This week’s theme
Coined words

This week’s words
mimsy
scare quote
proxemics
muppet
bafflegab

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(SKAIR kwoht)

MEANING:

noun: The quotation marks used to indicate that the quoted word or phrase is incorrect, nonstandard, or ironic.

ETYMOLOGY:

Coined by the philosopher G.E.M. Anscombe in 1956. The equivalent term in spoken communication is air quotes.

NOTES:

Scare quotes are used to indicate the writer’s disagreement or disapproval of the use of the term.
Example: Some consider Trump to be the “greatest” president ever.

USAGE:

“Caspar always thought of his ‘time machine’ thus, with scare quotes around it, since it was not really a machine, and Caspar did not believe in time.”
Gardner Dozois; The Year’s Best Science Fiction; St. Martin’s Press; 1990.

See more usage examples of scare quote in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: