Spiro T. Agnew was the only Vice President in American history to resign because of criminal charges, and he was a tennis player who was well-known for beaning his doubles partners with errant serves. According to the New York Times, “the tennis historian Bud Collins covered a match in Washington in 1970 in which Vice President Spiro T. Agnew and then Peace Corps director Joseph Blatchford were partners. Blatchford was conked in the back of the head by a vice presidential bullet, momentarily becoming, in Spiro-speak, a “nattering nabob of negativism.” Blatchford protected himself from further incident by putting on a motorcycle helmet.”

Here’s a vintage 1968 vocabulary lesson from the then vice-presidential candidate: