"Brokeback" named Hollywood word of the year

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 2/28/06, Arnold M. Zwicky <zwicky at csli.stanford.edu> wrote:
>
> On Feb 28, 2006, at 4:48 PM, James Callan wrote:
>
> > LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - And the winner for Hollywood's word of the
> > year is "Brokeback," thanks to all the talk around the water cooler
> > and Internet jokes that have turned a film about two gay cowboys
> > into a cultural phenomenon.
> >
> > The nonprofit group Global Language Monitor placed "Brokeback" --
> > as in the film title "Brokeback Mountain" -- at the top of its list
> > of Hollywood words and phrases that captured attention this year.
> >
> > http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?
> > type=entertainmentNews&storyID=11356806
>
> annoyingly, they don't tell us what users think it means.
>
> feed the linguist!  feed the linguist!

Well, you might go by the gloss in this snarky Defamer post...

-----
http://www.defamer.com/hollywood/brokeback-mountain/brokeback-is-hollywood-word-of-the-year-means-gay-157431.php
A mysterious organization known only as the Global Language Monitor
has released its annual list of the year's most influential "Hollywood
words and phrases." Using advanced and sophisticated tracking
techniques available to anyone with access to Google, the group has
decreed "Brokeback"–that highly evocative cluster of geographical
peaks and valleys on the map of the human heart that has quickly
turned into yet another synonym for "faggy"–as Hollywood's word of the
year.
-----

Good jab about GLM's "sophisticated tracking techniques". They go on
to make fun of some of the other entries on the list ("Vincifer",
etc.). At least *someone* out there isn't taking this stuff seriously.


--Ben Zimmer

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