|
|
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 1
stranger
|
OP
stranger
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 1 |
I'd like to know current usuages of the word "prime time", especially used as an adjective. I'm urgently need some explanations and examples about the word.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Dear megafrog,
Cute name. Would love to know the derivation!
Prime time would be the time of day, generally between 7 and 11 pm, when the television audience would be the greatest.
I can't think of numerous examples of applications of prime time as an adjective, but here are some obvious ones:
prime time television
prime time audience
prime time viewers
prime time listeners
prime time viewing habits
prime time television show surveys
prime time news
...that kind of application.
Hope this is roughly what you're looking for. If not, just clarify your question.
Best regards,
WW
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
perhaps FROG is looking for ways in which the "original" TV usage has been transferred, in which case I would recommend a google or three.
e.g.; The Grand Central Racquet Club+charges the highest fee I know of for renting either of its two courts—forty-five dollars an hour in prime time. - New Yorker
but prime-time is more interesting than it would appear at first blush--our usage is actually a renewal of a term whose obsolete senses include 1) springtime or spring and 2) the early age of the world.
"It befel in the primetime of the worlde." -Golding, De Mornay
(adjectival usages are left as an exercize for the student :)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
our usage is actually a renewal of a term whose obsolete senses include 1) springtime or spring and 2) the early age of the world.
Ah - inherited from the French primtemps, peut-etre?
speaking of which, where's belM?
Only just occurs to me that prim ("prim and proper") is probably related. And then you have "primrose"..
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Multi-sport legend Deion Sanders was known as Prime Time. Others more versed in his lore may be able to tell you whether or not he got that cognomen before his TV show Prime Time NFL Starring Deion Sanders.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771 |
Um, Shona? Isn't it printemps, with an n? French is not my specialty, but your first m doesn't look right.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
Isn't it printemps, with an n?
sacré bleu! that's rite!
formerly known as etaoin...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Reading this printemps=prime time connection makes me think of the Target/Wal-Mart comments.
Is this pretty much the joke in the parts of the US where one finds Wal-Marts and Target stores?
Here's how the little joke works--and it is a very little joke.
You ask someone where he bought a shirt.
He says at Target, but he pronounces the "g" as the French "zsh" and the "et" as an "ay" Or:..."Tar-zshay"
The little joke is Tarzshay is the upper class Wal-Mart. And, of course, there's no real upper class involved here at all. It's just Target is a cut above--so it's reported--above Wal-Mart, the super bargain center.
Now how does this tangent connect to prime time and printemps? I was just thinking that it would be humorous to refer to prime time television as printemps télévision. I'm probably the only person this sounds humorous to, but I'll go ahead and post this post and just laugh softly to myself.
Best regards,
WW
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
residing, as I do, in the original home of Target, which has outlasted its parent Day-ton's as a retail touchstone, it was (ironically) called Tarzhay long before Walmart came along.
(Dayton's has been swallowed whole by Marshall Fields)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
but then Wal-mart is pronounced " Valmar", and another regional chain, Ames, is " Ah-mehs. and the joke goes on.... 
formerly known as etaoin...
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,373
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
1 members (wofahulicodoc),
166
guests, and
2
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
