Oh, must have been gremlins - meaning there was no point trying to figure out what actually happened. They were particularly responsible for mechanical problems that mysteriously cropped up, caused trouble, and just as mysteriously went away.
SPACE GREMLIN BORIS TV
When I was growing up in England (60s and 70s) it was routine to say that gremlins were the reason the TV went on the blink or the washing machine stopped working. Arcuri's statement, in which "some gremlin" is used in parallel with "some fleeting one-night stand or some girl that you picked up at a bar".] In any case, the "unexplained problem or fault" meaning seems to be entirely inconsistent with Ms. And the Urban Dictionary entry is probably American, not British, given the "yo" and so on. But none of the more reputable slang dictionaries that I consulted had anything relevant. [(myl) I agree that the Urban Dictionary is an unreliable source. I'd be inclined to call it a malapropism, or spur-of-the-moment coinage when she just couldn't think of the right word. But this woman sounds American, while the quoted meaning of 'gremlin' was British. Indeed, Urban Dictionary is about the least reliable source out there it is only preferable to no source at all. They may be more representative of how the submitter thinks a term ought to be used, if everyone else shared his (definitely his in this case) sense of humor. The question is further complicated by the fact that many glosses on Urban Dictionary seem to be over-elaborated and not really representative of any real-world usage. It could easily be purely a reference to the film, not to anything older than that. Whether this definition has anything to do with the older "lowly or despised person" meaning is hard to say. The parts about not going out to eat late and emotional instability at night make that clear. That Urban Dictionary definition (as are some of the site's others) is a specific allusion to the gremlins from the 1984 Gremlins movie. "a mischievous sprite imagined as the cause of mishaps to aircraft" Whether intentionally related or not, you wouldn't keep a Gremlin around for long. There's also the AMC Gremlin, which was a classically ugly, inadequate, cheap first-time-buyer car of the '70s. Filed by Mark Liberman under Word of the day."lowly or despised person" sense, but seem to be close to what Jennifer Arcuri meant by the word - especially this one:
The concept of the gremlin was popularized, especially in the United States, by Roald Dahl, whose book The Gremlins was published in 1943.Īnd the Urban Dictionary entry for gremlin has some specifically misogynistic senses, which may or may not relate back to the original R.A.F. Hence also: an unexplained problem or fault. More generally: such a creature imagined as the cause of any trouble or mischance. Later: a mischievous sprite imagined as the cause of mishaps to aircraft. The OED notes that this meaning evolved. 576/1 There is a class abhorred, Loathed by all the high and mighty, Slaves who work and get but little, Little thanks for all their labour Yet they are both skilled and many, Many men with many talents… They are but a herd of gremlins, Gremlins who do all the flying, Gremlins who do much instructing, Work shunned by the Wing Commanders.
In early use: a lowly or despised person a menial, a dogsbody, a wretch (obsolete).ġ929 Aeroplane 10 Apr. But I learned something new from the OED's entry, which is that the earliest meaning of this word wasġ. originally R.A.F. Arcuri's use of the word "gremlin" puzzled me at first. I've kept your secrets and I've been your friend.įleeting one-night stand or some girl that you picked up at a bar.Īnd I'm terribly heartbroken by the way that you have cast me aside Your browser does not support the audio element. See also " Jennifer Arcuri says Boris Johnson 'cast me aside like some gremlin'", BBC News " Jennifer Arcuri: ‘I’ve kept Johnson’s secrets – now he’s cast me aside like a one-night stand’", The Guardian " Jennifer Arcuri says Boris Johnson cast her aside like a ‘gremlin’", The Irish Times.Ī video clip is here - the audio and a transcript follow:
SPACE GREMLIN BORIS HOW TO
In an interview with ITV’s Exposure to be broadcast on Sunday evening, Jennifer Arcuri claimed Mr Johnson cast her aside as though she was a "gremlin" after she tried to contact him for advice on how to handle the media interest. The businesswoman at the centre of a controversy involving Prime Minister Boris Johnson says she wished he had declared their personal relationship as a potential conflict of interest to avoid her "humiliation". " Jennifer Arcuri: Boris Johnson cast me aside as if I were a gremlin", ITV News :
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