tick-tock

tick-tocks (plural)
tick tock (alternative)
ticktock (alternative)

A few days ago, the Washington Post published a long, depressing ticktock of the Trump administration’s execrable attempts to control the coronavirus and “reopen” the country for business, beginning with a shocking but not exactly surprising anecdote about how the president’s economic advisers had abetted the president’s most destructive impulses.

2020 May 6, Jordan Weissmann, “It Sure Looks Like the Trump Administration Used Some Bad, High School–Level Math to Justify 'Reopening' the Economy”, in Slate:

(journalism) A step-by-step account of an event or timeline.


rime riche

(poetry) A form of rhyme with identical sounds, as in "pear" and "pair".


strapline

straplines (plural)
strap line (alternative)

(journalism) A secondary heading or headline, especially one printed above another.


below the fold

(newspapers) Printed on the lower half of the front page of a broadsheet newspaper, such that it is not immediately visible on a folded copy of the newspaper, e.g. as displayed at a newsstand or in a vending machine.


epical

(poetry) A lengthy, revered narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation.


versal

(typography, calligraphy) Ornamental letter that begins a section


senarius

(poetry) A verse having six metric feet.


hokku

(poetry) Synonym of haiku (“type of Japanese poem”).


UPI

United Press International
w:United Press International

(journalism) Initialism of United Press International.


bimeter

[…] two poems combine tetrameters with trimeters, and two others tetrameters with bimeters.

1982, Willem Pieter Gerritsen, “Coornhert and Boethius: A Side-Light on the Genesis of Dutch Renaissance Verse”, in D.H. Green, editors, From Wolfram and Petrarch to Goethe and Grass, page 310:

(poetry) A meter wherein each line has two metrical feet.


apostrophically

(orthography, humorous) With apostrophes.


songwriting

en-noun

songwriting (usually uncountable, plural songwritings)


press avail

Shortening of press availability, itself a shortening of "press availability session". First recorded in early 1990s.

"There won't be a press avail," she explained briskly about Clinton's first stop at - where else - the Italian Market. "It'll basically be a photo op."

1992 April 18, Craig R. McCoy, “A Campaign Juggernaut Jaunts Through Phila.”, in Philadelphia Inquirer, page A4:

press availability
press availability#English

(US, politics, journalism) Clipping of press availability.


press availability

press availability (plural press availabilities)

Shortening of "press availability session." Originally synonymous with press conference.

I was told that there was a request for press availabilities.

1974 June 5, Carl B. Leubsdorf, quoting Ronald Reagan, “Reagan Puts Presidential Ambitions 'Between Lines'”, in The Lima News, page B12:

Mrs. Clinton rarely holds press availabilities or takes questions from reporters who cover her campaign.

2007 November 3, Christina Bellantoni, “Hillary criticized for press strategy”, in Washington Times, archived from the original on 2008-02-14:

(US, politics, journalism) An event at which a politician is made available for questioning by the media.


press gaggle

By analogy with a gaggle of goose. First recorded in the briefing sense in the early 2000s.

In 20 years of journalism, I'd never seen a public official do what McGreevey did when asked a question he didn't want to answer at a press gaggle after a public event […]

2004 November 15, Herb Jackson, “Codey can expect a cozy honeymoon”, in The Record, Bergen County, New Jersey:

(US, journalism, politics) An informal off-camera briefing given by a spokesperson or politician.


alexandrine

alexandrines (plural)
Alexandrine (alternative)

From Middle French alexandrin. So called from its use in old French poems on Alexander the Great (Roman d'Alexandre, c. 1177).

The dominant metre in Les Fleurs du Mal is the twelve-syllable alexandrine, the defining metre of French versification, with the eight-syllable line a distant runner-up and the ten-syllable line barely visible.

2005, Rachel Killick, “Baudelaire's versification: conservative or radical?”, in Rosemary Lloyd, editor, The Cambridge Companion to Baudelaire, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 52:

(poetry) A line of poetic meter having twelve syllables, usually divided into two or three equal parts.


Adonic

(poetry) A verse consisting of a dactyl and spondee.


senryū

(poetry) A haiku-like poem of up to 17 syllables that is usually humorous or satirical.


virelai

From Old French virelai, alteration (after lai) of vireli.

Now making layes of loue and louers paine, / Bransles, Ballads, virelayes, and verses vaine [...].

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

(historical, poetry) A medieval poetic form consisting of two or more three line units in each stanza, in the form aabaab... and continuing on in that pattern.


and finally

From a newsreader's standard introduction to such pieces, which typically come at the end of a news bulletin.

All this was broadcast on the evening of 23 February 1956, and it's the earliest surviving example of an Independent Television News bulletin. Even then, there was an ‘And finally...’ item, but on this occasion it was merely the good news that a thaw was on the way.

2005 December 26, Raymond Snoddy, The Independent:

The best ‘and finallies’ of 2005.

2006, BBC News website, headline, 1 January

Racing domestic animals in funny costumes on soapbox sleds is surely no more offensive than watching David Blaine take a dump in a Perspex box, and will look much better as an ‘And finally...’ on the news.

2006 June 20, Eddy Lawrence, Time Out, London:

The shots were included as part of BBC natural history producer Fergus Beeley nature diary from Beinn Eighe’s National Nature Reserve show water being blown back uphill on a windy day in Torridon. They have been picked up by the media as an ‘and finally’ and widely circulated.

(idiomatic, journalism, colloquial) A light news story reserved for the end of a bulletin when there is a lack of more important items; typically involving animals or other features supposed to be amusing.

boa-noite

a light news story reserved for the end of a bulletin


iota subscript

iota subscript (plural iotas subscript or iota subscripts)

iotas subscript (plural)
iota subscripts (plural)

(Greek orthography) A small iota written below an alpha, eta or omega – e.g. in ᾠδή (ōidḗ) – representing a vocalic offglide that was pronounced in early Ancient Greek, but later became silent; invented in the Middle Ages in order to mark those vowels which would originally have had such an offglide.


anacreontic

From Late Latin Anacreonticus, from Ancient Greek Ἀνακρέων (Anakréōn), Anacreon a Greek poet.

(poetry) A short lyrical piece about love and wine.


(poetry) Placed over a vowel letter to indicate that the syllable is long. Also used alone to mark stress in a metrical foot or verse: see ⟨ˉ⟩.


polyschematic

(poetry) Having unusual or multiple metre.


staple character

staple character (plural staple characters)

The mad scientist was a staple character in many horror films.

(writing, theater, film) A stock character, especially one that is overused.


terzanelle

(poetry) A poetry form which is a combination of the villanelle and the terza rima.


punctum delens

Unadapted borrowing from Latin pūnctum dēlēns.

ubor

(orthography) A dot placed above a letter to indicate that it is a copying error and should be ignored.

(orthography) A dot placed above a consonant in Irish, when it is written in Gaelic script, to indicate that the consonant is lenited.


monoline

[…] monolines appear everywhere in the art of the Western letter, and have shaped the alphabet's development as much as the edged line of the broad pen.

1984, Margaret Shepherd, Calligraphy Now, page 31:

(calligraphy) A font line of consistent width, as occurs when imitating pencil script.


bury the lede

en-verb

bury the lede (third-person singular simple present buries the lede, present participle burying the lede, simple past and past participle buried the lede)

buries the lede (present singular third-person)
burying the lede (participle present)
buried the lede (participle past)
buried the lede (past)
bury the lead (alternative)

The news account started by recounting details of the candidate's appearance and buried the lede by not mentioning his new call for tax reform until the 19th paragraph.

(idiomatic, US, journalism) To begin a story with details of secondary importance to the reader while postponing more essential points or facts.


graveyard poetry

(literature, poetry) A type of morbid poetry which lingers on human mortality, tombs, and burial grounds, popular in the preromantic period of 18th-century Britain.


Grauniad

Deliberate misspelling of Guardian, coined by the UK satirical magazine Private Eye, implying that the Guardian newspaper was prone to typographical errors.

Good old Grauniad.

1984 [1981], Jonathan Lynn, Antony Jay, “The Right to Know”, in The Complete Yes Minister, →ISBN, page 135:

Stop along the road for papers; scan headlines, make sure that no late-breaking story displaced the Vanguard piece and that it's intact (ninety-five percent – a satisfyingly high score), check out Doonesbury in the Grauniad, then away.

Katherine Viner wants to appoints a "1 per cent correspondent" to hound the filthy rich. As befits a possible Grauniad editrix, the NUJ misspelt her name.

2015 February 24, Patrick Kidd, “Guardian Angels Declare”, in The Times, page 11:

His appointment marked the start of a daily corrections and clarifications column, a first for a UK newspaper, which has mined a rich seam of typos and other slips for which “the Grauniad” is fondly known.

2021 May 12, Elisabeth Ribbans, “Typo negative: the best and worst of Grauniad mistakes over 200 years”, in The Guardian:

(UK, newspapers, humorous) The Guardian, a British daily national newspaper.


Walkerism

(British, sports, journalism) A form of words spoken by motorsports commentator Murray Walker that, due to grammatical errors, malapropisms, etc. is characteristic of his broadcasting style.


bury the lead

bury the lead (third-person singular simple present buries the lead, present participle burying the lead, simple past and past participle buried the lead)

buries the lead (present singular third-person)
burying the lead (participle present)
buried the lead (participle past)
buried the lead (past)
bury the lede (alternative)

1977, "Don't bury the lead. This is similar to backing into the lead, except that the major element has been buried several paragraphs down"

2004, "Don't bury the lead in the body of your story. As a TV news viewer, I'm poised to change the channel"

(idiomatic, journalism) To begin a story with details of secondary importance to the reader while postponing more essential points or facts. See lead paragraph.


doorstepping

en-noun

doorstepping (usually uncountable, plural doorsteppings)

(journalism) The action of cornering someone for an unexpected interview.


bar line

bar lines (plural)
barline (alternative)

(journalism) Synonym of crossline (“type of headline”).


netminder

netminders (plural)
net-minder (alternative)
net minder (alternative)

Clint Benedict, Windsor goalie, was the lone netminder to suffer a penalty.

1931 April 6, “Hockey Review”, in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, page 18:

Wilson said starting tonight against the Wild makes sense because his other two netminders have both been off the ice since last Wednesday's shootout loss to the Bruins because of the all-star break.

2009 January 27, Paul Hunter, “Apprentice plan for Pogge”, in Toronto Star:

Curran won three Ulster SFC medals and a Celtic Cross in 2008 as a substitute netminder during a golden age for Tyrone football.

2020 October 18, “Former Tyrone goalkeeper Jonathan Curran dies at 33”, in RTÉ News:

(journalism, sports) A goalkeeper or goaltender.


playwriting

playwriting (usually uncountable, plural playwritings)

playwritings (plural)
play-writing (alternative)


octosyllable

(poetry) line of verse with eight syllables


ambisyllabicity

(poetry, phonetics) The property of a consonant being analysed as acting simultaneously as the coda of one syllable and the onset of the following syllable, as in "upper" or "button".


dipodic

(poetry) Consisting of two metrical feet.


envoi

envois (plural)
envoy (alternative)
l'envoi (alternative)

From the pulsing throb of the very opening, this was a detailed, incisive playing, culminating in an envoi glowing enough to provide the catharsis this programme so uncompromisingly demanded.

