pseudoevent means A happening that is orchestrated for some ulterior purpose. It carries an Arena rating of 1407, earned across 83 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, pseudoevent ranks #50 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #245 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #3,573 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #7,685 of 17,163 for Funniest Words.
Why “pseudoevent” is a great word
PSEUDOEVENT — [Noun] A happening orchestrated primarily for the purpose of being reported or generating publicity, rather than arising spontaneously. From the combining form pseudo- (from Greek pseudēs, meaning "false") + event (from Latin ēventus, meaning "occurrence, outcome"). Coined in 1961 by historian Daniel J. Boorstin in his book 'The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America'. Unlike a "happening," which suggests organic spontaneity, or a "news event," which implies intrinsic public significance, a pseudoevent is a self-fulfilling prophecy of publicity, engineered backward from the desired headline. It is the press conference announcing an announcement, the ribbon-cutting before the store is stocked, the celebrity feud conducted through publicists' statements—a hollow spectacle where the documentation is not a record of the thing, but the thing itself, leaving behind the faint aftertaste of reality replaced by its own echo.
Etymology
From pseudo- + event.
noun
- A happening that is orchestrated for some ulterior purpose.e.g.“Terrorists use violence as a pseudoevent to gain notoriety and legitimacy through media coverage of their acts.” — 2005, James A. Johnson, Gerald R. Ledlow, Mark A. Cwiek, Community Preparedness and Response to Terrorism, page 66:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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