The etymology of scoundrel takes us to the Italian language, more precisely to the term Canaglia. A scoundrel is an infamous, evil or mean individual.
For example: “You are a scoundrel! I can’t believe you cheated on me with my best friend “, ” Scoundrels who lie to people should have no place in politics “, ” Don’t be a scoundrel and give Carlos back his money. “
According to DigoPaul, a person is a scoundrel when he acts in an ethically reprehensible way. Someone who beats a child, cheats an old man, or commits robbery can be referred to as a scoundrel. As can be seen, the action of the villain (known as villainy) may constitute a crime. In other words, a scoundrel can be a scammer, a thief or a murderer, to name a few possibilities.
In certain cases the scoundrel is not a crime nor is it very serious. Suppose a young man, angry at his father over a minor issue, decides not to greet him on his birthday to cause him suffering. Such conduct is not a violation of the law, but it can be questioned from ethics: that is why it can be argued that the boy acted as a scoundrel.
Within the field of cinema we also find films that have used the word at hand in their titles. A good example of this is the feature film “El canalla”, released in 1970.
It is a film of French origin, directed by Claude Lelouch and starring Jean-Louis Trintignant and Daniéle Delorme. It is a police thriller that tells that a lawyer convicted of a crime who is in prison manages to escape from it. He hides in the house of a stranger and soon what he will do is contact his wife and son, his cronies in a kidnapping, in order to recover the money they received as ransom from that person.
In the same way, we cannot ignore the movie “Story of a scoundrel” either. In 1964 this one was released, directed by Julio Bracho. Fernando Soler or Amparo Rivelles lead the cast of this feature film, which tells the story of a woman who, after being deceived and manipulated by a man, reaches such despair that she ends up killing him.
In the field of literature, we can highlight the novel “History of a scoundrel.” It was published in 2016 and is written by the Spanish author Julia Navarro. It tells the life of Thomas Spencer, a man who, in the final stretch of his life, takes stock of that and realizes that he has behaved like a scoundrel. And it is that he has manipulated everyone at will and has been willing to do anything to achieve his purposes.
Canallas, on the other hand, is the name of a Spanish rock group that was active between 1995 and 2003. Also called scoundrels are the supporters of Rosario Central, an Argentine club whose most important activity is professional football.
In the field of international politics, a rogue state is often called that which, according to some analysts or political leaders, puts world peace at risk. A country that promotes terrorism or produces weapons of mass destruction can be classified as a rogue state.