2009 January 28, Erica Jeal, “LSO/Segerstam”, in The Guardian:

(poetry) A short stanza at the end of a poem, used either to address a person or to comment on the preceding body of the poem.


AAM

Alliance for Audited Media
w:Alliance for Audited Media

(journalism) Initialism of Alliance for Audited Media.


undesked

en-adj

undesked (comparative more undesked, superlative most undesked)

more undesked (comparative)
most undesked (superlative)

I can only think of a small handful of journalists who blog direct to the web without being either desked or subbed first. We don't publish news stories undesked and although our journalists can publish pictures direct to blogs, they rarely do.

2009 February 16, Siobhan Butterworth, ‘Open Door’, The Guardian:

(journalism) Not having been looked at or sub-edited by a desk-based journalist.


hyperlocal

Or, as Placeblogger.com, a Web site that promotes and tracks blogs with a hyperlocal focus, put it: “Placeblogs are about the lived experience of a community, some of which is news and some of which isn’t.”

2007 July 8, Gregory Beyer, “Cracker-Barrel 2.0”, in New York Times:

Each customized boutique location would be a one-of-a-kind representative for its neighborhood, allowing you to go out on the (home)town, then walk or bike back to your room […] .
Everything about the experience would be hyperlocal. Dine at a neighborhood restaurant, hit the bar down the street, stop at a gallery or shop at a store.

2010 September, Bill Keaggy, "STL Lo-tels", St. Louis magazine, ISSN 1090-5723, volume 16, issue 9, page 76

(chiefly journalism and blogging) Related to a very small area, smaller than normally considered local.


nonstory

nonstories (plural)
non-story (alternative)

Some said the article was a mean-spirited, unnecessarily damaging nonstory.

2009 February 27, Gail Swainson, “Champions horse show out to pasture”, in Toronto Star:

(journalism) Something that is considered to be not a real story, or not newsworthy


polymetric

(poetry, music) Involving more than one metre


monometric

(poetry) Of or pertaining to a monometer.


subheadline

Coordinate term: strapline

The March 5, 1978 issue of National Reader […] contained an exciting front page headline — "Most Major Hollywood Stars Are Gay or Bisexual!!!!" Splashed on the cover are photos of Rock Hudson, Shaun and David Cassidy, […] and, last but not least, Lily Tomlin. In the top right hand corner is the subheadline — "Finally Shocking Truth Can Be Told!"

1978 April 8, Eric Rogers, “Speaking Out”, in Gay Community News, page 5:

(journalism) A smaller, secondary headline that usually elaborates on the main headline above it.


tonos

From the Modern Greek τόνος (tónos, “stress, accent”). Doublet of tone.

(orthography and typography) The Modern Greek stress-marking diacritic: ⟨ ΄ ⟩, written atop a vowel in a given word’s stressed syllable.


paeon

(poetry) A foot containing any pattern of three short syllables and one long syllable.


synizesis

en-noun

synizesis (countable and uncountable, plural synizeses)

From Ancient Greek συνίζησις (sunízēsis, “a sitting together”), from σύν (sún, “with”) (English syn-) + ἱζάνω (hizánō, “to sit”).

der

(poetry) A poetic figure of speech in which two consecutive vowel sounds in the same word are pronounced as a single phoneme so that certain words adhere to a particular poetic meter.


(poetry) Placed over a vowel letter to indicate that the syllable is short. Also used alone to mark a syllable without stress in a metrical foot or verse: see ⟨˘⟩.


layback

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-layback.wav

From lay + back (presumably from confusion between lay and lie).

(audio editing) The process of recording the final sound onto the master track.


full disclosure

en-noun

full disclosure (usually uncountable, plural full disclosures)

(journalism) The disclosure of any connection between a reporter (or publisher) and the subject of an article that may bias the article.


stornello

stornello (plural stornellos or stornelli)

(poetry) An Italian lyric poem or folk song.


Aristophanean

en-adj

Aristophanean (comparative more Aristophanean, superlative most Aristophanean)

more Aristophanean (comparative)
most Aristophanean (superlative)

(dramaturgy, poetry) Of or pertaining to Aristophanes, his plays or his poetry.


false scent

(writing) A misleading expectation created by ambiguous writing


hypercatalexis

Coined in the late 1880s as a back-formation from hypercatalectic, from Latin hypercatalēcticus, from Ancient Greek ὑπερκαταληκτικός (huperkatalēktikós), from ὑπερ- (huper-, “over”) + καταληκτικός (katalēktikós, “incomplete”)

uder

ὑπερκαταληκτικός

(poetry) The addition of one or two syllables to the last foot of a verse


hypercatalectic

Recorded from circa 1700; from Latin hypercatalēcticus, from Ancient Greek ὑπερκατάληκτος (huperkatálēktos).

der

ὑπερκατάληκτος

(poetry) Which has an extra syllable added to the last dipody (foot of a verse).


ballade

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-ballade.wav

Borrowed from French ballade. Doublet of ballad.

(poetry) A poem of one or more triplets of seven- or eight-line stanzas, each ending with the same line as refrain, and usually an envoi; more generally, any poem in stanzas of equal length.


Horatian

en-adj

Horatian (comparative more Horatian, superlative most Horatian)

more Horatian (comparative)
most Horatian (superlative)

There are three typical forms of ode: Horatian, Pindaric and irregular. Horatian odes follow the conventions of Horace, who deliberately imitated the Greek lyricists such as Alcaeus and Anacreon.

Satirical literature can commonly be categorised as Horatian, Juvenalian or Menippean. Horatian satire playfully criticizes some social vice through gentle, mild, and light-hearted humour.

Jonson was the most Horatian of the Elizabethans, both by nature and by study.

1894 May, E. H. Lewis, “The Influence of Horace in English Literature”, in The Quarterly Calendar, Vol. III, No. 1, University of Chicago Press, page 97:

Again nothing could be more Horatian than the high spirits of the introduction of the poem.

1963, C. O. Brink, Horace on Poetry, Volume 1: Prolegomena to the Literary Epistles, Cambridge University Press, page 135:

While these writers would have been familiar with both,^([the Horatian and Juvenalian styles of satire]) some were naturally "attracted to the abrasiveness of Juvenal rather than the suavity of Horace" while others found they were able to express whatever they wanted to express in more Horatian tones.

2022, Jennifer Ferriss-Hill, Roman Satire, BRILL, page 80:

(literature, poetry) Of or pertaining to the Roman poet Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus; 65–8 BCE) or to his works or style.

horatiusi

of or pertaining to the Roman poet Horace or to his works or style


pack journalism

/ˈpæk ˈdʒɝnl̩ˌɪzəm/

Coined by the American journalist and writer Timothy Crouse (born 1947) in his book The Boys on the Bus (1973) about the activities of journalists during the 1972 United States presidential election: see the quotation.

The press likes to demonstrate its power by destroying lightweights, and pack journalism is never more doughty and complacent than when the pack has tacitly agreed that a candidate is a joke. As soon as a candidate shows his vulnerability by getting flustered, or by arguing when he shouldn't argue, the pack is delighted to treat him as the class clown.

1973, Timothy Crouse, The Boys on the Bus, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2003, →ISBN:

Problems of pack journalism [heading] […] I think the herd instinct expression is one that I would use, too. I frankly try deliberately to find out which way the herd is going and run the other way.

1973 May 23, “The Role of the News Media: An Interview with Howard K[ingsbury] Smith and Peter Lisagor [transcript]”, in United States of America Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 93d Congress, First Session, volume 119, part 13, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 16818, columns 2–3:

The composition of the Year of the Woman discourse and its trajectory during this thirteen-month "year" revealed nuance in the construction of women candidates as political subjects but also demonstrated the pack journalism practices that abounded during this time. The differences between local and national television and print news coverage were few and consisted specifically of patterns of gendered signifiers and discourse found within news coverage of Boxer, Braun, Feinstein, Murray, and Yeakel.

2002, Mary Douglas Vavrus, “Postfeminist Identities, Neoliberal Ideology, and Women of the Year”, in Postfeminist News: Political Women in Media Culture (SUNY Series in Communication Studies), Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, →ISBN, pages 84–85:

If talented business journalists care at all about the long-term portability of their skills in a shrinking media world, succumbing to pack journalism in the crowded general news category is no way out. It makes senior, expensive reporters expendable. That was not the direction I wanted my career to be heading.

2013, Ann Davis Vaughan, “The Gestation Period of a Llama (or Why I Quit the Wall Street Journal)”, in J. J. Hornblass, Michele Turk, Tom Vogel, editors, Ink Stained: Essays by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Class of 1992, [s.l.]: Ink Stains Press, →ISBN, page 31:

(journalism, derogatory) A tendency of reporting to become homogeneous due to the reporters' habit of relying on one another for news tips, or being dependent on a single source for information.

Fred Thompson
Republican Party
The Boys on the Bus
Timothy Crouse


cywydd

(poetry) A Welsh verse form consisting of rhyming couplets written in cynghanedd.


palimbacchius

(poetry) A metrical foot composed of two long syllables and one short one.


moraic

moraic theory

(poetry, phonology) Of, pertaining to, or consisting of a mora or morae (a unit of syllable weight in poetry and linguistics).

moraico

of, pertaining to, or consisting of morae


plot hole

plot holes (plural)
plothole (alternative)

Invited to collaborate with Hitch, Shaffer watched several of the director's previous films and noticed in North by Northwest a glaring plot hole; Cary Grant hides aboard a train that he has selected randomly yet, somehow, his pursuers lie in wait aboard the same train.

2012, Allan Brown, Inside the Wicker Man, Birlinn, →ISBN:

(authorship) A gap or inconsistency in a storyline that goes against the flow of logic established by the story's plot.


overset

en-verb

overset (third-person singular simple present oversets, present participle oversetting, simple past and past participle overset)

oversets (present singular third-person)
oversetting (participle present)
overset (participle past)
overset (past)
overset (infinitive)
overset (first-person present singular)
overset (first-person past singular)
overset (present second-person singular)
oversettest (archaic present second-person singular)
overset (past second-person singular)
oversettedst (archaic past second-person singular)
oversets (present singular third-person)
oversetteth (archaic present singular third-person)
overset (past singular third-person)
overset (plural present)
overset (past plural)
overset (present subjunctive)
overset (past subjunctive)
overset (imperative present)
oversetting (participle present)
overset (participle past)
over-set (alternative)

/ˌoʊvəɹˈsɛt/

PIE word
 *upér
The verb is derived from Middle English oversetten (“to place or set over, cover; to assail; to defeat, overcome, overpower, overthrow; to defer; to discredit, refute; to disregard, overlook, set aside; to hinder; to oppress; to repulse”), from Old English ofersettan (“to put in a position of authority; to overcome or be overcome; to set over”), from Proto-West Germanic *ubarsattjan (“to place above, set over; to establish, install”), from *ubarsittjan (“to abstain from, neglect; to occupy, possess; to sit over or upon”), from *ubar- (prefix meaning ‘above, over’) + *sittjan (“to sit”) (from Proto-Germanic *sitjaną (“to sit”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”)). By surface analysis, over- (prefix meaning ‘above, higher; excessive, excessively’) + set (verb). Doublet of oversit.
Sense 1.2.3 (“to translate (a text)”) is probably a calque of German übersetzen.
The adjective is derived from overset, the past participle form of the verb. The noun is also derived from the verb.
cognates
* Dutch overzetten (“to ferry, transport, translate”)
* Old High German ubarsezzen (Middle High German übersetzen, modern German übersetzen (“to cross over, translate”))
* Saterland Frisian uursätte (“to cross over, translate”)
* Swedish översätta (“to translate”)
* West Frisian oersette (“to translate”)

cog

Other [newspaper] articles, again, are rejected because there is no time to consider them, or because they are badly written, and the printers have no time to lose in bungling over hieroglyphics. The overseer now sees that he will have too much matter; and although all the week he has been declaring that he has been kept short of copy, now goes on the opposite tack, to avoid upsetting, or, as he says, "oversetting."

