For fans of the Harry Potter novels, the name McGonagall probably brings to mind one of the series’ well-known characters, the stern but kindly Professor McGonagall.

But author J.K. Rowling borrowed her character’s name from a Scottish actor and poet, William Topaz McGonagall.

William McGonagall, author of nearly 200 execrable (see definition and hear pronunciation below) verses, is considered to be the worst poet in the English language.

Ironically, a collection of McGonagall’s autographed poems was auctioned off a few years back for a handsome sum.

It seems the legacy of William McGonagall and his infamous poetry lives on!

Cool word vocabulary question of the day: Can you think of any works of art that you would describe as “execrable”?

Execrable: Extremely bad, unpleasant or inferior.

Click to hear the pronunciation of execrable:

https://coolwordclub.com/wp-content/uploads/execrable.mp3