I was browsing through the Wikipedia page on Have Gun Will Travel wherein it explains the title is a “snowclone” on a cliche used in personal advertisements in newspapers like The Times, indicating that the advertiser was ready for anything.
I’m 64, I’ve never heard that term. Just wondering if it’s actually popular or I’m just out of the loop. Link. Have you heard it?
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Early 60s. Never heard of it.
Mid-60s, never heard of it. But not surprising, because as the link says “The term was coined as a neologism in 2004, derived from journalistic clichés that referred to the number of Eskimo words for snow.”
So pretty recent, obscure, and homemade by some writer.
I’ve heard of it, but I follow linguistics blogs. I think I first heard the term in discussions of the “I, for one, welcome our new <blank> overlords.”
I had heard it before.
TVTropes mentions it:
-and in general frowns on using them.
Yet, aren’t those kind of titles all over tvtropes?
Heard about it because I’m a linguistics nerd.
I found out about them a few years back via a discussion about eggcorns and mondegreens on these here boards.
I’ve heard of it, but I definitely had to look it up the first time I saw it.
TVTropes is probably where I first heard the term.
Never heard of it.
Most TV Trope titles are either clear enough at first reading or make sense after reading the explanation. E.g., “growing the beard” is a good one but only after you read about the origin.
This one … just sucks.
I knew the term, from online discussions.
Me too. Not from some linguistics academic background, but from discussions of image macros, since many of the captions are snowclones.
So I learned about snowclones from 4chan. :dubious:
Nope, never heard of it - UK based, but I doubt that makes much difference, given where/how you are likely to come across it.
When I saw the definition my first thought was: But isn’t that just some sort of trope? But the more I think about it, it’s specific enough to require its own word - just not Snowclone - that’s a properly awful choice.
j
Never heard of it. While the “clone” part makes sense, the “snow” part referring to the legendary number of words used by native peoples is not only obscure, but inaccurate, and based on erroneous information. “Eskimos” don’t have 100 words for snow.
The creator of the term is well aware that Eskimos don’t have 100 words for snow - the term was created because he saw repeated uses of the phrase “<X> have 100 words for <Y>” such as “auto manufacturers have 100 words for beige” etc.
First came across it (and “eggcorn”) several years ago, probably on Language Log.
Never heard it before. Now, reading up on it a little bit, I still don’t think I get it.