dramarama

[Jonathan Lighter]

HDAS even has the suffix  "-arama" as a main entry, in more fanciful uses
than covered by the '89 OED.

JL

On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 9:59 AM, Ben Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: dramarama
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 5:59 AM, Paul Frank <paulfrank at post.harvard.edu>
> wrote:
> >
> > Dramarama: not the alternative rock band or the British TV series but
> > the word used to describe the dramatizing of events that are either
> > trivial or ought to be considered trivial. I don't see it in the OED.
> > The word is good enough for the Washington Post:
> >
> > Over the past two decades, the reputation of the entire royal family
> > has steadily declined from regal to rancid. There was the divorce of
> > Charles's brother, Andrew, not to mention further dramarama earlier
> > this year when his former wife, the Duchess of York ("Fergie"), was
> > caught on video arranging payment for access to her ex.
>
> link:
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/16/AR2010111606190.html
>
> And here it is used by the Post 10 years ago:
>
> ---
>
> http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/58665639.html?dids=58665639:58665639&FMT=ABS
> For [Richard Hatch], 39, the alarm rang long before dawn--oh, is it
> 2:45 a.m. already?--so he could be up, shaved, dressed and ready for a
> live encounter with Bryant Gumbel on "The Early Show," which included
> yet another reunion with his fellow former castaways. (No, that was
> not a rerun of last night's Gumbel dramarama.)
> ---
>
> --bgz
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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