[Ads-l] Fat Weddings

Sun Jun 4 16:43:11 UTC 2023

For as long as I can remember, "big, fat" has been a modifier for almost
anything large, excessive, extravagant. etc., stronger than the synonymous
"great big."

When Al Franken wrote "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot" in 1996, it didn't
even occur to me that he might be alluding to RL's weight (and I don't
think he was).

"Big fat lie" is a common collocation.

1844 Evening Transcript (Boston) (Aug. 29) 2: The Wheeling Times thinks
that a strait [sic] forward liar, one that will tell a big, fat, plump lie,
is an honest man.

1872 Little Rock Daily Republican (Nov. 5) 2: It invents a lie, a big fat
lie, and puts it out.  {The absence of the comma suggests that "big fat"
was already regarded as a unitary phrase.]

Its appearance in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is humorous. The weddings are
just big.

 JL

On Sun, Jun 4, 2023 at 12:06 PM Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at gmail.com>
wrote:

> As far as I can recall, I never knew what “fat” meant in the movie "My Big
> Fat Greek Wedding” though it seemed to indicate bounty; I think
> “superabundance" is more apt, which is what the OED essentially says (#2
> below).
>
> Some of the citations below are just titles. It doesn’t seem like “fat” is
> used much outside of this “(big) fat X wedding” to describe a “fat” wedding
> perhaps because of social taboos around the word. There is also the
> question of whether this snowclone is a fad that has run its course and has
> become passé. There are citations below for 2021, 2022 and 2023, but as the
> Greek movie fades over time, this snowclone may as well. Then again,
> weddings are not part of people’s everyday life and so the snowclone may
> endure as a fun way to break the social taboo on “fat” while referring to a
> bountiful wedding.
>
> FWIW I Googled for Greek, Chinese, Indian, Japanese and Jewish, and found
> citations of each; surely there are many other variations to be found.
>
> 1. Wikipedia has an article about the movie series that started in 2002 (
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Big_Fat_Greek_Wedding) and a sitcom
> based on the movie series (
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Big_Fat_Greek_Life) but neither page
> defines “fat.”
>
> Wikipedia refers to the movie as a sleeper hit. When searching for fat
> Greek wedding hits, the title often comes up without “Big."
>
> 2. The most appropriate definition I see in the OED is:
>
>         10. Well supplied with what is needful or desirable.
>         10b. Of things: Abundant, plentiful; esp. of a feast, pasture,
> etc. Also, Well-stocked.
>
> 3. 20 years ago, Paul McFedries provides a transcript of a TV shown on the
> Word of the Year on CBS Sunday Morning. The discussion was about Ron
> Butters's ADS nomination of “grid butt” (evidently meaning buttocks with
> lawn chair stripes or fishnet pantyhose) but it also has a quote of a woman
> noting the snowclone status of “my big fat X.” I did not search for
> variations not including the word “wedding."
>
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2003-January.txt
>
> ###
> Unidentified Woman #6: How about Botox Party?
>
> Prof. GLOWKA: Botox Party is a fairly outrageous thing it seems to me. I'm
> really, really fond of grid butt, which comes from an advertisement I think
> sent to me by The Agios, marks left on buttocks by fishnet pantyhose...
>
> (Footage of Glowka and others at seminar)
>
> STRASSMANN: (Voiceover) The word can be funny...
>
> Unidentified Woman #7: 'My big, fat' blank, based on "My Big Fat Greek
> Wedding," so...
> ###
>
> 4. Episode name from _The Osbournes_: "My Big Fat Jewish Wedding"
> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0761024/
> Aired 11 Feb 2003
>
> There is also a website for big fat Jewish weddings:
> http://thebigfatjewishwedding.com/
>
> 5. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/my-big-fat-irish-wedding-1.1039031
> My big fat Irish wedding
> 15 Apr 2006
>
> 6. https://tinyurl.com/7xn6zd94
> My (Friend’s) Big Fat Japanese Wedding
> 18 Dec 2011
> faustusnotes
>
> 7. https://tinyurl.com/3njpr9cy
> The growth of the 'big fat Chinese wedding’
> Huey Fern Tay
> 3 Oct 2012
>
> 8. https://tinyurl.com/yvz83668
> My Big Fat Irish Wedding - Daithi O Se on tying the knot
> Daithí Ó Sé
> 16 Jul 2012
>
> 9. The expression “my low-fat Greek wedding” in the following recipe name
> appears to just be creative fun as the blogpost doesn’t mention marriage or
> weddings.
> https://tinyurl.com/ycyyj73t
> Terri Gilson
> 3 Oct 2016
>
> ###
> My Low-Fat Greek Wedding Lasagna
> ###
>
> 10. https://tinyurl.com/32ujpj9y
> _Unorthodox_ podcast episode title: "My Big Fat Jewish Wedding”
> 30 Aug 2017
>
> 11. https://tinyurl.com/5dde3zx2
> #TBT: My Big Fat Chinese Wedding
> That’s Shanghai
> 28 Sep 2017
>
> 12. https://tinyurl.com/yc2t49dx
> Arushi Sakhuja
> After 14 Feb 2021
>
> ###
> Netflix Celebrates Big Fat Indian Weddings With Their Latest Docu-Series,
> The Big Day
> ###
>
> 13. https://tinyurl.com/3eh9nxs7
> Matt Bryman
> c. 2021
>
> ###
> My long time greek friends daughters wedding this saturday. This 1 I would
> of loved to attend. Hoping after the fat greek wedding I can make it. Good
> luck
> ###
>
> 14. https://tinyurl.com/veydma4w
> The big fat Indian wedding is only getting bigger
> 22 Feb 2022
> ###
> Through economic turbulence, social reform, modern technology, and even a
> pandemic, the big fat Indian wedding is only getting bigger.
> ###
>
> 15. https://tinyurl.com/mt4myvtw
> "LGBTQ Indians abroad watch a looming decision in the Indian Supreme Court
> with high hopes “
> Aditi Sangal
> 4 Jun 2023
>
> Today, CNN has an article in which interviewee Gupta (Rohit Dasgupta?)
> uses the expression “big fat Indian wedding."
>
> ###
> “We had always wanted to do a big fat Indian wedding.
> ###
>
> Benjamin Barrett (he/his/him)
> Formerly of Seattle, WA
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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