Tuesday 29 May 2012

Epithets II

Of course everyone is an individual (and other such pieties), but as Miss Marple says, human nature is much the same everywhere and people run true to type.

Bible thumper
blot
bod
careerist
carpet knight
(armchair philosopher)
charlatan
cheeky chappie
cheerleader
clutter buster
Congressional ribbon-cutter
crackpot:
Ingenious crackpots have given it zodiacal significance. Sunday Times Sept 09
crank
crimper for hairdresser (70s)
departure-lounge novelist The property [the flat in Theatre of Blood] became the London home of departure lounge novelist, failed politician and former jailbird Jeffrey Archer. Wikipedia
determined liberal
do-gooder
doom monger
doomsayer
dullard
eccentric
egg-head
elbow roomer
In geography and urban planning, elbow roomers are people who leave a city for the countryside to seek more land and greater freedom from governmental and neighbourhood interference. Some are carrying out activities such as large-scale gardening, the raising of horses or other animals, or farming, or otherwise have a genuine need for the space. Others wish to pursue a rural lifestyle for reasons unrelated to space itself. (wiki)
empty suit for an ineffectual functionary or yes-man who's just there to make up the numbers
enfant turbulent
enfant terrible
femme enfant
(child woman)
femme fatale
femme formidable
firefighter
flack
(publicity agent)
format fiddlers (Clive James)
G-plan people (Kenneth Williams)
good sport (someone who doesn’t complain when insulted, bullied and made to look ridiculous)
gradehound
guys in ties, lords on boards
happy clappy
has-been
heavy
(movie villain)
henchbod
homebody
horrormeister
hurricane head
(storm chaser)
Indian giver
killjoy
long-hair
monstre sacré
naysayer
ne’erdowell
nincompoop
no-hoper
nouveau riche/pauvre
party pooper
pedant
peevologist
plus assorted lovers, writers, sycophants, enablers, academics, gun dealers, snake handlers and hangers-on. millions.com on the Beat Generation phenom
poverty pimp
power-brokers and reputation-makers, preservers and preventers
Geoff Dyer Guardian March 2012
prig
prude
sherpa
shill
(tout for illegal card games, nightclubs etc)
sofa spud
spear carrier
spoilsport
spokescreature (spokesbod, spokeshuman)

sponger
square
starched brain
(everything2.com)
stirrer: the calculated wind-ups of a professional stirrer (re Clarkson)
stuffed shirt
sultress
Terra-firma types
may prefer to take a jeep tour or an old-fashioned bus excursion.
the liberal overclass (Peter Bradshaw)
Titanorak
user
wag
war monger
yet another interchangeable courtier
(Wikipedia on Malateste, a character in the Duchess of Malfi)

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