Etymological Note
I recently read two different origins for a word I use a lot (maybe too much), "blockbuster."
Some say it was coined in the 1920s for a movie whose line was so long that it couldn't be contained on one block.
A more common explanation is it's WWII slang for huge bombs.
I don't know which is right, though the second explanation sounds correct. I believe it's known for sure the phrase was used that way during WWII, while the first explanation sounds like a just so story. Of course, it'd be easy enough to find out the answer for anyone willing to do the research. Maybe someone has. I'm too lazy to find out.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:12 AM
3 Comments:
I always thought (unconciously at least) that the word was sort of an "outside of the box"-type concoction (which I think is a relatively recent phrase)meaning that the thing being described was so enormously big that you couldn't contain in its block or box (of course I know of no companion phrase "boxbuster" so this theory is sounding more and more dubious)
A little follow-up research- according to worldwide words (sorry-lost the link), the term "blockbuster" as a bomb is English in derivation and "block" in the English sense means a series of interconnected buildings (i.e. a large apartment building) not an entire city block (which is the American sense of the word "block")
As in "a block of flats."
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