What? C'mon, guys
Okay, I'm going to object. "Chaplinesque" doesn't really apply to the comedy of the actual Charlie Chaplin.
Merriam Webster defines it as:
resembling or suggesting the largely pantomime comedy of the motion-picture comedian Charles Chaplin, especially its central comedy figure, a pathetic ineffectual good-hearted tramp with torn baggy pants, long-worn shoes, cane and bowler hat, an odd jerky walk, and pretensions to gentility"Resembling or suggesting". Not, you know, being.
Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged, s.v. “Chaplinesque,” accessed October 24, 2014, http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com.
4 Comments:
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At 8:07 PM, October 24, 2014
Kathie had this to say...
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At 8:18 PM, October 24, 2014
The Ridger, FCD had this to say...
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At 12:56 PM, October 27, 2014
The Ridger, FCD had this to say...
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At 7:16 AM, November 04, 2014
Adrian Morgan had this to say...
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<-- Older Post ^ Home Newer Post -->We both found the clue confusing.
That's because the answer was wrong.
-esque means "in the manner or style of; like". Chaplin's comedy isn't "in the manner of Chaplin" or "Chaplin-like".
You don't say the Gettysburg address was Lincolnesque. Or Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is a very Kiplingesque story.
The contestants' answers were better, and one even had the right number of letters.
Someone at work suggested that they were going for "What's the adjective that uses this man's name when referring to comedy?" or something like that.
Oh, I dunno ... I think the principle that X is not X-esque might owe more to pragmatics than semantics, so you might be able to override it in the right context.
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