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Oct 24, 2017
This week’s theme
Coined words

This week’s words
mimsy
scare quote
proxemics
muppet
bafflegab

scare quote
Columbus, “Discoverer of America”

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

scare quote

PRONUNCIATION:
(SKAIR kwoht)

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

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

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

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

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness. -Brenda Ueland, journalist, editor, and writer (24 Oct 1891-1985)

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