1855 October, Frederic Carrington, “Country Newspapers and Their Editors”, in William Harrison Ainsworth, editor, The New Monthly Magazine, volume CV, number CCCCXVIII, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 149:

(journalism, printing) To set (copy or type) in excess of a given space.

latoa yli meneväksi

to set (copy or type) in excess of a given space


overset

/ˌoʊvəɹˈsɛt/

(journalism, printing) Of copy or type: set in excess of a given space.

yli menevä

of copy or type: set in excess of a given space


overset

en-noun

overset (countable and uncountable, plural oversets)

/ˌoʊvəɹˈsɛt/

/ˈoʊvəɹˌsɛt/

(journalism, printing, uncountable) Copy or type set in excess of a given space; (countable) an instance of this.

ylijuokseva teksti

copy or type set in excess of a given space; an instance of this


rhopalic

en-adj

rhopalic (comparative more rhopalic, superlative most rhopalic)

more rhopalic (comparative)
most rhopalic (superlative)

From Latin rhopalicus, from Ancient Greek ῥόπαλον (rhópalon, “club, bat”).

der

Soapy fired off a rhopalic sentence, that is, one in which each word is one letter longer than the word that precedes it: "I am the only dummy player, perhaps, planning maneuvers calculated brilliantly, nevertheless outstandingly pachydermatous, notwithstanding unconstitutional unprofessionalism."

1986 October 26, Alan Truscott, “Talking About Behavior”, in The New York Times:

(poetry, rhetoric) Having each successive word longer by a letter or syllable.


crosshead

Other bits of furniture include [...] the crosshead, a short heading between paragraphs that breaks up a long piece.

2023 January 31, Elisabeth Ribbans, “The perils of using journalist jargon outside the newsroom”, in The Guardian:

(journalism) Large text, like a headline but typically drawn from the article, placed partway through the article to break it up visually.


to be continued

(writing, television) Used at the end of an episode of a serial publication or program to indicate that the story continues in the next episode.


full-page

Taking a full-page advertisement in the New York Times, the New Haven counter-attacked with vigour.

1959 September, “Talking of Trains: Attack and counter-attack”, in Trains Illustrated, page 405:

(journalism, of a newspaper or magazine article) covering an entire page.


Palace

(Philippines, journalism) Ellipsis of Malacañang Palace.


arsis

en-noun

arsis (countable and uncountable, plural arses)

From Ancient Greek ἄρσις (ársis, “lifting”), from αἴρω (aírō, “I lift”).

it comes to pass that the arsis may effect some change in the order of which it is itself the commencement

1830, Johann Gottfried Jacob Hermann, Hermann's Elements of the Doctrine of Metres:

(poetry) The stronger part of a metrical foot: the part containing the long (heavy) syllable in quantitative meter, or the stressed syllable in a qualitative meter.


tk

Abbreviation of to come. C is replaced with K because -tk- occurs much less often in English than -tc-, making it easier to search for in a text.

(journalism) A placeholder used before publication for information that is not yet available but will be filled in before publication.


sports final

sports finals (plural)
sport final (alternative)

(journalism) the edition of a newspaper that includes the last version of the sports results to be published for the day (or time block); frequently this is the last edition for the newspaper for the day (or time block)


imagism

imagism (usually uncountable, plural imagisms)

/ˈɪmɪd͡ʒɪzəm/

(poetry) A form of poetry utilising precise imagery and clear language.


silly season

Possibly from an article in the 13 July 1861 edition of the London weekly newspaper The Saturday Review (see quotation).

"Constant readers" of the Times […] must have been often amused by watching the change which yearly comes over the great journal during the months of autumn. When Parliament is no longer sitting and the gay world is no longer gathered together in London, something very different is supposed to do for the remnant of the public from what is needed in the politer portions of the year. […] In the dead of autumn, when the second and third rate hands are on, we sink from nonsense written with a purpose to nonsense written because the writer must write either nonsense or nothing. We have, however, observed this year very strong symptoms of the Silly Season of 1861 setting in a month or two before its time.

1861 July 13, “The silly season”, in The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art, volume 12, number 298, London: Published at the office, Southampton Street, Strand, →OCLC, page 37, column 2:

The amount of space at the disposal of newspapers, and the want of something to talk about and write about, produced that mild autumnal effect known as the silly season, which sets in when there is a lull in politics, and a dearth of news.

1876 May 23, “Dunedin”, in Bruce Herald, volume IX, number 805, Tokomairiro, N.Z.: Joseph Mackay, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-05-26, page 6:

The Sasquatch has long since become the clown who is the life of the party, whom nobody ever takes seriously; the godsend of newspaper cartoonists in the silly season when politicians are on vacation.

1959 April 4, Stephen Franklin, “The trail of the Sasquatch”, in Ottawa Citizen Weekend Magazine, volume 9, number 14, Ottawa, Ont.: R. W. Southam, →OCLC, page 3:

The Brits call it the "silly season." In Germany the media call it the Sommerloch, literally "the summer hole." What they are referring to is the fact that when politicians and businesspeople close up shop and go away for the major European summer holidays, the number of serious news stories tends to diminish—meaning desperate hacks need to find something else to fill the hole.

2009 August 13, “News in the silly season: Flying rabbits, violent cows and drowning hedgehogs”, in Spiegel Online, archived from the original on 2016-05-13:

(idiomatic, journalism) A period, usually during the summertime, when news media tend to place increased emphasis on reporting light-hearted, offbeat, or bizarre stories.

okurková sezóna

period when news media tend to place increased emphasis on reporting bizarre stories


fourteener

He writes in well filled fourteeners, with individual words used not only vitally to convey the sense but also as a kind of metrical polyfilla.

1984, Gerardus Antonius Maria Janssens, Flor Aarts, Studies in Seventeenth-century English Literature, History and Bibliography:

(poetry) A (usually iambic) line of fourteen syllables.


expositionary

en-adj

expositionary (comparative more expositionary, superlative most expositionary)

more expositionary (comparative)
most expositionary (superlative)


antepenultima

From Latin antepaenultima, antepenultima (“antepenultimate”); feminine gender, agreeing with syllaba (“syllable”)).

(poetry) The last syllable of a word except two


standfirst

The standfirst talked of “Jubilation as article 50 is finally served”.

2017 March 30, Jon Henley, Jane Martinson, The Guardian:

(UK, journalism) Explanatory text under the main heading of a news article, smaller than the heading but still larger than the main text.


readback

Deverbal from read back, as in read that back to me, please.

OK, now let's do a readback before you send this off.

The judge ordered a readback of a portion of the testimony.

(dictation, stenography) The reading aloud by a transcriptionist, court reporter, or stenographer of draft correspondence or of testimony previously taken down in dictation, usually at the request of the presiding judge or parties involved in a deposition (courtroom contexts) or of the manager dictating the correspondence (business contexts).


anceps

Borrowed from Latin anceps (literally “double-headed”).

bor

(poetry, Greek and Latin meter) A syllable that can be either short or long.


genre fiction

en-noun

genre fiction (usually uncountable, plural genre fictions)

Genre fiction encourages a focus on one aspect at the expense of others. This can produce an obsessive, powerful work. But a literary novel has, somewhere, to open out into the universal.

2014 April 22, Anita Mason, “Genre fiction radiates from a literary centre”, in The Guardian:

(authorship) Fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre (such as mystery, romance, or horror) with an existing audience.


hard news

Under Editor Murray J. Gart, 56, former chief of the Time-Life News Service, the Star stressed hard news and straightforward reporting over fancy writing and instant analysis.

1981 August 3, Janice Castro, David S. Jackson, “Press: Washington Loses a Newspaper”, in Time, archived from the original on 2010-11-16:

Even in the late 70's […] women's news was regarded as, by definition, soft news. Today, issues like sexual harassment and the difficulties of single parents are understood to be, in every sense, hard news.

1993 October 24, “News About The Magazine”, in New York Times, retrieved 2010-12-06:

Ed Bradley, who died yesterday of leukemia at age 65, […] covered hard news and soft features with equal commitment, grace and skill, and many of his stories and interviews were impossible to forget.

2006 November 10, David Bianculli, “Ed Earned his ‘60 mins.’ of TV Fame”, in New York Daily News, retrieved 2010-12-06:

Because homepages reflect the values of institutions, and Facebook and Twitter reflect the interest of individual readers. These digital grazers have shown again and again that they aren't interested in hard news, but rather entertainment, self-help, awe, and outrage dressed up news.

2014 May 15, Derek Thompson, “What the Death of Homepages Means for the Future of News”, in The Atlantic:

For many young people, clicking on to Instagram to get the latest news is now as second nature as picking up a daily newspaper once was to generations before. For a site that has traditionally been a platform for sharing lifestyle content rather than hard news, this is a shift in millennials and Gen Z, at a time when news updates seem more important than ever.

2020 July 27, Katie Bishop, “Why are millennials and Gen Z turning to Instagram as a news source?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(journalism, broadcasting) Factual reportage of events which are socially or politically significant and of a serious nature, as opposed to the reporting of entertaining, humorous, or gossipy accounts of relatively inconsequential events.


broken rhyme

The lofty passes of the mountain he has left to the more skilful climber, and hath contented himself with wandering round its base, picking up the blossoms that were scattered at his feet; or with endeavouring to portray some rustic pictures in broken rhyme.

1874, John King, Rustic Pictures and Broken Rhymes:

(poetry) The splitting of the final word in a line of poetry (onto the next line) such that a rhyme is formed from a syllable other than the last.


NFA

not for attribution
not for attribution#English

(journalism) Initialism of not for attribution.


rule of three

the rule of three (canonical)
the Rule of Three (alternative)

(writing, rhetoric, comedy) A rule which states that things which come in groups of three are inherently funnier or more effective than things which come in groups of other sizes.

(writing, rhetoric, comedy) Specifically, the technique of having a setup in advance, a reminder to keep it fresh in the audience's memory, and then a payoff.


antag

(informal, fiction, writing) Clipping of antagonist.


pentina

(poetry) A fixed verse form consisting of five stanzas of five lines each, normally followed by a two-line envoi.


ur-poem

(literature, poetry) A poem that is believed to be a precursor or prototype to a more modern class of poetry; usually a hypothetical 'mother poem' of a genre.


choric

(poetry) Intended to be sung by a choir or chorus (e.g. a hymn)


rewriteman

rewritemen (plural)
rewrite man (alternative)

This was my abrupt introduction to the system by which most of the live news is handled for the New York evening newspapers [...] Its continued use has bred up two distinct and separate types of news-specialists—the leg man, who gets the story, but rarely writes it; and the rewrite man, who writes the story but rarely gets it.

