Woosterism
English
Etymology
Wooster + -ism, after Bertie Wooster, the protagonist of P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves series of comic novels.
Noun
Woosterism (countable and uncountable, plural Woosterisms)
- foppish, affected speech or behaviour
- 2001, Tony Vaux, The Selfish Altruist: Relief Work in Famine and War, page 10:
- Employers, still influenced by a touch of 1930s Woosterism, liked the idea of recruiting a young graduate who had had a fling or two, even if it was with socialism.
- 2006, Mitzi Brunsdale, Gumshoes: A Dictionary of Fictional Detectives, page 12:
- In his earliest appearances he favors an upper-class drawl and inane Bertie Woosterisms masking bursts of insight that solve frustrating cases his stolid friend Inspector Charles Parker cannot fathom.
- 2009, John Banville, The Untouchable:
- 'Ah, the Julian calendar, yes. What-ho for jolly old Julian.'
I winced; he never sounded more Jewish than when he came out with these Woosterisms.
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.