|
Home
|
Aug 3, 2009
This week's themeEponymous pairs This week's words Alphonse and Gaston Tweedledum and Tweedledee Jekyll and Hyde Mutt and Jeff Darby and Joan Alphonse and Gaston
Previous week’s theme Words made using combining forms 
Discuss
Feedback
RSS/XMLA.Word.A.Day
with Anu GargLove and Marriage go together like a horse and carriage, so the song goes. They do, often, but not always. On the other hand, characters in this week's pairs do go together, at least in language. This week's eponyms (a word coined after a person) feature two people who work together, well, like a nut and a bolt, or a rack and pinion, or yin and yang, or an axle and a wheel. Alphonse and Gaston
PRONUNCIATION:
(AL-fons uhn GAS-tuhn)
MEANING:
noun:
Two people who treat each other with excessive deference, often to
their detriment.
ETYMOLOGY:
After the title characters in a cartoon strip by cartoonist Frederick Burr
Opper (1857-1937). Alphonse and Gaston are extremely polite to each other,
to the extent that their "After you, Alphonse", "You first, my dear Gaston!"
routine often gets them into trouble, such as when they can't evade a trolley
which mows them down while each insists on letting the other go first.
USAGE:
"A weeklong bout of Governor and public worker unions playing Alphonse and
Gaston on contract proposals has the public frustrated about an end to
the nonsense. No one really cares who goes first and no one cares if the
offer is on or off the record, written or oral, engraved on fine linen or
scribbled on a Post-it."Cynthia Oi; All We Really Want Are Some Solutions; Star-Bulletin (Hawaii); Jul 12, 2009 . A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Poetry is the overflowing of the Soul. -Henry Theodore Tuckerman, author and critic (1813-1871)
|
|
Subscriber Services
Awards | Stats | Links | Privacy Policy
Contribute | Advertise
Awards | Stats | Links | Privacy Policy
Contribute | Advertise
© 1994-2025 Wordsmith