Chrysti The Wordsmith: Corny & Cheesy

Greetings verb of yours and welcome to Kristi the wordsmith. Cheesy and corny every native speaker of American English understands the significance of this pair of slurs in our slang vocabulary. Cheesy. Is anything cheap overripe or second rate as in cheesy motel decor. Corny points to that which is sentimental trite or hopelessly out of date. Corny appeared on the American slang escape sometime in the 1930s probably disseminated by jazz musicians. The original corny referred to country or old time styles of music. Some sources claim the word derives from the farm corn raised and fed to stock animals. Others contend Corney arose from the homespun jokes and artwork sprinkled throughout the so-called corn catalogs advertising all types of seed to American farmers. Cheesy predates corny by about 50 years. It shows up in print in the late 19th century and has remained consistent throughout the decades. Describing things chintzy goddy or shabby the source of this term is uncertain but here are two possibilities. It may be

the lexical offspring of the expression big cheese a self-important person referring to the gaudy or obvious tastes of such or the word may evoke the pungent unpleasant odor of overripe or spoiled cheese cheesy. Too much of a good thing. I'm Christie the wordsmith. This series comes to you from famine Bozeman Montana Southwest Montana's alternative radio Christy the wordsmith a sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry. Zoot web dot com.