1913, Irvin S[hrewsbury] Cobb, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 185, Philadelphia, Pa., London: Curtis Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 23; republished in “The Third Stick”, in Stickfuls: (Myself—To Date) (The Works of Irvin S. Cobb), New York, N.Y.: The Review of Reviews Corporation publishers; published by arrangement with George H[enry] Doran Company, 1923, →OCLC, part 1 (Getting Set in New York: In Three Takes), page 136:

Many of the changes which have taken place in the newspaper field within the last fifty years have been in the direction of specialization. At the turn of the century, for example, a reporter got his stories, wrote them, and sometimes even made up his own headlines. Legmen and rewrite men were practically unknown.

1954, Edmond D[avid] Coblentz, “Introduction: The Drift toward Specialization”, in Edmond D. Coblentz, editor, Newsmen Speak: Journalists on Their Craft, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif., London: University of California Press, →OCLC, page 125:

LEG MEN cover local events and phone the information to a rewrite man.

1973, “Newspaper and Wire Service Operations”, in Journalist 3 & 2: Naval Training Command Rate Training Manual (NAVTRA 10294-C), Washington, D.C.: Published by Naval Training Command; United States Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 153, column 2:

After working as a copy boy and then a reporter at The New York Journal-American, he joined The New York Herald Tribune as a night rewriteman.

2007 September 22, Robert D. Mcfadden, “James F. Clarity dies at 75; reported on crime, politics and war”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.:

[Allen] Raymond was the son of a Methodist lay preacher who traded his Ivy League, New England pedigree for a hardboiled journalistic persona cultivated over decades as a "legman," rewrite man, copyeditor, and reporter for a dozen urban newspapers, mostly in metropolitan New York.

2009, James T. Fisher, “Epilogue: Souls of the (Port) Apostolate”, in On the Irish Waterfront: The Crusader, the Movie, and the Soul of the Port of New York (Cushwa Center Studies of Catholicism in Twentieth-century America), Ithaca, N.Y., London: Cornell University Press, →ISBN, page 299:

(journalism) A newspaper reporter who crafts stories from information reported by others, such as legmen.


semisyllable

(orthography) A glyph from a semisyllabary.


kyrielle

"I said 'pantoum,' sir—besides which, gentlemen, we have the triolet, the kyrielle, the virelai, the vilanelle——"

1918, Jeffery Farnol, Our Admirable Betty:

(poetry) A form of French verse written in rhyming couplets or quatrains, sometimes with a religious theme.

kyrielle

A form of poetic verse written in rhyming couplets or quatrains


XNA

(journalism) Initialism of Xinhua News Agency (“新华社”); the New China News Agency (新华通讯社); the government news agency of the People's Republic of China.


Aristophanic

en-adj

Aristophanic (comparative more Aristophanic, superlative most Aristophanic)

more Aristophanic (comparative)
most Aristophanic (superlative)

In sculpture and in the drama, in Aristophanic farce and in hieratic rituals, in pictorial art and in the stream of literature, the phallus is transcendent.

1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page iii:


listicle

Coordinate term: charticle

Dishy books! Bruno Mars! Human excrement! Relieve the year that was in handy listicle form, on page 52.

2011 January–February, Doug Brod, editor, Spin, New York, N.Y.: Spin Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 4:

"6 TITANIC SURVIVORS WHO SHOULD HAVE DIED." "THESE 9 NAZI ATROCITIES WILL MAKE YOU LOSE FAITH IN HUMANITY." "5 INSANE PLANS FOR FEEDING WEST BERLIN YOU WON’T BELIEVE ARE REAL." These are just some of the lists that the comic strip "XKCD" recently joked would result from retrofitting the twentieth century's most newsworthy events with modern, Internet-style headlines. Despite the growing derision of listicles exemplified by the comic, numbered lists—a venerable media format—have become one of the most ubiquitous ways to package content on the Web.

2013 December 2, Maria Konnikova, “A list of reasons why our brains love lists”, in The New Yorker, New York, N.Y.: New Yorker Magazine, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2014-03-27:

The Internet did not invent the listicle. Lists-as-arguments—lists-as-stories—have, of course, been around since long, long before Buzzfeed^([sic]) came along. And they haven't just been around; they've also been both playing with and poking fun at the list form itself, one item at a time. I mention that because the Public Domain Review has unearthed this gem, "The 25 Stages from Courtship to Marriage," a set of hand-tinted stereographs depicting a sampling of those stages, generally from the perspective of the woman being courted. The cards are undated, PDR notes, but they mostly likely originated in the late 19th century.

2014 April 7, Megan Garber, “Victorian Buzzfeed:^([sic]) ‘The 25 Stages From Courtship to Marriage’: Here’s a listicle from the 19th century that pokes fun at … listicles”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 2014-04-13:

It seems little more than an exercise in googling, an attempt to sell the listicle as literature.

2017 September 10, Leo Robson, “The Golden House is Salman Rushdie’s not-so-great American novel”, in New Statesman:

“Your trivia category choices are pop culture listicles, discontinued snack foods, or dog sounds.” “Hey, no shame in going for the easiest one, gimme the listicles.”

2024 August 12, Dominic Dierkes, “Live Die Repeat Device (Formerly Known as the Edge of Tomorrow Device)” (12:18 from the start), in Solar Opposites, season 5, episode 3, spoken by Jerry (Mikey Day):

(informal, journalism) An article based around a list.


antipoetry

(poetry) A literary movement that attempts to break away from the normal conventions of poetry.

antirunous

poetry that breaks away from normal conventions


closed form

en-noun

closed form (countable and uncountable, plural closed forms)

(poetry) A type of poetry with regular structure, such as meter or a rhyming pattern.


antibacchius

(poetry) A rare metrical foot consisting of two accented syllables followed by one unaccented syllable.


graff

Were I not hooked-up, and old enough to be her father, I'd be stalking Alyssa Rosenberg because of the following graff:[…]

2008 September 19, Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Why is Hollywood ignoring She-Hulk?”, in The Atlantic:

(slang, journalism) Alternative form of graf (“paragraph”).


dochmiac

From Ancient Greek δοχμιακός (dokhmiakós, “dochmiac”), from δόχμιος (dókhmios) (see dochmius).

bor

(poetry) Pertaining to, or containing, the dochmius.


heptastich

(poetry) A seven-lined or seven-versed poem.


monorhyme

Until 1629 no other rhyme scheme approaches the importance of monorhyme; in 1655–1729 alternating rhyme numbers over half of the total output, and for two of the next three generations it drops down to about a third.

2013, David Malkiel, Stones Speak - Hebrew Tombstones from Padua, 1529-1862, page 36:

(poetry) A poem or rhyme scheme whose lines all end with the same rhyme.


epodic

en-adj

epodic (comparative more epodic, superlative most epodic)

more epodic (comparative)
most epodic (superlative)

epodic forms

epodic meter

epodic literature

(poetry) Pertaining to or resembling an epode.


dispondee

Latin dispondeus, from Ancient Greek [Term?].

(poetry) A double spondee; a metrical foot consisting of four long syllables.


ictic

(poetry) of a syllable in verse, carrying the beat.


pentastich

(poetry) Any composition consisting of five verses.


tripedal

From Latin tripedalis, from tri- + pes, pedis (“a foot”).


antistrophic

(poetry) Of or pertaining to an antistrophe.


brachycatalectic

(poetry) A verse that is two syllables short for a metre.


slow news day

Perhaps you have seen a television news program on a slow news day. In place of international crises, press conferences, congressional hearings, and proclamations by the mayor, the news may consist of a trip to the zoo to visit a new “baby,” a canned report on acupuncture in China, a follow-up story on the survivor of an air crash, or a visit to the opening of baseball spring training in Florida.

2016, W. Lance Bennett, chapter 5, in News: The Politics of Illusion, 10th edition, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 136:

(journalism) A time when media organizations publish trivial stories due to the lack of more substantial topics.


ditrochee

(poetry) A double trochee; a metrical foot made up of two trochees.


tetracolon

en-noun

tetracolon (plural tetracolons or tetracola)

the two verses would form a beautiful tetracolon, the first line answering to the third, and the second to the fourth

1791, Henry Dimock, Notes Critical and Explanatory:

(poetry) A stanza or division in lyric poetry, consisting of four verses or lines.


pentapody

From penta- + -pody, from Ancient Greek πέντε (pénte, “five”) and πούς, ποδός (poús, podós, “foot”).

(poetry) A measure, verse, or series consisting of five feet.


mismeter

en-verb

mismeter (third-person singular simple present mismeters, present participle mismetering, simple past and past participle mismetered)

mismeters (present singular third-person)
mismetering (participle present)
mismetered (participle past)
mismetered (past)
mismetre (alternative)

(transitive, poetry) To give the wrong meter to, as to a line of verse.


epitrite

Compare French épitrite, Latin epitritus, Ancient Greek ἐπίτριτος (epítritos).

(poetry, Ancient Greek and Latin prosody) A metrical foot consisting of three long syllables and one short syllable.


commatic

en-adj

commatic (comparative more commatic, superlative most commatic)

more commatic (comparative)
most commatic (superlative)

Borrowed from Late Latin commaticus, from Ancient Greek κομματικός (kommatikós). See comma.

(poetry) Having short clauses or sentences, often separated with commas


semiped

From Latin semipes, semipedis, from semi- (“half”) + pes, pedis (“a foot”).


tiercet

(poetry) A triplet; three lines, or three lines rhyming together.


Ariostan

Ariostan (comparative more Ariostan, superlative most Ariostan)

more Ariostan (comparative)
most Ariostan (superlative)

(poetry) Characteristic of the Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto (1474–1533).


proceleusmatic

From Latin proceleusmaticus, from Ancient Greek προκελευσματικός (prokeleusmatikós), to rouse to action beforehand, to incite.

der

προκελευσματικός

(poetry) A metrical foot consisting of four short syllables.


proceleusmatic

en-adj

proceleusmatic (comparative more proceleusmatic, superlative most proceleusmatic)

more proceleusmatic (comparative)
most proceleusmatic (superlative)

der

προκελευσματικός

(poetry, not comparable) Consisting of four short syllables; composed of metrical feet of four short syllables each.


double-page spread

en-noun

double-page spread (plural double-page spreads)

(journalism) An article, advertisement, etc. spread over two facing pages.


diiambus

(poetry) A double iambus; a metrical foot consisting of two iambs.


Archilochian

en-adj

Archilochian (comparative more Archilochian, superlative most Archilochian)

more Archilochian (comparative)
most Archilochian (superlative)

Archilochian meter

(poetry) Of or pertaining to the Ancient Greek satirical poet Archilochus and his style.

greater Archilochian

a verse consisting of four dactyls and three trochees

lesser Archilochian

a verse comprising two dactyls and a length


dactylar

(poetry) Pertaining to dactyl; dactylic.


Asclepiad

(verse form): First used by the Ancient Greek poet Asclepius.

(poetry) A choriambic verse consisting of four metrical feet: a spondee, two choriambi, and an iambus.


heptachord

From Ancient Greek ἑπτάχορδος (heptákhordos, “seven-stringed”), from ἑπτά (heptá, “seven”) + χορδή (khordḗ, “chord”). Compare French heptacorde.

der

(poetry) A composition sung to the sound of seven chords or tones.


sextain

From Latin sextus (“sixth”), from sex (“six”). Compare Italian sestina. Doublet of sestina.

