TV Words

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 12/11/06, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
>
> I believe the "TV words" of interest in this conversation a few days ago were
> mostly spoken (and thence popularized) by fictional characters on television
> shows.  But "non-fiction" TV has also contributed to the general lexicon, either
> coining or popularizing words.
>
> I'm thinking of "bridezilla," which I have heard several times recently in reference
> to specific young women who were in the (cantankerous) process of getting
> hitched; a graduate student of mine even referred to herself by that appellation.

There are cites on wedding newsgroups back to Mar. 1996:

-----
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.wedding/msg/4d5b841d43fe9ad1
alt.wedding, "We Want A Smoke-free wedding", Mar 26 1996
I can see why so many bridal consultants use the term "Bridezilla" to
synopsize the feeling of "It's my wedding and I want everything MY
way."
-----

> I expect there are other suffixed "-zilla" words?

"Tenser, said the Tensor" lists several:

http://tenser.typepad.com/tenser_said_the_tensor/2005/03/zilla.html


--Ben Zimmer

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org