"atmospheric," n.

[Dave Wilton]

Normally you see it in the plural, "atmospherics." It is actually quite
common in marketing and political circles, and I'm surprised that
dictionaries haven't picked it up.

Atmospherics are the general ambience, mood, and background that influence
opinion. So Crowley is saying that the single poll number is probably
important by itself, but it will be one of many factors contributing to a
negative opinion of the Democrats.

See:

"Atmospherics [...] elements of store's ambience, which can be studied and
controlled by a retailer to influence  the consumer's buying mood."
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/atmospherics.html

"I've always wanted to get a feel for the physical and psychic landscape of
the time [...] in other words, the "atmospherics" of a situation.
http://www.jonhassell.com/atmosindex.html

"Ads and Atmospherics. Outdoor campaigns are suddenly hip."
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20070201/salesmarketing-advertising.html




-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Douglas G. Wilson
Sent: Sunday, June 27, 2010 10:09 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "atmospheric," n.

Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> ....
> "An element in the climate of political opinion."
>
> CNN's Cindy Crowley this morning referred to a poll number that was "not
the
> sort of atmospheric that Democrats like." (A close paraphrase.)
>
> Cf., of course, "statistic."
--

I suspect maybe "atmospheric" might be an error for "stratospheric [poll
number]" meaning "very high [poll number]".

-- Doug Wilson

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