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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > CHAPLINESQUE

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pronounce CHAPLINESQUE:

CHAP lin ESK
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connect this word to others:

Something weird, unnatural, and old-fashioned that reminds you of an old black-and-white portrait is d_g__rr__n.

But something weird, unnatural, and old-fashioned that reminds you of an old black-and-white movie might be Chaplinesque. Let's explore that one!

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)   

definition:

When you think of old, silent, goofy black-and-white movies, you probably think of Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977). He was known for producing and starring in slapstick comedies in the 1910s and 1920s.







(Source for all three images)

So, when you call something Chaplinesque, you could mean it reminds you of Charlie Chaplin's work because it's goofy, clownish, slapstick, and/or full of jerky movements and badly-fitting clothes.

Or, you could mean that it reminds you of the "tramp" character that Charlie Chaplin often played, who was basically a hobo trying to be a true gentleman, someone who always tried hard yet kept failing at everything: clumsy, awkward, ineffective, and/or badly dressed, yet sincerely childlike and good-hearted.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective, the proper kind, so you capitalize it: "their Chaplinesque outfits;" "The humor was Chaplinesque."

Other forms: 

You could refer to someone as a Charlie Chaplin, or just a Chaplin.

Or, you could use "Charlie Chaplin" as the adjective: "His face was long and handsome, with a pointed nose, black plastic bifocals, and a Charlie Chaplin mustache (Rebecca Skloot)."

how to use it:

Like "Dahlesque," "Disneyesque," and "Kafkaesque," the word "Chaplinesque" is rare but likely to be easily understood, and quick to convey a detailed mental picture.

You might talk about Chaplinesque clothes, movements, walks, expressions, humor, comedy, scenes, struggles, or failures.

examples:

"The typical gait of the patient with [Down Syndrome] has been described as Chaplinesque with external rotation of the hips, knees inflexion and valgus, and both tibias rotated."
   — Nancy J. Roizen, Rheumatoid Arthritis, 2009

"A Chaplinesque lesson on repetitive mistakes in the time of a pandemic... The drunk Chaplin is trying to go upstairs. No sooner did he succeed in some steps than he falls... Chaplin was depicting the nature of human beings that is doomed, like history, to repeat itself."
  — Surya Prakashverma, The Hindu, 18 April 2020

has this page helped you understand "Chaplinesque"?

   

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.




study it:

Explain the meaning of "Chaplinesque" without saying "jerky" or "clownish."

try it out:

Fill in the blank: "When someone (endures some process involving constant effort and repeated failures), it must feel like a Chaplinesque ride in a revolving door."

Example: "When someone applies for government assistance and is rejected over and over for nonsensical reasons, it must feel like a Chaplinesque ride in a revolving door."




before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month: Poetic Connections!

Check out three snippets from a poem, along with three words we've studied—some beautiful, some outrageous—and decide which word you'll connect to each snippet. To see the definitions, highlight the hidden white text after each word. And to see an example, head here.


Try this set today:

"Dog in Bed" by Joyce Sidman

Snippets:
1. "you are a warm, furred planet"
2. "O, that languid, movie-star drape!"
3. "love... takes up as much space as you will give it"

Words:
A. Brobdingnagian (meaning...
absolutely gigantic)
B. free-hearted (meaning...
open and generous)
C. recumbent (meaning...
lying back in a restful, lazy, indulgent way)

To see one possible set of answers, scroll all the way down; if your answers don’t match these, that's fine: all that matters is that yours make sense to you.

review this word:

1. Opposites of CHAPLINESQUE could be

A. DIGNIFIED and NATTY (stylish and fashionable in a neat, sharp, smart way).
B. NEWBORN and NAISSANT (just now appearing, starting up, being produced, or coming into existence).
C. SPEECHLESS and NONPLUSSED (so confused that you're at a standstill, not knowing what to do or say).

2. Cory Doctorow warns that if we require some expert human, such as a radiologist, to play assistant to an AI tool rather than vice versa, then the human will become "Chaplinesque," _____ in spite of good intentions, while trying to "keep pace with a torrent of machine judgments."

A. hideously cruel and injurious
B. constantly cheating and stealing
C. desperately clumsy and ineffective




Answers to the review questions:
1. A
2. C

I’d connect Brobdingnagian to snippet 1 because the dog is planet-sized; free-hearted to snippet 3 because love (and the dog) freely give so much of themselves; and recumbent to snippet 2 for the dog's posture.


a final word:


I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.


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A disclaimer:
When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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