This week’s theme
Words with movie connections

This week’s words
Rambo
Keystone cop
big chill
bunny boiler

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(big CHIL)

MEANING:

noun:
1. An extremely cold spell.
2. A prolonged period of global cooling or glaciation.
3. A state of emotional letdown, disillusionment, or waning enthusiasm.
4. A metaphor for death or the end of life.

ETYMOLOGY:

From big, perhaps of Scandinavian origin + chill, from Old English cele (coolness). Sense 3 was influenced by the 1983 film The Big Chill in which former college idealists reunite and confront their disappointments. Earliest documented use: 1911.

USAGE:

“[In the film The Day After Tomorrow] there is snow in Delhi and Tokyo is pummelled by hailstones the size of fists. The big chill is a mystery to everybody but Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid), a climatologist in Washington, DC, who moonlights as a soothsayer.”
Anthony Lane; Cold Comfort; The New Yorker; Jun 7, 2004.

“The Albanese government is facing the big chill on many fronts.”
Tom Dusevic; Challenges of Economic Reality; The Australian (Canberra, Australia); May 23, 2022.

“So right before they put you to permanent sleep, the big chill.”
Maxwell Perry; The Big Truck War; AuthorHouse; 2008.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: