Catchword: Jerkish

Filed under: English

Part of speech: n.

Quotation: The word is “Jerkish.” Originally coined by the Czech novelist Ivan Klima to describe the thoughtless, boiled-down language acceptable to Stalinist censors, he announced that Jerkish had been invented in America for communication between people and chimpanzees; it consists of 225 words. Now, says Alvarez, Jerkish really has spread to the West and its “codified stupidity” continues to flourish as the “sentimental and intolerant moral coercion of political correctness…the power of kitsch and cliché.”

Article or document title:
“Notebook” (URL)

Author:
Andrew Marr

Article, document, publication, web site:
Telegraph

Publishing location:
U.K.

Date of publication:
Jan. 19, 2005

This catchword has yet to be researched.