(poetry) A stanza of six lines; a sestine or sestina.


choriambus

en-noun

choriambus (plural choriambuses or choriambi)

choriambuses (plural)
choriambi (plural)

From Latin choriambus, from Ancient Greek. Equivalent to choreus + iambus.

(poetry) A metrical foot consisting of four syllables, of which the first and last are long, and the others short; a choreus, or trochee, united with an iambus.


correption

correption (countable and uncountable, plural correptions)

From Latin correptio (“seizure”), from corripere (“to seize”).


dochmius

From Latin dochmius, from Ancient Greek δόχμιος (dókhmios, “oblique; dochmius”).

bor

Yet there is good reason to doubt the existence of any such; —good reason to think, that dochmiuses belong to the triple rhythm

1843, William O'Brien, The Ancient Rhythmical Art Recovered, page 6:

This chorus, which consists almost entirely of dochmii, is so corrupt as to present various problems of an almost insoluble character, although portions of it have yielded to the brilliant emendatory efforts of Hermann.

1910, R. J. Walker, Anti Mias: An Essay in Isometry, page 228:

Every dochmius is catalectic, representing an original phrase of nine primary times.

1912, John Williams White, The Verse of Greek Comedy, page 296:

(poetry) A metrical foot of five syllables used in Greek tragedy for highly anguished scenes. The metrical pattern is typically: short-long-long-short-long.


homoioptoton

homoioptota (plural)
homoeoptoton (alternative)

From Ancient Greek ὁμοιóπτωτον (homoióptōton, “in a like case”).

der

(rhetoric, poetry) A rhetorical figure in which the several parts of a sentence end with the same case, or inflection generally.


molossus

molossuses (plural)
molossi (plural)
molosse (alternative)

From Latin molossus, from Ancient Greek μολοσσός (molossós), properly "belonging to the Molossians", a people in the eastern part of Epirus.

(poetry) A metrical foot of three long syllables.


tripody

From tri + -pody, from Ancient Greek τρι- (tri-, “three”) and πούς, ποδός (poús, podós, “foot”).

(poetry) Three metrical feet taken together, or included in one measure.


epode

From Ancient Greek ἐπῳδός (epōidós); see epi-, ode.

(poetry) The after song; the part of a lyric or choral ode which follows the strophe and antistrophe.

(poetry) A kind of lyric poem, invented by Archilochus, in which a longer verse is followed by a shorter one.


B-story

In the B-story, Bart goes from metaphorically crying wolf to literally crying wolf when a timber wolf escapes from Krusty’s studio after getting freaked by loud noises. The wild beast ultimately menaces Bart in his schoolroom before Groundskeeper Willie strips down and saves the day by defeating the wolf in combat.

2012 May 20, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Marge Gets A Job” (season 4, episode 7; originally aired 11/05/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club:

(authorship) A subplot that appears in a screenplay or script for a movie or television show; a subplot that concerns the side-characters or less important aspects of a television show.


Glyconian

Named after Glycon, an Ancient Greek poet, said to have written in this form.

(poetry) A kind of verse in Ancient Greek and Latin poetry, consisting of a spondee, a choriambus, and a pyrrhic.


ASCIIfy

en-verb

ASCIIfy (third-person singular simple present ASCIIfies, present participle ASCIIfying, simple past and past participle ASCIIfied)

ASCIIfies (present singular third-person)
ASCIIfying (participle present)
ASCIIfied (participle past)
ASCIIfied (past)
asciify (alternative)

(orthography) To reduce extended Latin text to characters of the ASCII character set.


Abgesang

/ˈɑp.ɡəˌzɑŋ/

Borrowed from German Abgesang; ab- (“down, from”) + Gesang (“song”).

(prosody, poetry, usually capitalized) Repetition of the same word or phrases for emphasis; epistrophe, especially the concluding section.


newsplan

From a former trademark, “The Newsplan Discounts for Continuity”, owned by Newspaper Advertising Bureau, Inc. From news + plan.

(newspapers) A methodology used by newspapers to determine the discounted cost of ad copy.


cursèd

en-adj

cursèd (comparative more cursèd, superlative most cursèd)

more cursèd (comparative)
most cursèd (superlative)

(poetry) Alternative form of cursed; used to specify a disyllabic pronunciation


monopody

(poetry) A measure of a single metrical foot.

(poetry, rare) A line comprising one such measure.


bulldog edition

en-noun

bulldog edition (plural bulldog editions)

Uncertain. One popular theory is that competition mainly drove the term; publishers "fought like bulldogs" to "get out editions that would catch the mails going out of town." Another theory suggests that it comes from the nautical term dogwatch (“evening shift”), as printers had to work late in the evening to put out an early edition for the morning paper. Numerous other theories have been proposed.

The Detroit Mirror, morning tabloid, which has been under the same ownership as The Chicago Tribune and The New York Daily News, suspended publication with its early bulldog edition today.

1932 August 5, “The Detroit Mirror, a Tabloid, Suspends”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-09-14:

In journalism, a "bulldog edition" is an edition of a daily newspaper printed early for transportation to distant points.

1970 June 10, “Today in History”, in Owosso Argus-Press, Michigan, USA, retrieved 2012-09-14, page 23:

Larry Holmes marched into view at 20 minutes before the hour of 11 a.m. . . . The guys with the cameras could snap away, and everybody would have a story for the 6 O'Clock News or the bulldog edition.

1980 October 2, Bruce Keidan, “Ali-Holmes strike out before bout”, in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, retrieved 2012-09-14, page 9:

He took us on evening walks. […] On the way home, he'd stop at the corner next to the subway stop, get the bulldog edition of the Inquirer and chat with the guy selling the papers.

2008 April 10, Chris Matthews, “Philly Politicos Kick it Old-School”, in Time:

(chiefly US, newspapers, publishing) The earliest edition of a periodical publication, especially a daily newspaper.


jazz poetry

(poetry, jazz) A form of poetry of the 1920s employing jazz-like rhythm or a feeling of improvisation.


dodecameter

/ˌdəʊdɛˈkæmɪtə(ɹ)/

(poetry) A complex line that consists of twelve metric feet.


Thuluth

(art, chiefly calligraphy) An Arabic script style.


choliamb

From Latin choliambus, from Ancient Greek χωλίαμβος (khōlíambos).


choliambic

(poetry) Employing or relating to choliambs, or limping iambs.


penthemimeris

/ˌpɛnθɪˈmɪməɹɪs/

From Latin penthēmimeris, from Ancient Greek πενθημιμερής (penthēmimerḗs, “having five half-feet”): πέντε (pénte, “five”) + ἡμι- (hēmi-) + μέρος (méros, “part, metrical foot”).

der

πενθημιμερής

penthemim (alternative)
penthemimer (alternative)
penthemimeres (alternative)

(poetry) A prosal group of two and a half feet.


feature story

(journalism) A human-interest story or article that is not closely tied to a recent news event.


Balaam

The Biblical miracle of Balaam's ass speaking (Numbers 22:27-30); see talk out one's ass.

(slang, archaic, journalism) A paragraph describing something wonderful, used to fill out a newspaper column.


human interest

(journalism, chiefly attributive) A kind of journalism that discusses a person or people in an emotional way so as to arouse interest or sympathy.


villancico

From Spanish villancico, from villano (“peasant”), from Medieval Latin vīllānus (“villager”).

The villancicos are strophic, but they tend not to extend to the many strophes of narration that were typical of the romance. A standard form for a villancico strophe is ABBA, in which the first A is called the estribillo (refrain), the Bs represent the statement of the music for the copla (stanza) twice (as copla and mudanza), and the return of the estribillo as the vuelta.

2014, James Haar, editor, European Music, 1520–1640, Boydell & Brewer, →ISBN, page 447:

(music, poetry) A traditional Spanish (or Portuguese) folk song with short stanzas and a refrain; now especially common as a Christmas carol.

gabon-kanta

traditional Spanish or Portuguese folk song


Priapean

(poetry) A kind of hexameter verse so constructed as to be divisible into two portions of three metrical feet each, generally having a trochee in the first and fourth feet and an amphimacer in the third; applied also to a regular hexameter verse when so constructed as to be divisible into two portions of three feet each.


amoebaeum

From the neuter of Latin amoebaeus, from Ancient Greek ἀμοιβαῖος (amoibaîos, “alternate”).

bor

The third eclogue of Virgil is an amoebaeum.

(poetry) A poem in which people are represented speaking alternately.

amebeu

poem in which persons are represented as speaking alternately


red ball

* ("high-profile high-priority" sense) From a routing system on the Santa Fe Railroad in the early 1900s. Fast freight trains which were to receive priority routing were marked with placards depicting a red disc, and were called "red ball" trains.

Or are the red-ball and white-ball games diverging to the extent that it is possible to envisage a future where they are, to all intents and purposes, different sports?

2017 January 28, Jonathan Liew, “To cling together or drift apart? Red and white-ball cricket facing a divided future”, in The Daily Telegraph, London:

limited overs cricket
limited overs cricket

(cricket, journalism, metonymic, uncountable) first-class cricket, as distinct from limited overs cricket (or "white ball")


Parnassian

en-adj

Parnassian (comparative more Parnassian, superlative most Parnassian)

more Parnassian (comparative)
most Parnassian (superlative)

From Parnassus, from Latin Parnassus, from Ancient Greek Παρνασσός (Parnassós).

[…] at last, — this is the point to be marked, - they can see things in this Parnassian way and describe them in this Parnassian tongue, without further effort of inspiration.

1864, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Poems and prose, Penguin Books, published 1954, page 157:

But in Parnassian pieces you feel that if you were the poet you could have gone on as he has done, you see yourself doing it, only with the difference that if you actually try you find you cannot write his Parnassian.

1864, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Poems and prose, Penguin Books, published 1954, page 158:

'Behold', 'dream a dream', 'mingle': these here have something of the plangent tremulousness which comes when Tennyson is writing 'Parnassian' verse.

1989, Christopher Bruce Ricks, Tennyson, →ISBN, page 212:

One might be tempted to read this conjoining of exoticism and sensuality as a Parnassian exercise, until one reads the rest of the poem: […]

c. 2002, Émile J. Talbot, Reading Nelligan, McGill-Queen's University Press, →ISBN, page 166:

(poetry, from Gerard Manley Hopkins' writings) Describing a style of poetry or language which can only be created by poets, but not in the language of inspiration.


JDT

(journalism, medicine) Initialism of Journal of Dermatological Treatment.


rhyme royal

en-noun

rhyme royal (countable and uncountable, plural rhymes royal)

rhymes royal (plural)
rime royal (alternative)

This term was reportedly first used in the mid-1800s.

Perhaps the most engaging of the Rowley poems are "An Excelente Balade of Charitie," written in the rhyme royal; and "The Bristowe Tragedie," in the common ballad stanza.

1898, Henry Augustin Beers, chapter 10, in 18th Century: A History of English Romanticism:

(uncountable, poetry) A form of English verse consisting of seven-line stanzas of iambic pentameter having a rhyme scheme of ababbcc, first represented in English in works by Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400).

Chaucer for years before the Prologue to LGW had been writing heroic couplets at the close of each of his rhymes royal.

