A.Word.A.Day--wellerism
msesheta
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Dickensian characters that became words
This week's words
wellerism
Next week marks the 200th anniversary of the British novelist Charles Dickens's birth. The London of Dickens's time was a bleak place: little social support, debtor's prisons, pollution, and children working in factories.
If you look at the Republican presidential aspirants today you'd think they want to return to those good old times: no environmental regulations; no worker protection laws; no social safety net; and children working as janitors.
As a child Charles himself was forced to work in a boot polish factory. All that he saw around him and experienced is reflected in his novels. It's a sign of an author's genius when his characters step out of the stories and become words in the language. Dozens of Dickens's characters are now part of the English language. This week we'll meet five of them.
Contest: Can you come up with an original wellerism? Send it in to the contest.
Prizes: Best entries will receive their choice of any of
the following
prizes:
o Word game: One Up!
o T-shirt: AWAD to the wise
is sufficient
o Any of my books
How to Enter: Send your entries to con...@wordsmith.org by this Friday. Be sure to include your location (city/state/country). Selected entries will be featured in this weekend's AWADmail.
To get you primed, here are a few wellerisms from me:
"So far, so good," said the escapee as he looked at the prison in
the distance.
"Beauty is only skin deep," said the woman as she received a Botox
injection.
wellerism
Examples:
"We'll have to rehearse that," said the undertaker as the coffin fell out of the car.
"Prevention is better than cure," said the pig when it ran away from the butcher.
'Shall I sit awhile?' says the parasite before becoming a permanent dweller."
Wolfgang Mieder; Alan Dundes; Western Folklore (Long Beach, California); Jul 2006.
Explore "wellerism" in the Visual Thesaurus.