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A snowclone is a type of formula-based cliché that uses an old idiom in a new context.^[1] It was originally defined as "a multi-use, customizable, instantly recognizable, time-worn, quoted or misquoted phrase or sentence that can be used in an entirely open array of different jokey variants by lazy journalists and writers."^[2] Image File history File links Emblem-important. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... [[An idiom is an expression (i. ...

The term emphasizes the use of a familiar (and often particular) formula and previous cultural knowledge of the reader to express information about an idea. The idea being discussed is usually contextually different in meaning from the original use of that formula but can be understood using the same trope as the original formulation. In linguistics, trope is a rhetorical figure of speech that consists of a play on words, i. ...

A common example of a snowclone is "X is the new Y", a generic form of the original expression "pink is the new black". In order to apply the snowclone, X and Y should be replaced with new words or phrases. For instance, this snowclone might appear as "Random is the new order", a marketing phrase for the iPod shuffle. _____ is the new black is a catch phrase and snowclone used to indicate the sudden popularity or versatility of an idea at the expense of the popularity of a second idea. ... iPod shuffle is an iPod digital audio player designed and marketed by Apple Inc. ...

History

The term was coined by Glen Whitman on January 15, 2004,^[2] in response to a request from Geoffrey Pullum on the Language Log weblog.^[3] The term is an allusion to a specific instance of the phenomenon: is the 15th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Professor Geoffrey K. Pullum (born in 1945 in Irvine, Scotland) is a linguist specialising in the study of English. ... Language Log is a popular collaborative language blog maintained by University of Pennsylvania phonetician Mark Liberman. ... A weblog (now more commonly known as a blog) is a web-based publication consisting primarily of periodic articles (normally, but not always, in reverse chronological order). ...

If the Eskimos have N words for snow, X surely have M words for Y.

As the Language Log explains, this is a popular rhetorical trope used by journalists to imply that cultural group X has reason to spend a great deal of time thinking about the specific idea Y,^[4][5] despite the fact that the basic premise is wrong: Eskimos do not have an unusually large number of words for "snow" (see Eskimo words for snow). Rhetoric (from Greek , rhêtôr, orator, teacher) is generally understood to be the art or technique of persuasion through the use of oral, visual, or written language; however, this definition of rhetoric has expanded greatly since rhetoric emerged as a field of study in universities. ... In linguistics, trope is a rhetorical figure of speech that consists of a play on words, i. ... It is a popular urban legend that the Inuit or Eskimo have an unusually high number of words for snow. ...

In 1995, David Crystal referred to these kinds of tropes as "catch structures", citing "to boldly split infinitives that no man had split before", a phrase originally used in Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series (1978), as an example.^[6] Professor David Crystal, OBE (born 1941 in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, UK) is a linguist, academic and author. ... Douglas Noël Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author, comic radio dramatist, and musician. ... The cover of the first novel in the Hitchhikers series, from a late 1990s printing. ...

Examples

• Have X, will travel. (Original: Have Gun — Will Travel, the title of old US TV western, or the vaudeville phrase "have tux, will travel"^[7])
• X or bust. (Original: "Oregon or Bust!" on the side of covered wagons in the Old West.)
• To X, or not to X? (Original: "To be, or not to be" from Hamlet)
• How I learned to stop X and love the Y. (Original: "How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb," subtitle to Dr. Strangelove.)
• X considered harmful. (Original: Go To Statement Considered Harmful, the title a 1968 Edsger Dijkstra letter to the Communications of the ACM was published under^[8]).
• Got X? (Original: "Got Milk?", the slogan of a highly successful advertising campaign for milk)
• I, for one, welcome our new X overlords. (Original: "I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords," uttered by a news anchor in an episode of The Simpsons).^[9]
• The Mother of all X. (Original: "Mother of all Battles", Iraqi name for the Gulf War ^{[citation needed]})

For the film starring Eminem, see Have Gun — Will Travel (film). ... This article is about the musical variety theatre. ... Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and U.S. President Ronald Reagan wearing black tie with wives in Quebec, Canada, March 18, 1985. ... For the Ernst Lubitsch film, see To Be or Not to Be (1942 film). ... For other uses, see Hamlet (disambiguation). ... Strangelove redirects here. ... In computer science and related disciplines, considered harmful is a phrase popularly used in the titles of diatribes and other critical essays. ... Edsger Dijkstra Edsger Wybe Dijkstra (Rotterdam, May 11, 1930 – Nuenen, August 6, 2002; IPA: ) was a Dutch computer scientist. ... Communications of the ACM (CACM) is the flagship monthly magazine of the Association for Computing Machinery. ... Got Milk? is an American advertising campaign encouraging the purchase of cows milk, which was created by the advertising agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners for the California Milk Processor Board in 1993 and later licensed for use by milk processors and dairy farmers. ... The overlord meme is a cliché using the following template: The following variation is also popular: Here X describes (often in a humorous or overgeneralized fashion) some (often corporate or government) entity that is making a power grab. ... Simpsons redirects here. ... The Gulf War was the 1990 invasion of Kuwait by Iraq and the subsequent liberation of Kuwait by the Coalition Forces. ...

