SLEAZEBAG NOUN (YOUTH CULTURE)

In young people's slang (originally in the US): a sordid or despicable person (especially someone considered morally reprehensible); a 'scuzzbag' (see scuzz). Etymology: Formed by compounding, from sleaze 'squalor, sordidness' (in use since the late sixties) and -bag (as in windbag etc.). History and Usage: Sleazebag was the first of a number of compounds based on sleaze to be coined in the US during the eighties, appearing at the beginning of the decade as a general term of abuse, but used especially in political contexts to imply that a person had low standards of honesty. It was closely followed in the mid eighties by sleazeball (which essentially means the same as sleazebag) and sleaze factor, the sleazy or sordid aspect of a situation (applied especially, in US politics, to scandals and alleged corruption involving officials of the Reagan administration). Sleaze factor was a term coined in 1983 by American journalist Laurence Barrett, as a chapter heading in his book Gambling with History; it remained current throughout the Reagan administration, pointing to scandals, resignations, and alleged malpractice which nevertheless largely failed to 'stick' to the President himself (see Teflon). After the end of the Reagan administration, sleaze factor had become a sufficiently familiar expression to survive in other contexts, and was even occasionally used in politics outside the US as well. We are not giving away any principles, because we do have a few on this side of the House, unlike the sleazebags over there. National Times (Australia) 22 Nov. 1985, p. 7 It was stated in court by X's sleaze-ball lawyer. Richard Ford The Sportswriter (1986), p. 13 Among the people, places and things making indelible entrances [in the eighties]:...PCs. Rambo. Sleaze factor. Life Fall 1989, p. 13