Word: vernacular
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Archer, he produced two books which, their considerable merits aside, are valuable as indicators of his early concern with themes and fictional modes which dominate his later writing. Blue City is an ultra-tough, gut-wrenching narrative of personal vengeance, distinguished by a flexible and convincing use of vernacular speech, a sound knowledge of the impact produced on a human body by objects of diverse shape and size, and a vision of American life in which obsessive violence is not a chance phenomenon but an invariable condition. The Three Roads, a thriller about an amnesiac's torturous investigation...
...getting their kicks, they used to lie down and smoke their pipes, throwing their weight on one hip. Thus, someone smoking opium was termed 'on the hip.' Years later American jazz musicians took up the word, applying it indiscriminately to anyone on drugs. In the present-day vernacular, it suggests looking beyond the camouflage of everyday reality, usually with the help of LSD and pot, but not always...
Trend to the Vernacular. Under the Economist's articles of incorporation, no one shareholder is allowed to own more than 50% of the total stock. Currently, 50% is held by S. Pearson industries Ltd., a diversified holding company (pumps, pottery, publishing), that also owns the London Financial Times. For a British publication, the Economist is heavily staffed: a total of 40 writers and editors in London. In the rest of the world, it is very lightly staffed. It has one man in Washington, one in Paris, one in Bonn, and one in Vienna who covers all of Eastern Europe...
Those Fantastic Flying Fools is a spirited spoof in the Jules Vernacular. The background is Victorian, the project loony, the destination lunar, and the fun in the jocular vein of Mike Todd's memorable Around the World in 80 Days...
...Escalation" is one of those windy words that are foisted on the public by military bureaucrats, interminably parroted by the press and kept in the vernacular long after losing any real meaning. Though the word-let alone its antonym, de-escalation-appears in neither Webster's Second nor the Oxford English dictionary, it has become synonymous with the U.S. commitment to Viet Nam. More specifically, it has become a pejorative term encompassing any American increase in the level of fighting...