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A.Word.A.Day--sardoodledom

sardoodledom (SAR-doo-duhl-duhm) noun

Plays having contrived melodramatic plot, concentrating excessively on the technique to the exclusion of characterization.

[After Victorian Sardou (1831-1908), French playwright; coined by playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950).]

"Most of Lubitsch's other plot sources are hackneyed representatives of Sardoodledom." Gerald Mast; The Comic Mind: Comedy and the Movies; University of Chicago Press; Aug 17, 2004.

"There is even the Secret of the well-made play, Sardoodledom's ultimate question: who is Godot? Will he come?" David Bradby, Michael Robinson; Waiting for Godot: Plays in Production; Cambridge University Press; Nov 15, 2001.

This week's theme: eponyms.

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