Winchellism and Winchellese
The term "Winchellism" is named after him. Though its use is extremely rare and may be considered archaic, the term has two different usages.
- One definition is a pejorative judgment that an author's works are specifically designed to imply or invoke scandal and may be libelous.
- The other definition is "any word or phrase compounded brought to the fore by the columnist Walter Winchell" or his imitators. Looking at his writing's effect on the language, an etymologist of his day said, "there are plenty of... expressions which he has fathered and which are now current among his readers and imitators and constitute a flash language which has been called Winchellese. Through a newspaper column which has nation-wide circulation, Winchell has achieved the position of dictator of contemporary slang." Winchell invented his own phrases that were viewed as slightly racy at the time. Some of the expressions for falling in love used by Winchell were: "pashing it", "sizzle for", "that way, go for each other", "garbo-ing it", "uh-huh"; and in the same category, "new Garbo, trouser-crease-eraser", and "pash". Some Winchellisms for marriage are: "middle-aisle it", "altar it", "handcuffed", "Mendelssohn March", "Lohengrin it", and "merged".
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