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17 English Words And Expressions That Come From Comics & Cartoons

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17 English Words And Expressions That Come From Comics & Cartoons

January 04, 2022

Comics don’t just give us countless hours of entertainment -- they also shape our language. It’s possible you used at least one word or phrase today that came from the colorful pages. Yeah, not everyone approves of that -- some people might be going right now, “This pop culture thing is ruining our language, for crying out loud!” Well, about that…

17

For Crying Out Loud!

FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! Sportswriter and comic strip pioneer Tad Dorgan created or popularized so many pieces of slang, it's not even funny. He's credited with terms like hard-boiled, for crying out loud, you tell 'em, and drugstore cowboy, among many others. — More: 6 Important Things You Won't Believe Were Invented in Comics

16

McCarthyism

McCARTHYISM The word for Joseph McCarthy's act seems obvious, but still someone had to come up with it - and that was cartoonist Herbert Block, a.k.a Herblock, who first used it in a 1950 political cartoon. — Source: Library of Congress

15

Security Blanket

SECURITY BLANKET Actual security blankets were a thing in the 1920s, and the military used the term during World War II. It's because of Charles Schulz' Peanuts, however, that we use the expression now with a meaning of psychological (rather than physical) security. — Sources: Merriam-Webster

14

Back to the Drawing Board

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD The phrase was born at the literal drawing board of cartoonist Peter 18.60 Arno, for a cartoon he drew for The New Yorker in 1941. The expression quickly caught on, and by the late '40s it was regularly used by the press. — More: 6 Important Things You Won't Believe Were Invented in Comics

13

Holy Moley!

HOLY MOLEY! Captain Marvel (the one we call Shazam today) gave us, of course, Shazam! - and also, holy moley! While the expression already existed, it took off as the superhero's catchphrase. — Source: The Word Detective

12

Jeep

JEEP You might have heard the word comes from GP, for General Purpose, but jeep existed before that. Eugene the Jeep was a sort of magical Pokémon who palled around with Popeye, and servicemen adopted that name for their (also seemingly magical, or at least amazingly capable) off-road vehicle. — More: 6 Important Things You Won't Believe Were Invented in Comics

11

Milquetoast

MILQUETOAST In 1926, cartoonist H. T. Webster created what turned out to be his most popular character, Caspar Milquetoast - whose whole schtick was that he was a complete pushover. — Source: Atlas Obscura

10

Are We Having Fun Yet?

ARE WE HAVING FUN YET? Zippy the Pinhead has been spouting random non sequiturs since underground cartoonist Bill Griffith created him in 1971. Не first uttered in 1979 what would become his catchphrase, which Griffith says he intended in a kind of existential/despairing way. — More: 6 Important Things You Won't Believe Were Invented in Comics

9

Goon

GOON The word goon already existed as a synonym of idiot, when Elzie Segar introduced Alice the Goon in 1933 as a villain for Popeye to punch. Since Alice was essentially a hired thug, newspapers started giving the word that meaning as early as 1938. — More: 6 Important Things You Won't Believe Were Invented in Comics

8

Keeping Up With the Joneses

KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES The idiom originated as the title of a strip created in 1913 by cartoonist Pop Momand. The titular Joneses rarely appeared - the strip was all about the McGinises, and their efforts to match the lifestyle of their better-off neighbors. — Source: Word Histories

7

Newlywed

NEWLYWED Created in 1907, George McManus' The Newlyweds and Their Baby (about a young wedded couple actually called Mr. and Mrs. Newlywed) is considered to be the first newspaper strip about a family - and also, the origin of the word. — Sources: Vocabulary.com, Virginia Commonwealth University

6

Poindexter

POINDEXTER Poindexter has been pretty much synonymous with nerd since the 1980s. By that time, the original, nerdy Poindexter had been a regular character of Felix the Cat for about 30 years. — Source: Word Origins

5

John Q. Public

JOHN Q. PUBLIC Cartoons representing the common taxpayer have been a thing since the late 19th century. Around 1930, cartoonist Vaughn Shoemaker created his own version and named him John Q. Public - and the name stuck. — Source: The Comics Journal

4

Sadie Hawkins Day

SADIE HAWKINS DAY Al Capp's strip Li'l Abner was so hugely popular in the 1930s, that this made-up pseudo-holiday in which women ask men out crossed over to real life. In only two years, over 200 colleges and high schools in 188 cities had adopted Sadie Hawkins dances. — More: 6 Important Things You Won't Believe Were Invented in Comics

3

Worrywart

WORRYWART A tyke named the Worry Wart, created by cartoonist J. R. Williams, first appeared in Dell Comics in the late '20s. This kid didn't fret over everything, though - rather, his mischief caused others to worry. The word took on its current meaning after World War II. — Source: Columbia Journalism Review

2

Yellow Journalism

YELLOW JOURNALISM The Yellow Kid was one of the first successful newspaper strips, and publishers William Randolph Heart and Joseph Pulitzer fought over it. As a result, these gentlemen's shady practices came to be known as yellow-kid journalism, later shortened to just yellow journalism. — More: 6 Important Things You Won't Believe Were Invented in Comics

1

Thagomizer

THAGOMIZER You don't use this word often, unless you're a paleontologist - it's the name for the bunch of spikes at the end of Stegosaurus' tail. The term came from a 1982 Far Side cartoon by Gary Larson, and it caught on among actual dino-scientists. — Source: Screen Rant

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