[Ads-l] Dialogue: Rizzoli & Isles

[Ben Zimmer]

On Tue, Aug 4, 2015 at 9:53 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
> "Maybe it's *not* murder. But, it's _murder-adjacent_."
>
> It seems to me that I've come across this "[...]-adjacent" construction in
> jargonic writing in some field or other. Or maybe it was in the NYT or in
> the NY-er.
>
> Does it ring a bell with anyone else?

I believe its origins lie in real estate talk, where, say, "Beverly
Hills-adjacent" indicates that a property isn't actually in Beverly
Hills, but close enough. "X-adjacent" has a lot of comedic potential,
as in Larry Wilmore's comment about Justice Scalia's use of
"jiggery-pokery":

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2015/06/26/watch-larry-wilmore-skewer-justice-scalias-dissent-of-the-obamacare-decision/
“‘Jiggery-pokery’?” said a bemused Wilmore. “I don’t know if those
words are racist, but it’s possible they’re kind of racist-adjacent,
right?”

--bgz

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