1938 Jan, H. S. V. Jones, “Brief Mention”, in The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, volume 37, number 1, page 126:

(countable, poetry) A single stanza of this form.


capsule review

(chiefly journalism) A short critique, ranging anywhere from a single sentence to a few hundred words in length, of an artistic work.


dodoitsu

(poetry) A specific form of Japanese poem without rhyme, having lines of 7-7-7-5 morae.


kharja

Borrowed from Arabic خَرْجَة (ḵarja, literally “final”).

bor+

(poetry) The final refrain of a muwashshah.


thirteener

thirteeners (plural)
Thirteener (alternative)

From thirteen + -er (suffix denoting people characterized by something, or people or things to which certain measurements or numbers apply).

affix

oner · twoer · fiver · sixer · Sevener · niner · tenner · elevener · twelver · fourteener · fifteener · sixteener · hundreder · thousander · twenty-five-thousander

[T]he peculiar Latin thir'''teener so popular in the Middle Ages, and best known by the lines attributed to Mapes—Meum est propositum in taberna mori [My purpose is to die in a tavern].

1910, George Saintsbury, “Origins of Lines and Stanzas”, in Historical Manual of English Prosody, London: Macmillan and Co., […], →OCLC, book IV (Auxiliary Apparatus), page 325:

By the third decade of the eighteenth century, the syllabic line that really threatened to stay was an uncouth thing of thirteen syllables (counting the obligative feminine terminal), with a caesura after the seventh syllable: […] The order of the stresses in the thirteener went in jumps and jolts and varied from line to line. The only rule (followed only by purists) was that the seventh, caesural, syllable must bear a beat.

1964, Vladimir Nabokov, “The Origination of Metrical Verse in Russia”, in Notes on Prosody […] (Bollingen Series; LXXIIa), New York, N.Y.: Bollingen Foundation, →OCLC, page 35:

The lines are almost uniformly decasyllabic (though the syntax breaks up the iambs early in the sequence), and there are some notable exceptions which mainly cluster toward the end of the final sonnet (one line is a thirteener).

1992, Peter Quartermain, “‘Not at All Surprised by Science’: Louis Zukofsky’s First Half of ‘A’ – 9”, in Disjunctive Poetics: From Gertrude Stein and Louis Zukofsky to Susan Howe (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 74:

The term "poulter's measure"—a poulter was a poultry retailer—was originally a joke-name based on the fact that if one bought a dozen eggs in Tudor England a thirteenth was free, like the later "baker's dozen." Thirteener, or poulter's measure, meant couplets (two rhymed lines), the first with six accents or strong beats, the second with seven (often with twelve beats, then fourteen). […] The resembles the standard ballad rhythm, as in Samual Coleridge's famous Rime of the Ancient Mariner: "Water, water, everywhere / And not a drop to drink."

1999, Alan Hager, “The Narrative Source of Romeo and Juliet”, in Understanding Romeo and Juliet: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents (Literature in Context), Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 70:

[…] I would first agree with [Earl] Wasserman that the last line ["[shapes] Which walk upon the sea, and chaunt melodiously"] alludes to Jesus walking on water, the point of the allusion being the kerygmatic expression of a form of transcendence, which is more or less specified by the way the other hemistych of this remarkably balanced thirteener – "and chaunt melodiously" – recalls how it is on the breath of enamored air and song that all the vigorously launched members and voices of this scene are sustaining their courses.

2011, Edward T. Duffy, “Recounting Reverses, Recovering the Initiative: Act II of Prometheus Unbound”, in The Constitution of Shelley’s Poetry: The Argument of Language in Prometheus Unbound (Anthem Nineteenth-century Series), London; New York, N.Y.: Anthem Press, →ISBN, page 144:

(poetry) A thirteen-syllable line or series of lines in a poem.


paradelle

Coined by Billy Collins circa 1997; believed to be from a blend of parody + villanelle.

(poetry) A ridiculously restrictive poetic form consisting of four sestets that must repeat lines and reuse all previous words according to a fixed pattern.


Balaam box

(slang, archaic, journalism) A receptacle for rejected articles.


oxia

From the Ancient Greek ὀξεῖᾰ (oxeîă), an elliptical use for ἡ ὀξεῖᾰ προσῳδῐ́ᾱ (hē oxeîă prosōidĭ́ā, “the acute accent”) — ἡ (hē, the nominative feminine singular form of ὁ, ho, “the”, the definite article) + ὀξεῖᾰ (okseia, the nominative feminine singular form of ὀξῠ́ς, oksus, “sharp”, of sound “shrill”, of tones “high-pitched”) + προσῳδῐ́ᾱ (prosōdiā, “variation in pitch of the speaking voice”, “pronunciation of a syllable on a certain pitch”, “a mark [i.e., a diacritic] indicating normally unwritten differences of pronunciation, viz. vowel quantity, breathing, and pitch”).

(orthography and typography) An Ancient Greek pitch-marking diacritic: ⟨ ´ ⟩; written atop vowels, it denotes high pitch on short vowels, and rising pitch on long vowels and diphthongs.

οξεία

Ancient Greek diacritic marking high or rising pitch


chapter book

Such books are typically divided into short chapters, to suit limited attention spans.

(authorship) An illustrated storybook intended for intermediate readers, generally aged from 7 to 10.


secretary hand

en-noun

secretary hand (countable and uncountable, plural secretary hands)

secretary hands (plural)
Secretary hand (alternative)

It is written in three different Secretary hands: the first finishing at stanza 9 but with stanzas unnumbered,[…].

1961, Bernard Mellor, The Poems of Sir Francis Hubert, page 280:

When Mercy Harvey advised the nobleman to imitate her handwriting, she specified that he should write the address on the outside of the letter in "a small raggid secretary hand."

1998, Eve Rachele Sanders, Gender and Literacy on Stage in Early Modern England, page 173:

There are five scribes, all using variations on Secretary hands consistent with the third quarter of the fifteenth century.

2004, “Introduction”, in Stephen H. A. Shepherd, editor, Turpines Story, page xvi:

While originating at the end of the medieval period, the secretary hand was not widely employed until the early modern period, by which time it had completely displaced the earlier court hands.

2004, “Introduction”, in Helen Ostovich, Elizabeth Sauer, editors, Reading Early Modern Women: An Anthology of Texts in Manuscript and Print, 1550 - 1700, page 7:

Most authors, including dramatists, used both a separate secretary and an italic hand; in many cases the secretary hand was used for composing (that is, cursive or fluent) writing and italic for more formal copying.

2006, Grace Ioppolo, Dramatists and Their Manuscripts in the Age of Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton and Heywood, page 84:

(historical, calligraphy) A style of handwriting developed in Europe and used during the 16th and 17th centuries for writing English, German, Welsh and Gaelic; a variety of this style.


chancery hand

chancery hands (plural)
Chancery hand (alternative)

It begins like a transcript, at the top of the page, without the least appearance or form of an intended original : it is written in the common secretary hand of ,the age, which Crawford mistook for a chancery hand;[…].

1819, Malcolm Laing, The History of Scotland, volume 1, page 373:

Her name, from Crawford's example of it, seems to me to be written in the same chancery hand, which renders the supposed forgery a mere copy, mistaken by Welwood for the original.

1830, John Pinkerton, The Literary Correspondence of John Pinkerton, Esq., volume 2, page 112:

But, unlike his posterity, Hercolani did not carry this sort of pleasantry too far, and his book remains a splendid specimen of the late chancery hand distinguished by decorative treatment of the ascenders and descenders and a discreet flourishing of initial and terminal letters.

2009, Stanley Morison, Selected Essays on the History of Letter-forms in Manuscript and Print, page 165:

(calligraphy, historical) Either of two styles of handwriting: a written form of black letter used in France and England from about 1350, developed in the Lateran chancelry in the 13th century, or a style of cursive handwriting introduced in the 1420s by Niccolò de' Niccoli, developed from humanist minuscule; a variety of either of these styles.


ambush journalism

De Niro spokesman Stan Rosenfield said the actor was the victim of a new breed of "rat crew" video paparazzi who provoke celebrities into scenes and then sell the footage to high-paying tabloid television shows. "When our forefathers wrote the Constitution guaranteeing freedom of the press, they did not know about rat video packs who engage in ambush journalism," Rosenfield said.

1995 October 9, George Rush, “Raging De Niro flips lid over vid”, in New York Daily News, retrieved 2014-04-20:

Television entrapment isn't new: the "Dateline" segments echo Mike Wallace's hidden-camera ambushes on "60 Minutes" in the 70's. . . . But the program's success seems to be inspiring others to try their own brand of ambush journalism.

2006 May 17, Alessandra Stanley, “Gotcha! 'Dateline' Paves a Walk of Shame for Online Predators”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-04-20:

Weir's quarry, Kevin Trudeau, complained about "ambush journalism" when the correspondent stopped him on a Zurich street.

2013 June 10, David Bauder, “ABC's 'The Lookout' a new outlet for 'Nightline'”, in Businessweek, retrieved 2014-04-20:

(journalism) A tactic used by a news reporter who intercepts an uncooperative individual in an unexpected place, such as a sidewalk or parking lot, in order to pose questions to that individual and elicit spur-of-the-moment responses.


Carolingian minuscule

Carolingian minuscule (usually uncountable, plural Carolingian minuscules)

The Carolingian minuscule, which we have already found brought to perfection at Tours and at other centres of France, was the literary hand of the Frankish Empire, and extended its influence and was gradually adopted in neighbouring countries.

1912, Edward Maunde Thompson, An Introduction to Greek and Latin Palaeography, published 2013, page 403:

The Carolingian empire did not endure past the 9th century; yet Carolingian minuscule survived in France well into the 12th century, as it continued to be the preferred style of writing in monastic book production.

1995, William W. Kibler, editor, Medieval France: An Encyclopedia, page 1304:

Later Merovingian hands, however, often from Italy and drawing heavily from half uncials, prefigured the later Carolingian minuscule and achieved a certain graceful legibility.

2001, Steven Roger Fischer, History of Writing, published 2003, page 247:

(calligraphy, historical) A script developed to standardise writing in the Latin alphabet throughout the Holy Roman Empire, used between approximately 800 and 1200 CE.

Written in black ink in Carolingian minuscules, holdings are identified by reference to the vill in which they were situated and their assessment is noted, whilst the lord in 1086 is indicated by an interlineation in red in the same hand.

2000, David Roffe, Domesday: The Inquest and the Book, page 85:

(calligraphy, usually in the plural) A character written in the script.


Leonine verse

Leonine verse (countable and uncountable, plural Leonine verses)

(poetry) A kind of medieval Latin verse, generally alternative hexameter and pentameter, with rhyming at the middle and end of a line (that is, internal rhyme); also, the form of such verse.


male rhyme

male rhyme (countable and uncountable, plural male rhymes)

(poetry) A rhyme in which only the last syllable agrees, as in "laid", "afraid", "dismayed".


foreign correspondent

foreign correspondent (plural foreign correspondents)

Oscar Vincent spent several years abroad, after graduation, acting as foreign correspondent of his father's paper.

1874, Horatio Alger, chapter 36, in Risen from the Ranks:

"Couldn't you be foreign correspondent for your newspaper?"
"We've good men in every European capital now. They've no use for more."

1922, Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton, chapter 35, in Black Oxen:

Now that my spell as a foreign correspondent for The New York Times has ended and I’ve come back home—if a place counts as home when you’ve been away for so long—I’ve had some time to think about how Britain and America have changed.

