Attack of the Snowclones
Attack of the Snowclones
A freshly minted word, snowclone, gives a name to a phenomenon that has been around for some time: a well-known phrase that is altered and reused.
The 'classic' snowclone, which gives the phenomenon its name, is 'If the Eskimos [or, as culturally sensitive snowcloners would have it, the Inuit] have N words for snow, then X must have Y words for Z'. This can be adapted again and again, with Eskimos, words, and snow all being replaced, as well as the other variables. This leaves us with a kind of 'ghost sentence', in which the faint outlines of the long-dead original are still visible in the new construction.
Film straplines are fair game for snowcloning, with one of the best examples being the slogan for the 1979 film Alien: 'In space, no-one can hear you scream', which becomes 'In X, no-one can hear you Y'.
But it's fashion that has spawned the most widespread snowclone of all: 'X is the new Y', which began life as 'brown is the new black'. Here are some examples from the Collins Word Web, our vast database of real English usage:
Peace is the new war; property is the new porn; Glasgow is the new black; bleak is the new black; cheap is the new chic; sixty is the new fifty; together is the new alone; black is the new black; sleep is the new sex; fit is the new rich; comedy is the new rock 'n' roll; fish is the new rock 'n' roll; soup is the new black; staying in is the new going out; celibacy is the new deviance. And finally, inevitably, black is the new brown.
A freshly minted word, snowclone, gives a name to a phenomenon that has been around for some time: a well-known phrase that is altered and reused.
The 'classic' snowclone, which gives the phenomenon its name, is 'If the Eskimos [or, as culturally sensitive snowcloners would have it, the Inuit] have N words for snow, then X must have Y words for Z'. This can be adapted again and again, with Eskimos, words, and snow all being replaced, as well as the other variables. This leaves us with a kind of 'ghost sentence', in which the faint outlines of the long-dead original are still visible in the new construction.
Film straplines are fair game for snowcloning, with one of the best examples being the slogan for the 1979 film Alien: 'In space, no-one can hear you scream', which becomes 'In X, no-one can hear you Y'.
But it's fashion that has spawned the most widespread snowclone of all: 'X is the new Y', which began life as 'brown is the new black'. Here are some examples from the Collins Word Web, our vast database of real English usage:
Peace is the new war; property is the new porn; Glasgow is the new black; bleak is the new black; cheap is the new chic; sixty is the new fifty; together is the new alone; black is the new black; sleep is the new sex; fit is the new rich; comedy is the new rock 'n' roll; fish is the new rock 'n' roll; soup is the new black; staying in is the new going out; celibacy is the new deviance. And finally, inevitably, black is the new brown.
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Attack of the Snowclones
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HarperCollins Neologism Dictionary
I Smirt, You Stooze, they Krump: Can You Still Speak English? © 2006
HarperCollins Publishers
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