who is unwilling to give or spend
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The word churl has appeared in three articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Jan. 9 in the Opinion essay “You Should Meditate Every Day” by Farhad Manjoo:
A few years ago, I began to fear that the caustic mechanisms of the internet were eating away at my brain, turning me into an embittered, distracted, reflexively cynical churl. Since then, I’ve done everything I can to detox. I consulted app blockers and screen-time monitors to keep me offline. I even got my news from print newspapers in order to experience a slower, more deliberate presentation of media.
… And so, to survive the brain-dissolving internet, I turned to meditation.
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