"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."

Friday 21 December 2012

Aga saga (and bodice rippers!!)

I have had for a while the Oxford Dictionary of new words - 'the intriguing srtories behind 2000 new words in the news'.  I have only  just got around to opening it and taking it seriously.  I've just finished the letter 'A' so you can expect a few 'A' words in the near future. My first is Aga saga.

An aga saga is a form of popular novel typically set in a semi-rural location and concerning the domestic and emotional lives of middle-class characters. In some contexts, Ága saga is now synonymous with a sanitized and prettified picture of rural life.

Joanna Trollope is said to be the author of some typical aga sagas.

5 comments:

  1. Love this! To add to our list of other genres, such as "bodice ripper" and "whodunit"!

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  2. Whilst the mesning is pretty obvious I had to look up bodice ripper - I'm obviously behind the times, Carol!!

    "A sexually explicit romantic novel; usually in a historical setting and always with a plot involving the seduction of the heroine."

    These books owe much in style to the work of English romantic novelists like Jane Austen and Emily Bronte. Nevertheless, the term itself is American. The first reference in print is from The New York Times, December 1980:
    "Women too have their pornography: Harlequin romances, novels of 'sweet savagery,' - bodice-rippers."

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  3. You, behind the times? Never! You're one of the coolest people I know! :o) Hugs, C.

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    1. And more about bodice rippers! I heard the expression today on television but it was most amusing because it occurred in an Agatha Christie ('The Clocks' with the wonderful David Suchet as Poirot)). Since this is set in the 1930s I laughed out loud to hear it! It obviously wasn't in the original book and whoever created the TV adaptation didn't realise how nwew a word it was.

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  4. "Joanna Trollope" an interesting name for a romance novelist.

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