phrasemaker means A crafter of phrases; one who pens bombast or rhetoric. It carries an Arena rating of 1450, earned across 58 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, phrasemaker ranks #277 of 13,217 for Most Ingenious Words, #1,496 of 13,217 for Most Storied Words, #1,755 of 13,217 for Most Whimsical Words, #2,460 of 13,217 for Funniest Words.
Why “phrasemaker” is a great word
A person who coins or crafts phrases, especially ones that are rhetorically impressive but often insubstantial or hollow. From phrase (from Greek phrasis, “speech, expression”) + maker (from Old English macian, “to make”). First recorded in use 1815–25. Unlike a phrasemonger, who churns out cheap verbal currency, or a wordsmith, respected for genuine craft, the phrasemaker specializes in the architecture of attractive emptiness. It is the politician’s alliterative slogan that rings in the ears but not in the memory, the marketer’s sleek promise that evaporates upon touch, the orator’s perfectly balanced clause that, when held to the light, contains nothing at all—the art of substituting polished shells for substance, a hollow kind of genius.
Etymology
From phrase + maker.
noun
- A crafter of phrases; one who pens bombast or rhetoric.“But even as you read this, some sharp political phrasemaker is working on a paragraph that begins “Not in a hundred days, not in a hundred hours, but in a hundred New York minutes .”
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