For this week's theme, let's look at various kinds of unpleasant characters.

vulgarian – an unrefined person, especially one flaunting newly-acquired power or wealth

To my mind, this quote offers a perfect picture of the concept.

In 1960 the premier of the Soviet Union came and spoke in the United States. Nikita Khrushchev was our sworn enemy, and a vulgarian--sweaty faced, ill educated, dressed in a suit just off the racks from the Gulag Kresge's. … He took off his shoe and banged it, literally, on the soft beige wood of a desk at the U.N., as he fulminated.
– Peggy Noonan (columnist), Wall Street Journal, Sept. 28, 2007

Today's word is used more heavily in Great Britain than in the U.S.

lickspittle – a fawning underling; a toady (but more commonly used as an adjective)

The origin of lickspittle is obvious, I assume?

"This is a lickspittle Republican committee, acting on the wishes of George W Bush."
– MP George Galloway (replying to US Senate committee's charges that he received potentially lucrative oil allocations by Saddam Hussein's Iraq), in BBC, May 12, 2005

For the record, I am assuming that all of these disagreeable sorts are male. It's only fair.

Of course, Kalleh. As usual, your assumption is almost always correct.

grobian – a slovenly boor; a lout
Bonus word: parricide – the killing of [or the killer of] one’s own parent – usually the father – or other near relative

In The Ionian Mission by Patrick O'Brian, two diners discuss with wry irony the sailing crew they have hired. (O’Brian also used grobian with different humor in Post Captain, our second quote.)

. . .‘Indeed,’ said Jack as they ate their supper, I do not remember an easier, more satisfactory manning. We have a good third of our people seaman, … and many of the others look stout, promising material.’
. . . ‘There were many sad brutish grobians among those I examined,’ said Stephen, who was feeling disagreeable and contradictory …
. . . ‘Oh, of course there are always some odd fish … ; but this time we have very few downright thieves: only one parricide …; and after all he will scarcely carry on his capers here – he will scarcely find another father aboard. …’

Yet he was nowhere near being solvent, and … it seemed inevitable to him that others too should see him as Jack Aubrey, debtor to Grobian, Slendrian and Co. for £11,012 6s 8d.

Can anyone help decipher what slendrian means? I gather that in German, schlendrian means something like “a lounger or loiterer”.

I'm guessing that slendrian is a Scandinavian form of schlendrian.

schlendrian

Grimms' dictionary suggests that it is from the German verb schlendern 'to loaf, slack' plus the mock Latin ending -ianus 'sombody who'. There's a cross reference to grobian which is also a German word, 'brute, churl, ruffian; peasant, rustic'; influenced by grober Jan 'rough Johnny'.

clodhopper – a clumsy, coarse person, esp. a rustic (also, a big heavy shoe)

As with lickspittle,, the origin seems obvious.

Their manager was a mute clodhopper whose sole project seems to be how much tobacco he could cram into his jaw.
– Dallas Morning News, Oct .18, 1991

How did a politician once derided as a provincial clodhopper transcend such narrow visions to become what his image-molders depict as a statesman?
– New York Times, Sept. 16, 1995, speaking of Helmut Kohl

What do Felix Unger, Henry Higgins, and Minerva McGonagall have in common?

Tony Randall, the sardonic actor … his signature role as the fussbudget Felix Unger in the classic television series "The Odd Couple" …
– New York Times May 19, 2004

Henry Higgins, the fussbudget linguist from the classic film "My Fair Lady" …
– Washington Post, Nov. 30, 2003

I am, I suppose, a fussbudget, although I prefer the term "nit-picker." Most of my adult life has been spent campaigning against apostrophe abuse,
– The Intelligencer (Doyleton, PA), May 30, 2004

When fussbudget Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith) tries to teach [Harry Potter] to waltz, he's too mortified to blink.
– Buffalo News, Nov. 17, 2005

fussbudget – a person who fusses over trifles

curmudgeon – an ill-tempered person (typically old), full of resentment and stubborn notions

Wes was, as he put it, "an antisocial curmudgeon born in the wrong century," who had little use for modern society.
– Dean Koontz, Watchers

While a curmudgeon could be a man or a woman, I think you hear more about men being curmudgeons. I very much like the word though; it's quite descriptive. I agree that it typically refers to "old" men.

We end our “Disagreeable Sorts” theme with the Scotsman’s name for folks from that insignificant and unpleasant country to the south. <Wordcrafter has tongue squarely in his cheek.>

Sassenach – Scottish & Irish; derogatory: an English person (adj. English
[Scottish Gaelic Sasunnoch, Irish Sasanach, from Latin for 'Saxons']

It's amusing to discover that the Sassenach tendency to resent being ordered about by dynamic, talented and intelligent individuals from north of the border is nothing new.
– Independent (UK), Sept. 29, 2007

The Welsh, who speak a language related to Gaelic, have a similar term: Saesnaeg. (NB, the English language is called Béarla in Gaelic.)