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Jun 2, 2025
This week’s themeWords with movie connections This week’s words Keystone cop 
Poster: Orion Pictures / Wikimedia Previous week’s theme Whose what? 
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu GargThere was a time I went to the movies several times a week. Comedy, romance, adventure, biopics... anything was fair game, except horror. I prefer my heart rate below 180. There’s something magical about how, in just two hours, they conjure a whole world, introduce characters, raise the stakes, resolve it all (mostly), and still leave time for end credits and a catchy theme song. On the way home, my writer’s gears would start whirring like a vintage film reel, analyzing the plot, the pacing, the performances. Who nailed it? Who phoned it in? And how would I rewrite the ending? Then came Covid, and my ticket stubs were replaced by running shoes and later dance shoes. This week, we’ll roll the reel on five words with ties to the silver screen, some coined by films, some spotlighted by them, others straight out of the movie biz. What are the movies that have stayed with you years after the credits rolled, the ones you still quote, still think about, still recommend? Share below or email us at words@wordsmith.org. Don’t forget to include your location (city & state). No need for the zip code unless it’s part of the plot twist. And if you’ve ever worked in film, whether in front of the camera, behind it, or even as the hand holding the boom mic in a student short, we’d love to hear about that too. Lights. Camera. Lexicon! Rambo
PRONUNCIATION:
(RAM-bo)
MEANING:
noun: A violently aggressive person, especially one who disregards rules or authority.
ETYMOLOGY:
After John Rambo, Vietnam veteran protagonist of the 1982 film First
Blood, based on David Morrell’s 1972 novel of the same name. Earliest
documented use: 1985.
NOTES:
Especially after the release of the sequels (Rambo: First Blood
Part II, etc.) the quiet character Rambo became emblematic of
hypermasculine, militarized aggression. Not to be confused with Rimbaud,
the French poet. One wields a machine gun, the other a metaphor. Both,
however, can leave a room in stunned silence.
USAGE:
“Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine just promoted the arming of teachers as the answer
to school shootings. ... But by militarizing Miss Landers and turning Mr.
Rogers into Rambo, the Buckeye governor put a bullseye on the backs of
every teacher and student and shredded the rule of reason in the process.” Richard Dawahare; Adding Guns Diverts Us From True Solutions; Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky); Jul 3, 2022. “‘According to Spiegel’ Ray notes ‘Americans are warmongers, mercenaries, cowboys, Rambos, religious nuts, and conceited bungling occupiers who have created a catastrophe-disaster-debacle-quagmire-civil war in the Middle East.’” A Spiegel Catalog of Anti-Americanism; The Weekly Standard (Washington, DC); Jul 31, 2006. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness
underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest
things. -Thomas Hardy, novelist and poet (2 Jun 1840-1928)
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