See also

• Catch phrase
• Mad Libs
• Meta-joke
• Geoffrey Pullum — originator of the term^[10]

A catch phrase is a phrase or expression that is popularized, usually through repeated use, by a real person or fictional character. ... Mad Libs (from lat. ... Meta-joke refers to three somewhat different, but related categories: self-referential jokes, jokes about jokes (see meta-) also known as metahumor, and joke templates. // This kind of meta-joke is a joke in which the joke itself, or, rather, a certain category of joke, is part of the joke. ... Professor Geoffrey K. Pullum (born in 1945 in Irvine, Scotland) is a linguist specialising in the study of English. ...

References

1. ^ Erard, Michael. "Analyzing Eggcorns and Snowclones, and Challenging Strunk and White.", New York Times, June 20, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-09-25. “Regular readers learned there first about snowclones, the basic building blocks of clichés, like "X is the new Y" or "you don't need a degree in A to do B."” 
2. ^ ^{a b} Whitman, Glen (2004-01-14). Phrases for Lazy Writers in Kit Form Are the New Cliches. Retrieved on 2007-11-25.
3. ^ Pullum, Geoffrey K. (2003-10-27). Phrases for lazy writers in kit form. Language Log. Retrieved on 2007-11-25.
4. ^ Liberman, Mark (2005-06-18). Etymology as argument. Language Log. Retrieved on 2007-11-25.
5. ^ Pullum, Geoffrey K. (2003-10-21). Bleached conditionals. Language Log. Retrieved on 2007-11-25.
6. ^ Crystal, David (1995). The Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 178. 
7. ^ have. Online Etymology Dictionary (November 2001). Retrieved on 2007-11-25.
8. ^ Liberman, Mark (2007-07-03). Considered harmful. Language Log. Retrieved on 2007-10-30.
9. ^ Liberman, Mark (2004-01-29). "I, for one, welcome our new * overlords". Language Log.
10. ^ Rowan, David (2005-12-03). Trendsurfing: "Snowclone" journalism (The Times). Retrieved on 2007-11-25.

The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ... is the 171st day of the year (172nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 268th day of the year (269th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 14th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 329th day of the year (330th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 300th day of the year (301st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Language Log is a popular collaborative language blog maintained by University of Pennsylvania phonetician Mark Liberman. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 329th day of the year (330th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 169th day of the year (170th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Language Log is a popular collaborative language blog maintained by University of Pennsylvania phonetician Mark Liberman. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 329th day of the year (330th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 294th day of the year (295th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Language Log is a popular collaborative language blog maintained by University of Pennsylvania phonetician Mark Liberman. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 329th day of the year (330th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... An editor has expressed a concern that the subject of the article does not satisfy the notability guideline for Web content. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 329th day of the year (330th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 184th day of the year (185th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Language Log is a popular collaborative language blog maintained by University of Pennsylvania phonetician Mark Liberman. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 303rd day of the year (304th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 29th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Language Log is a popular collaborative language blog maintained by University of Pennsylvania phonetician Mark Liberman. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 337th day of the year (338th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 329th day of the year (330th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Further reading

• "How the Web Is Changing Language", NPR Talk of the Nation, 2006-06-28. Retrieved on 2007-11-25. 
• Peters, Mark (July/August 2006). "Not Your Father's Cliché". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved on 2007-11-25. 
• (2006-11-18) "The word: Snowclone". New Scientist (2578). Retrieved on 2007-11-25. 
• Warburton, Annie. "I mean, what's it mean?", The Mercury, 2007-03-24. 
• Smith, Russell. "Do you speak kitteh?", Globe and Mail, 2007-05-31. Retrieved on 2007-11-25. 
• Vaszily, Scott (2007-08-04). "Colourful language (letter)". New Scientist (2615). Retrieved on 2007-11-25. 

NPR logo For other meanings of NPR see NPR (disambiguation) National Public Radio (NPR) is a private, not-for-profit corporation that sells programming to member radio stations; together they are a loosely organized public radio network in the United States. ... Talk of the Nation is a talk radio program based in the United States, produced by National Public Radio, and is broadcasted nationally on weekday afternoons (Eastern Standard Time). ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 179th day of the year (180th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 329th day of the year (330th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) is an American magazine for professional journalists published bimonthly by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 329th day of the year (330th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 322nd day of the year (323rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... New Scientist is a weekly international science magazine covering recent developments in science and technology for a general English-speaking audience. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 329th day of the year (330th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Mercury is a daily newspaper, published in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 83rd day of the year (84th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Globe and Mail is a large Canadian English language national newspaper based in Toronto. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 151st day of the year (152nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 329th day of the year (330th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 216th day of the year (217th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... New Scientist is a weekly international science magazine covering recent developments in science and technology for a general English-speaking audience. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 329th day of the year (330th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• O'Connor, Erin. The Snowclones Database. Retrieved on 2007-11-25.
• Pullum, Geoffrey (2004-01-16). Snowclones: lexicographical dating to the second. Language Log. Retrieved on 2006-06-26.