This week’s theme
Eponyms

This week’s words
Gallio
Babbittry

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(BAB-uh-tree)

MEANING:

noun: Complacent materialism and smug conformity.

ETYMOLOGY:

After George Babbitt, who demonstrated middle-class values and attitudes in the novel Babbitt (1922) by Sinclair Lewis. Earliest documented use: 1920.

NOTES:

When Sinclair Lewis was still shaping his novel, he wrote to his publisher Alfred Harcourt:

“The name now for my man is George F. Babbitt, which, I think, sounds commonplace yet will be remembered, and two years from now we’ll have them talking of Babbittry.”

A century later, Babbitt may not top baby-name charts, and the term Babbittry may not be common, but Babbittry the mindset is alive and well. And is currently very proud of its new, slightly-better-than-the-neighbor’s quartz countertops.
While the name is not common anymore, there’s a real-life person named George Babbitt, a USAF general.

USAGE:

“LA in the 1920s and 30s was beginning to shake off its reputation for hayseed Babbittry, or at least to acquire a critical mass of urban sophisticates possessing expansive tastes and sometimes the wallets to indulge them.”
Patt Morrison; Pouring one out for LA; Los Angeles Times; Nov 19, 2023.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: