Arts & Literature Slang, Jargon, and New Words from Double-Tongued Dictionary

Citations in the Category Arts & Literature

Art, painting, sculpture, literature, books, writing, criticism, etc. You can also see entries assigned to this category.

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shut-out n. ‘It’s clearly a bubble. Look! All the dealers are leaving. It’s what’s called a “shut-out” in the trade. It’s identical to the Eighties except there’s a new generation of suckers. And the new generation of suckers are the Russians. They’re interior decorators. Not collectors. Sotheby’s and Christie’s say that it’s different. That people are more knowledgeable. That they’re not borrowing to buy art. How do they know? Nobody knew the Japanese were borrowing until the banks collapsed. Look, that’s Larry Graff of Graff Diamonds leaving. He just got humiliated trying to buy the Warhol. He went up to three and a half million but it went for four and a half. When someone like Larry Graff is being blown out of the water, that has to tell you something. [English Arts & Literature Jargon] [full cite] (Feb. 12, 2007)

sleeveface n. Sleeveface is the art of “one or more persons obscurings or augmenting any part of the body or bodies with record sleeve(s) causing an illusion.” [English Arts & Literature Music Online New or Nonce] [full cite] (Jan. 15, 2008)

sontag n. How describe Susan Sontag? She was essayist, novelist, critic, director, celebrity, feuilletonist in the best/worst European fashion…No one description applies, and no one job category would sum her up; she was kind of an intellectual of all trades and master of none. Maybe there ought to be a new word for that kind of American figure—a sontag. [English Arts & Literature] [full cite] (Jan. 4, 2005)

spalting n. Wood left on the ground for several months, he said, will undergo “a startling transformation and develop a spidery network of black lines.” This process, called spalting, “is due to special fungi that live in the ground.” [ Language English Subject Arts & Literature] [full cite] (Oct. 8, 2005)

spray and pray v. phr. You want to be able to make a great photo from the moment you flip the shutter, you shouldn’t have to rely on “spray and pray” photography. Try to get an excellent shot of your subject in less shots and your photography will improve, be it digital or film. [English Arts & Literature] [full cite] (Oct. 20, 2006)

strappo n. The Italian-based technique known as strappo involved covering the painting first with resin, then a spray glue, followed by fabric and electrical tape, Mallios said. Then a jackhammer was used to pound the face of the mural to send shock waves through the applied layers, causing the concrete to crack without damaging the oil painting. At the same time, a chisel was used to peel the mural down. [Italian Arts & Literature] [full cite] (Mar. 5, 2008)

tartan noir n. Scottish detective fiction, or Tartan Noir as it’s called, with its brooding sensibility, brutal humor and fixation on the nature of guilt and punishment, has more in common with the Russian novel than it does with traditional detective writing. [English Arts & Literature] [full cite] (Jul. 28, 2006)

through-line n. Actresses are constantly constructing new characters, and when they’re not in costume on a set or a stage, they’re typically in jeans or something nondescript. In going from role to role, she said, “It’s easy to lose your personal through-line.” [English Arts & Literature Entertainment] [full cite] (Oct. 25, 2007)

trick lit n. Trick Lit is the term for a chick lit novel that pretends to be something else, hoping to rope people in with an interesting premise. 30 pages later, you discover that you were deceived, that it’s just another piece of genre trash. [English Arts & Literature New or Nonce] [full cite] (Nov. 6, 2007)

twiller n. Recently, a handful of creators (present company included) have scrapped pen and paper for mobile phone and keypad, and started texting their novels—in real time, just a few characters at a time. Our medium is Twitter, a service that lets you broadcast bursts of 140 characters at a time to be read by people who subscribe to get your updates. In my case, I’ve for the last two months been using Twitter to write a real-time thriller. Hence: Twiller. (Cheap word play is what you get when you disintermediate, as they say, your agent and editor). [English Arts & Literature Online Technology New or Nonce] [full cite] (Aug. 31, 2008)

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