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jet set

  (jĕt'sĕt') or jet'-set'ting (-sĕt'ĭng) adj.

n.

An international social set made up of wealthy people who travel from one fashionable place to another.

jetset jet'-set' jetsetter jet setter n.
 
 
Word Tutor: jet-setter
pronunciation

IN BRIEF: A member of an international social group of wealthy individuals who frequent fashionable resorts.

 
WordNet: jet set
Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: a set of rich and fashionable people who travel widely for pleasure


 
Wikipedia: jet set

"Jet set" is a journalistic term that was used to describe an international social group of wealthy people, organizing and participating in social activities all around the world that are unreachable to ordinary people. The term, which replaced "café society", came from the lifestyle of travelling from one stylish or exotic place to another via jet airplanes.

The term jet-set is attributed to Igor Cassini, a reporter for the Journal-American who wrote under the pen name "Cholly Knickerbocker" [1]

Although jet passenger service in the 1950s was initially marketed primarily to the rich, its introduction eventually resulted in a substantial democratization of air travel. Today air travel is functional but without glory, and the term "jet set" no longer has cachet. The faded term "jet set" may still be valid today if it is understood to mean those who can afford to travel in privately-owned or leased aircraft.

Jet travel

BOAC inaugurated the world's first commercial scheduled jet service (2 May 1952), using the de Havilland Comet. The first service was the typical "jet set" route, London–New York. Other cities on the standard "jet set" routes were Paris and Rome, and for the first time, Los Angeles. "Jet set" resorts, invariably with white sand and salt water, were circumscribed by modern standards: Acapulco, Nassau and Huntington Hartford's new Paradise Island[2] were taking the place of Bermuda; Cannes, St. Tropez, Portofino[3] and selected small towns on the Riviera were on the jet set itinerary, and Capri. From 1974 the Greek Islands were included in the loop.

The original members of this elite, free-wheeling sect were those "socialites" who were not shy about publicity and entertained in semi-public places like restaurants and in night clubs, where the "paparazzi"— a jet set phenomenon— snapped them. They were the first generation that might weekend in Paris or fly to Rome just for a party. Federico Fellini captured their lifestyle in La dolce vita (1960).

A sign that "jet set" had lost its first glamourous edge was Vogue Magazine's coinage "the Beautiful People" in the spring of 1962, an expression which initially described the circle that formed round President and Mrs Kennedy. Readers of the 15 February 1964 Vogue could learn "What the beautiful people are doing to keep fit." The two phrases ran for a time in tandem: in 1970 Cleveland Amory could fear "that the Beautiful People and the Jet Set are being threatened by current economics."[4]

A more serious economic threat was the 1973 oil crisis, which cast a pall over the idea of jetting about for pleasure. A sign that "Jet Set" had passed from urbane use was the 1974 song "(We're Not) The Jet Set", in which George Jones and Tammy Wynette claim they are "the old Chevrolet set," as opposed to leading a glamorous, "jet-setting" lifestyle.

The flagging Jet Set gained its second wind with the introduction in 1976 of the supersonic Concorde. Scheduled flights began on 21 January 1976 on the London-Bahrain oil executive route and the distinctly jet-set Paris-Rio de Janiero (via Dakar) route. From November 1977 the Concorde was flying between standard Jet Set destinations, London or Paris to New York; passenger lists on initial flights were gossip-column material. The Concorde restored cachet: "From rock stars to royalty, the Concorde was the way to travel for the jet set," according to the Nova retrospective special "Supersonic Dream".[5] Doomed by its sonic boom, unable to achieve global fly-over rights, the Concorde was retired in 2003. Instead, the Boeing 747, densely packed with passengers, was the craft that revolutionized air travel.

Where English is a second language, "Jet Set" continues its half-life: in the early '80s the Argentinian rock band Soda Stereo recorded a song "Porque No Puedo Ser del Jet Set" and the summer 2006 issue of Moi, a house publication of Lancôme, carried the theme "Jet Set Beauty", with the distinctly mediocre promise "Feel like an American in Paris in your own home town..."

Late in the 20th century "wa-Benzi" became an equivalent term in central Africa, from the luxury image of Mercedes-Benz.

References

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Oleg Cassini and his younger brother Igor (who became the Hearst newspaper gossip columnist "Cholly Knickerbocker" and coined the phrase "jet set"... (Obituary of Oleg Cassini, The London Standard, 20 March 2006 (on-line text)
  2. ^ Opened in 1962.
  3. ^ "Portofino has long been fashionable with what we once called 'the jet set'." [1]
  4. ^ Vogue 15 February 1964:49 and The Ladies Home Journal September 1970:81, noted Barry Popik, "Beautiful people".
  5. ^ On-line NOVA transcript (18 January 2005)

 
 

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
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Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Jet set" Read more

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