Lexiconography
Wing-nut

Welcome to the debut of your blogstress’s long-promised and eagerly anticipated occasional feature, Lexiconography, wherein your cybertrix examines the rhetoric of the day for its etymology, wit and/or effectiveness, with sporadic suggestions for alternative wording when warranted.

Today’s winning entry warrants no alternative phrasing; it is a true gem of literary insult in its deployment of the unexplainably discarded term "wing-nut" as shorthand for "right-wing nut." (Note the moving hyphen. Check your style guide.) In Michael Tomasky’s excellent piece on right-wing revisionism and selective reporting, he notes, in reference to the trial of Hillary Clinton fundraiser David Rosen, "the galloping accelerando of wing-nut anticipation."

Sweet, n’est-ce pas? Now, get out there and use it!

For the punch line on the Rosen case (the guy was acquitted), click here to read Tomasky at The American Prospect Online.

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