2013 Auugst 17, Sarah Lyall, "Dispatch: Ta-Ta, London. Hello, Awesome.," New York Times (18 June 2014)

(journalism) A reporter or freelance journalist who is based in a foreign country, and who provides news reports and/or commentary from that place.


spox

Modification of the first syllable of spokesman or spokesperson.

Offerdahl, Samantha PRESS SECY & SPOX SO-221

2018 September 14, Senate Telephone Directory: 2018, U.S. Government Printing Office, →ISBN, page 110:

2022 November 11, Lara Seligman, Alexander Ward, Matt Berg, Lawrence Ukenye, “DoD’s new spox gives us his first interview”, in National Security Daily, Politico, retrieved 2023-05-23:

(journalism slang or informal) Abbreviation of spokesperson (primarily used in headlines).


protag

When things have gotten as bad as they can get for the protags, with seemingly no way out, just as they are about to be overpowered by the superior horrific force, something enables them to triumph […]

2008, Robert Brewer, The Craft & Business Of Writing, page 116:

(informal, fiction, writing) Clipping of protagonist.


logaoedic

/lɒɡəˈiːdɪk/

From Latin logaoedicus, from Ancient Greek λογᾰοιδῐκός (logăoidĭkós), from λόγος (lógos, “speech, prose”) + ἀοιδή (aoidḗ, “song”) + -ῐκός (-ĭkós, “-ic”).

affix

logaedic (alternative)
logaœdic (alternative)

Hence this metre was frequently used by the Æolians, and their strophes were principally formed by connecting logaœdic rhythms with trochees, iambi, and Æolic dactyls.

1840, Karl Otfried Müller (author of the original German), George Cornewall Lewis (translator of chapters I–XXII), “The Æolic School of Lyric Poetry.” (chapter XIII, pages 164–189), in History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Library of Useful Knowledge), volume I, London: printed by William Clowes and Sons for Baldwin and Cradock, page 171:

The Glyconeus, which has a logaœdic order.

1844, Major, Guide Gr. Trag., second edition, page 159:

Anapæstic Logaœdics are identical in their rhythm with…Logaœdic Dactyls.

1855, Linwood, Greek Tragic Metres, page 79:

The essential difference between choreic and logaoedic rhythm is that of ictus.

1883, Jebb, Œdipus Tyran., Introduction, page 72:

(poetry) Of any metre rhythmically intermediate between ordinary speech (or prose) and song (or poetry), typically combining dactyls and trochees.

logaœdique

of metres rhythmically between speech and song


logaoedic

logaoedics (plural)
logaedic (alternative)
logaœdic (alternative)

/lɒɡəˈiːdɪk/

Chorees and logaoedics can be extended to Series of six measures.

1879, J. W. White, transl., Schmidt’s Rhythmic & Metric, § 21, page 65:


brevis in longo

(poetry, Greek and Latin meter) The situation where a short syllable at the end of a line can be counted as long.


wire copy

en-noun

wire copy (countable and uncountable, plural wire copies)

When you have read the wire copy carefully, set it aside and tell the story in your own words. Talk it into your computer or your typewriter. Refer to the wire copy only to check details, such as numbers and the spelling of proper names.

1994, Edward Bliss, Writing News for Broadcast, page 145:

(journalism) A news item published by a wire service.


undecasyllabic

The subdivision forms octave stanzas of the Italian form, undecasyllabic triple measure, in feminine rhyme, of triple alternating lines, with a finishing couplet.

1886, Hubert Howe Bancroft, The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft: History of Central America. 1886-1887, page 61:

(linguistics, poetry) Having eleven syllables.


smooth breathing

smooth breathing (plural smooth breathings)

(orthography) A diacritic mark (᾿/◌̓) in Ancient, Medieval and Modern Greek used to indicate the absence of aspiration for an initial vowel, and sometimes for rho, e.g. ἀ, ῤ


HFR

(journalism) Initialism of hold for release.


crossline

(journalism) A small headline running across one or more columns, but not extending to the full width of the page.


partheniac

Borrowed from Ancient Greek παρθένος (parthénos, “maiden; virgin”) + -ac.

bor

(Ancient Greek and Latin poetry) of or pertaining to some form of irregular anapestic meter


partheniac

partheniacs (plural)
Partheniac (alternative)

(Ancient Greek and Latin poetry, obsolete) a line of partheniac meter


Partheniac

From Ancient Greek παρθένος (parthénos, “maiden; virgin”) + -ac.

(Ancient Greek and Latin poetry, obsolete) Alternative form of partheniac.


Partheniac

Partheniacs (plural)
partheniac (alternative)


isosyllabism

From isosyllabic + -ism, from iso- + syllabic.

(linguistics, poetry) the use of isosyllabic verse


isosyllabic

(linguistics, poetry) of or pertaining to metrical systems in which syllables are of equal length

isosyllabique

of meters with syllables of equal length


anisosyllabic

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-anisosyllabic.wav

From aniso- + syllabic or an- + iso- + syllabic.

(linguistics, poetry) of or pertaining to metrical systems in which syllables are of differing lengths

anisosillabico

of meters with syllables of differing length


anisosyllabism

From anisosyllabic + -ism, from an- + iso- + syllabic.

(linguistics, poetry) the use of anisosyllabic verse


isosyllabicity

From isosyllabic + -ity, from iso- + syllabic.


Raj

(India, journalism) Abbreviation of Rajasthan.


pool spray

When we are not holding we are most likely "rolling"—hustling to get on a bus to go to things like a "bilat pool spray" (a photo-op of a bilateral meeting between the president and some world leader).

2002 July 2, Martha Brant, “West Wing Story: Pool-Duty Survival Kit”, in Newsweek, retrieved 2015-03-04:

Pool spray is the term for an event where a representative pool of journalists is brought in to record the president meeting with a foreign leader or discussing a policy initiative.

[2010 February 4, Peter Baker, “Few News Conferences, but Still Taking Questions”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

First comes the “pool spray,” where the two leaders exchange pleasantries before the cameras.

2010 November 13, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Reporter’s Notebook: Heartfelt Moments on an Up-and-Down Global Trip”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-03-04:

At an international summit […] [t]he press is let in only for a few moments at the beginning or the end in what is known as a "pool spray." Sometimes the world leaders say a few words; other times, they pretend not to notice the reporters and keep interacting in a stilted way.

2014 November 16, David Nakamura, “Watch: President Obama reacts to media scrum in Brisbane”, in Washington Post, retrieved 2015-03-04:

(US politics, journalism) An event in which photographers and other members of the news media are allowed to visit briefly with the US President or other top US government officials, especially on the occasion of a meeting with leaders or high-level officials from other countries.


Alcmanian

en-adj

Alcmanian (comparative more Alcmanian, superlative most Alcmanian)

more Alcmanian (comparative)
most Alcmanian (superlative)

(poetry) A verse comprising four dactyls, a dactylic tetrameter.


subdeck

If there's a strapline or subdeck, write these after the main deck and don't use the same words. A strapline goes above the main headline and a subdeck below it.

2005, Richard Keeble, Print Journalism: A Critical Introduction, page 114:


ottava rima

en-noun

ottava rima (usually uncountable, plural ottave rime)

/ɒˌtɑːvə ˈɹiːmə/

/oʊˌtɑvə ˈɹimə/

Borrowed from Italian ottava rima (literally “eighth rhyme”).

bor

(poetry) An arrangement of stanzas of eight lines in heroic verse, with three rhymes, the first six lines rhyming alternately and the last two forming a couplet (ab ab ab cc).

օկտավ

arrangement of stanzas of eight lines rhyming ab ab ab cc


arsic

(poetry) Of the elevation of the voice in pronouncing the syllables of a word, usually the part of the word or phrase upon which the stress or accent falls.

(poetry) Of the part of the metrical foot upon which such an elevation falls.


self-publish

en-verb

self-publish (third-person singular simple present self-publishes, present participle self-publishing, simple past and past participle self-published)

self-publishes (present singular third-person)
self-publishing (participle present)
self-published (participle past)
self-published (past)
self-pub (alternative)
selfpub (alternative)

(authorship) To publish a work independently, without the assistance of a publishing company.


trad-pub

trad-pubs (plural)
tradpub (alternative)
trad pub (alternative)

traditional publisher
traditional publisher

(authorship) A work that has been published through a third-party publishing company, or a traditional publisher.


trad-pub

trad-pub (third-person singular simple present trad-pubs, present participle trad-pubbing, simple past and past participle trad-pubbed)

trad-pubs (present singular third-person)
trad-pubbing (participle present)
trad-pubbed (participle past)
trad-pubbed (past)
tradpub (alternative)
trad pub (alternative)

(authorship, informal) To publish a work via a third-party publishing company, or traditional publisher.


said-bookism

From The Said Book + -ism; coined by James Blish, writing under the pen name William Atheling Jr., after The Said Book, the title of a booklet for aspiring writers listing countless alternatives to the word “said” in writing dialogue.

Jim Blish once dedicated a book to me. He introduced me to the music of Charles Ives, to the taste of Vander Flip, to the urgency of avoiding the said-bookism, to the concept of the watershed, to the pleasures of Indo-Ceylonese food.

1980, Harlan Ellison, Shatterday, Houghton Mifflin, Dedication

(authorship, rare) A verb (such as "explained", "shouted", or "uttered") used to indicate dialogue when writing fiction, chosen so as to avoid using the word "said".

(authorship, uncountable) The studious avoidance, in writing dialogue, of the word "said".


opinion piece

(journalism) An article in which the author expresses his or her personal opinion on a given subject.


cityside

Now he is a cityside reporter being shifted from beat to beat, learning the ropes, learning Chicago, upward bound.

1988 July 22, Michael Miner, “A Doc and His Sox; Hotshot, Potshots: The Sun-Times Grooms a Star”, in Chicago Reader, archived from the original on 2015-10-31:


hit piece

hit pieces (plural)
hit-piece (alternative)

Coordinate term: puff piece

And respectable media institutions do have their standards, but there is something insidious—and very human—at work in the preparation of a hit piece: the media's desire to believe in the evil of their targets.

2013, Eric Dezenhall, John Weber, Damage Control […] , Easton Studio Press, →ISBN, page 126:

“This isn't a profile, my dear sister-in-law, it's a hit piece.” “A hit piece?” Buck unfolded his copy of the Spectator and began looking for Anne's byline. “It's on page three,” Pearce told him helpfully.

2014, Karen Young, Belle Pointe, Harlequin, →ISBN:

She seemed so exacting and the magazine itself so impossibly glamorous to my college-kid sensibility, and did I really want to do a hit piece on an actor? […] And so the plan was set in motion: I would meet the actor Judd Nelson, find him appalling, and write about how awful hanging out with him had been.

2019, Bret Easton Ellis, White, Pan Macmillan, →ISBN:

(journalism) A published article or post aiming to sway public opinion, especially by presenting false or biased information in a way that appears objective and truthful.


heptapody

From hepta- + -pody, from Ancient Greek ἑπτά (heptá, “seven”) and πούς, ποδός (poús, podós, “foot”).

(poetry) A measure or series consisting of seven feet.


copytaker

He solved the problem of his word blindness by dictating his stories and columns to the copytakers that all newspapers once relied on (and who, as he correctly notes, would tend to undermine the favourite paragraphs of wordsmith reporters with the weary words: “Is there much more of this?”)

