# Origin of "adjective noun is adjective"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-adjective-noun-is-adjective/534543>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [April 1, 2010, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-adjective-noun-is-adjective/534543 "2010-04-01T06:52:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-adjective-noun-is-adjective/534543/1 "2010-04-01T06:52:27Z")

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I thought it was a random thing my brother and his college friend were doing, but this week I started seeing it in random places online. Phrases of the form “adjective noun is adjective”. For example:

“Silly man is silly”  
“Hot girl is hot”  
“Stupid politician is stupid”

Does this come from some pop culture reference, or is it some random linguitic meme gone viral?

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**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-adjective-noun-is-adjective/534543/2 "2010-04-01T07:23:08Z")

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I think originally [The Simpsons](http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/x-y-is-x-redundant-adjectives-are-redundant) but made popular by 4chan.

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**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-adjective-noun-is-adjective/534543/3 "2010-04-01T07:25:46Z")

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If it helps, I think the original was “Longcat is long”.

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**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-adjective-noun-is-adjective/534543/4 "2010-04-01T08:03:39Z")

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It’s been around for at least a year or so – probably several. Mostly I’ve seen it as “Obvious troll is obvious.”

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**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-adjective-noun-is-adjective/534543/5 "2010-04-01T12:48:52Z")

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> [@Grumman](#):
>
> If it helps, I think the original was “Longcat is long”.

Yes, I thought it came from LOLspeak–I first encountered it on [icanhascheezburger.com](http://icanhascheezburger.com).

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**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-adjective-noun-is-adjective/534543/6 "2010-04-01T20:05:43Z")

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Thanks for the great answers everyone!