Apparently some Scottish bloke has won a game of "tennis" at "Wimbledon", so the tabloids are very excited. But more exciting than this victory for our great nation, is the range of glorious headlines in the tabloids (and some broadsheets):
Muscles Murray (Daily Mirror) - alliteration and possible pun on "Muscle Mary" (a slightly derogatory term for a muscular man)
Mighty Murray (The Sun) - alliteration
It's a Murracle (The Sun again) - blend of Murray + Miracle
Mooray! (I just made that one up) - blend of Murray and hooray!
So how about a mini-investigation into the devices used in newspaper headlines as a nice, gentle way into A2 coursework?
And some other blends have been appearing in the papers recently. Yesterday's Guardian had mumager (mum + manager) , or momager if you're American, a term relating to young celebrities whose careers are managed by their mums.
Stagflation (stagnation + inflation) has made a comeback. Originally coined in 1965, according to Wikipedia, it's now being used to describe the current economic downturn.
And then there's cashtrati which seems to be a blend of cash + castration + the suffix -i (as in literati or technorati) and means a group of men who have been affected by the credit crunch and financially castrated ( I think). Ouch.
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