2015 November 15, Tim Adams, “Pour Me: A Life by AA Gill review – from drunk to doyen of Fleet Street”, in The Observer:

(journalism, historical) A person employed to type up news stories telephoned in by reporters.


Catullan

en-adj

Catullan (comparative more Catullan, superlative most Catullan)

more Catullan (comparative)
most Catullan (superlative)

He does so chiefly by employing graphic language (especially related to passive homosexual acts) which calls into sexual question the virility of the Catullan persona.

1996, Christopher John Nappa, The man and the mask : persona, character, and technique in the poems of Catullus:

(poetry) Of or relating to the ancient poet Catullus.


hexapody

en-noun

hexapody (countable and uncountable, plural hexapodies)

From hexa- + -pody, from Ancient Greek ἑξα- (hexa-, “six”) and πούς, ποδός (poús, podós, “foot”).

(poetry, countable) A verse or measure of six metrical feet.


longform

a longform article; a longform news broadcast

(journalism, broadcasting) Longer and more detailed than is normal.


shortform

a shortform article; a shortform news broadcast

(journalism, broadcasting) Relatively short and punchy, lacking detail or in-depth analysis.


long-form

(journalism) Alternative form of longform.


hendecameter

(poetry, rare) A line of verse containing eleven metrical feet.


service journalism

(journalism) A type of media which is focused on providing advice or other consumer-oriented content.


unfooted

an unfooted schwa


gotcha journalism

(journalism, derogatory) The use, by journalists, of interviewing methods designed to entrap interviewees into making statements that are damaging or discreditable to themselves.


(journalism) Initialism of who, what, where, when, why (, how) (“the facts of the matter”).


reax

"Iraqi Reax to WikiLeaks"

2010 October 22, Elizabeth Heron, Stephen Farrell, “The War Logs: Newly Disclosed Iraq War Reports”, in The New York Times:

(journalism) Clipping of reaction or reactions.


preslug

en-verb

preslug (third-person singular simple present preslugs, present participle preslugging, simple past and past participle preslugged)

preslugs (present singular third-person)
preslugging (participle present)
preslugged (participle past)
preslugged (past)

I came to Virginia from Bloomington, Indiana, where I had gone in pursuit of a story we at the Tatler had preslugged "The Violence Teachers."

1995, James Lehrer, The Last Debate, →ISBN, page 56:

(journalism) To give a title, header, or catchline before writing the piece.


gooseberry season

en-noun

gooseberry season (plural gooseberry seasons)

(dated, idiomatic, British slang, journalism) A period, usually during the summertime, when news media tend to place increased emphasis on reporting light-hearted, offbeat, or bizarre stories.


monorimed

(poetry) Alternative form of monorhymed.


(journalism) Initialism of five Ws: who, what, when, where, why, how (the facts of the matter).


Balaam basket

(slang, archaic, journalism) A receptacle for rejected articles.


saturnian

en-adj

saturnian (comparative more saturnian, superlative most saturnian)

more saturnian (comparative)
most saturnian (superlative)


tenson

Kolsen himself (op. cit., II, p. 16) remarks that it seems surprising that, at this early stage in a career which dated only from about 1165 (cf. Jeanroy, op. cit. II, p. 51, note 2), Giraut should address his interlocutor, Raimbaut, in the familiar second person in contrast with his much more formal manner a few years later in the tenson on trobar clus, placed by Pattison shortly before Christmas, 1170 (op. cit., p. 23). One may wonder why Giraut should write his part of the tenson with such deference to Raimbaut if they had met and written together as early as 1166.

1976, Peire Rogier, Derek E. T. Nicholson, The Poems of the Troubadour Peire Rogier, →ISBN, page 25:

Another type of medieval text that could highlight conflicting perspectives is the Provencal lyric form called the tenson. The tenson involves a dialogue between two voices that take turns discussing a subject, either in alternating stanzas or in two groups of stanzas that mirror each other in form. In most cases, the two halves of a tenson are attributed to different poets, who in effect engage in an exchange or debate that is then presented as a single work, creating a paradox of unity and difference, closure and inconclusiveness.

1998, Rosemarie Potz McGerr, Chaucer's Open Books: Resistance to Closure in Medieval Discourse, →ISBN:

In Gryll Grange, however, the tenson functions as the basis for the advancement of the plot (which is the production of an Aristophanic comedy) and characterises the continual debate between what is uttered (e.g^([sic]) the name Palestine Soup) and what is not uttered (the word-associational etymology that Dr. Opimian offers for the name).

2014, David Musgrave, Grotesque Anatomies: Menippean Satire since the Renaissance, →ISBN:

(poetry) A form of lyric poem used by troubadours in Provençal in which two voices present different sides of an argument, in alternate stanzas, lines, or groups of lines with identical structure.


microformal

Other microformal characteristics also mark these traditional, oral tales, such as the absence of the necessary enjambment — the basic element is the line or the hemistich, as also in the romancero -- and what Parry calls the thrift of formulaic art ("each position in the verse tends to allow one way rather than many ways of saying any one thing" if we are speaking of a single bard), a quality also found in Hesiod.

1993, Claudio Guillén, The challenge of comparative literature - Volume 42, page 174:

Shakespeare's microformal analysis is the commensurate response to a world of forms emerging into and out of relation.

2010, Michael Carl Schoenfeldt, Michael Schoenfeldt, A Companion to Shakespeare's Sonnets, →ISBN, page 254:

Each of these pieces deals with the microformal elements of the text in ways that underpin my larger, structural argument about the imaginative effect of the text.

2015, Evelyn Reynolds, “Beowulf's Poetics of Absorption: Narrative Syntax and the Illusion of Stability in the Fight with Grendel's Mother”, in Essays in Medieval Studies, volume 31:

(literature, poetry) Pertaining to the characteristics and patterns of lines or phrases, as opposed to the structure of the entire work.


maqta

(poetry) The last couplet of a ghazal, typically incorporating the poet's pen name in a creative way.


silent h

Examples include the silent h in ghost (to match Dutch gheest, which later became geest), aghast, ghastly and gherkin.

2019, Carson Stewart, History of the English Language, page 178:

(orthography) A letter ⟨h⟩ that is written but not pronounced.


off stone

From the time when type was set manually on a stone slab. When the stone was finally cleared, the print run could begin.

Sunday's first edition is off stone early on Saturday evening.

(journalism, typography) A newspaper's edition is ready to start printing.


batchim

batchims (plural)
batchim (plural)
patchim (alternative)

(orthography) The final consonant (or consonant cluster) at the end of a Korean syllable.


lekythion

lekythia (plural)
lecythion (alternative)

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ληκύθιον (lēkúthion, “small oil-flask”), in reference to a passage in Aristophanes' comedy The Frogs.

bor

(poetry) In classical Greek and Latin poetry, a metric pattern defined by a sequence of seven alternating long and short syllables at the end of a verse.


freewrite

en-verb

freewrite (third-person singular simple present freewrites, present participle freewriting, simple past freewrote, past participle freewritten)

freewrites (present singular third-person)
freewriting (participle present)
freewrote (past)
freewritten (participle past)

(writing) To write continuously for a set period of time without regard to spelling, grammar, or topic.


freewrite

(writing) Something that is freewritten.


acromonogrammatic

(poetry) Having each verse begin with the same letter as that with which the preceding verse ends.


cagebelle

Having a deep background in basketball may be an advantage, but national cagebelle Bea Daez still feels the pressure as she joins the hosts of UAAP Unfront.

2015, Mei-Lin Lozada, Perlas cagebelle Bea Daez does the crossover, tries hand at UAAP hosting job:

(Philippines, sports journalism) A female basketball player; a female who plays basketball.


volleybelle

Now a part of the decorated DLSU Lady Spikers, this petite lass already showed glimpses of her skills as she, together with veteran volleybelle Charleen Cruz bagged home second honor merits in the recently concluded UAAP Beach Volleyball tournament...

2010, Green Gallery: Lady Spiker Amanda Villanueva:

(Philippines, sports journalism) A female volleyball player.


vocabularyclept

From vocabulary + Ancient Greek κλέπτω (kléptō, “I steal”).

It seems reasonable that vocabularyclept poems should be signed first by the poet of combination and second by the poet of permutation, since combination necessarily precedes permutation.

1973, Howard W. Bergerson, Palindromes and Anagrams, page 22:

The second text is just a rearrangement by word of the first; it can be seen as a “vocabularyclept” text created from the first. Here's an even simpler vocabularyclept example: This movie was a great experience, and not disappointing. This movie was not a great experience, and disappointing.

2016, Nick Montfort, Exploratory Programming for the Arts and Humanities, page 200:

(poetry) Being a form of poem that is a rearrangement of the words of an existing work.


spondaical

(poetry) Having or relating to spondees.


city desk

There were many human interest stories culled from the police-court news or from anything else that came to the city desk.

1940, Helen Hughes, News and the Human Interest Story, page 21:

(Canada, US, newspapers) The department or staff responsible for reporting and editing local news.

Many expected the then editor of the Daily Mirror, Piers Morgan, who had traded stock on the basis of his city desk's inside tips, to be fired, but he retained the support of the company, until eventually a bigger, ethical scandal involving faked pictures forced him from office.

2014, Ian Hargreaves, Journalism: A Very Short Introduction, page 87:

(British, newspapers) The department or staff responsible for reporting and editing financial and business news.


binology

(journalism, UK) the ethically questionable practice of searching through the dustbins of celebrities and other public figures to obtain information for use in tabloid newspapers


down-table

(journalism) Working as a copy editor or assistant editor, subordinate to others.


galliambus

From Latin Galli + iambus. Used by the Galli, priests of the Phrygian goddess Cybele. The first element, Ancient Greek γάλλος (gállos), was said by Ovid to be named after a Phrygian river.

(poetry) A verse consisting of four Ionics a minore, with variations and substitutions.


lenvoy

The First parte of the Mirour on its first appearance, in 1574, included sixteen tragedies and ended with the tragedy of Nennius, after which a conclusion was made in a lenvoy of five stanzas.

1946 [1574], Lily B. Campbell, “Introduction”, in John Higgins, Thomas Blenerhasset, The Mirror for Magistrates, page 7:

Ladies! Lenvoy to you that have this prize; I reed ye hold your owne, if you be wise.

1815, Thomas Park, Heliconia: A Selection of English Poetry (1575-1604), page 134:

For at the end of Bk. II. there is a lenvoy, commencing "Rome, remember of thy foundation"; it is one of the best of Lydgate's remarkable lenvoys, rendered pompous and sonorous by the monotony of its rhyme-system, for it has only three rhymes in its 126 lines (133 in Tottel's)!

1898, Wilbraham Fitzjohn Trench, A Mirror for Magistrates: Its Origin and Influence, page 20:


triple-decker

(journalism) A headline that is three lines long.

Something with three levels or storeys.
A headline that is three lines long.


redondilla

From Spanish redondilla. Doublet of rondelle.

(poetry) An early verse form in which the first and fourth and the second and third lines of the stanza generally rhymed.

(poetry) In later Spanish use, a verse of six and eight syllables in general, whether making perfect rhymes or assonances only.


miurus

From Ancient Greek μείουρος (meíouros), from μείων (meíōn, “curtailed, lesser”) + οὐρά (ourá, “tail”).

(poetry) A dactylic hexameter with short penultimate syllable.