Friday, January 16, 2009

Etymological Note

I recently read two different origins for a word I use a lot (maybe too much), "blockbuster."

Some say it was coined in the 1920s for a movie whose line was so long that it couldn't be contained on one block.

A more common explanation is it's WWII slang for huge bombs.

I don't know which is right, though the second explanation sounds correct. I believe it's known for sure the phrase was used that way during WWII, while the first explanation sounds like a just so story. Of course, it'd be easy enough to find out the answer for anyone willing to do the research. Maybe someone has. I'm too lazy to find out.

3 Comments:

Blogger New England Guy said...

I always thought (unconciously at least) that the word was sort of an "outside of the box"-type concoction (which I think is a relatively recent phrase)meaning that the thing being described was so enormously big that you couldn't contain in its block or box (of course I know of no companion phrase "boxbuster" so this theory is sounding more and more dubious)

5:22 AM, January 16, 2009  
Blogger New England Guy said...

A little follow-up research- according to worldwide words (sorry-lost the link), the term "blockbuster" as a bomb is English in derivation and "block" in the English sense means a series of interconnected buildings (i.e. a large apartment building) not an entire city block (which is the American sense of the word "block")

5:31 AM, January 16, 2009  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

As in "a block of flats."

12:17 PM, January 16, 2009  

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