This week’s theme
Words with movie connections

This week’s words
Rambo
Keystone cop
big chill
bunny boiler
central casting

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(BUH-nee boy-luhr)

MEANING:

noun: A person who is dangerously obsessive and vengeful, especially when spurned.

ETYMOLOGY:

After a character in the 1987 film Fatal Attraction who boils a pet rabbit belonging to the family of a married man who has an affair with her but then spurns her. Earliest documented use: 1990.

NOTES:

As the playwright William Congreve said in 1697: "Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned." In Fatal Attraction, that fury came with a pot of boiling water.

While the term is vivid shorthand for obsessive behavior, it often reflects a double standard: strong emotional reactions in women are pathologized, while similar behavior in men may be cast as tragic or intense.

USAGE:

"Heigl plays Tessa, a Malibu supermom who turns bunny boiler after her stubble-bearded hubby David (Geoff Stults), a Wall Street hotshot turned California microbrewer, dumps her for his new lover Julia."
Peter Howell; This Revenge Thriller Is Easily Forgettable; Toronto Star (Canada); Apr 21, 2017.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: