Pliancy

Remember how "nuance" erupted into the popular lexicon after John Kerry used it in last year's Presidential debates? The next big word has just surfaced. Written by Alexander Hamilton in The Federalist no. 76, it was quoted by Randy Barnett in today's Opinion Journal [HT: Stephen Green]:

.... candidates who had no other merit than that of coming from the same State to which he particularly belonged, or of being in some way or other personally allied to him, or of possessing the necessary insignificance and pliancy to render them the obsequious instruments of his pleasure.

It's the new nuance!