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:

(sen-truhl KAS-ting)

MEANING:

adjective: Stereotypical.
noun: A company or department that provides actors for minor or background roles, often based on stereotypical appearances.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Central Casting, a company founded in 1925 to cast actors for minor roles in film and television. Earliest documented use: 1941.

NOTES:

Directors typically cast major roles themselves, but minor roles are often outsourced to agencies like Central Casting. The term is often used in the phrase “straight out of central casting”, referring to someone who perfectly fits a familiar type, say, a grizzled detective or a slick politician.

It may be fine to cast actors who look the part. The trouble begins when leaders select people for real-world positions for their photogenic profiles rather than substance. Life isn’t a casting call.

For another week of movie words, see movies that became words from our archives.

USAGE:

“Joey turned back, catching his own reflection in the mirror. He liked the way he was coming into his look. ... Closer to the central casting look of a man of authority. Someone not to be questioned.”
Peter Blauner; Sunrise Highway; St. Martin’s; 2018.

“[Rishi Sunak] is sometimes imagined as a social liberal ... yet his CV is straight from Tory central casting: Winchester College, Oxford University, and the true-blue farming constituency of Richmond, in North Yorkshire.”
Smiles Atop the Rubble; The Economist (London, UK); Oct 29, 2022.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: