Friday, May 09, 2008

365 New Words a Year [Merriam Webster] (Workman Publishing 9/12/7: knee-jerk

knee-jerk adj : readily predictable : automatic; also : reacting in a readily predictable way
"Around 1876, the sudden involuntary extension of the leg in response to a light blow just below the knee, . . . [aka] the 'patellar reflex', was given the refreshingly simple designation 'knee jerk'. In the 1950s, knee-jerk became an adjective with a figurative sense that doesn't require any actual twitching. . . . Knee-jerk often has a negative connotation, denoting a too-hasty, impulsive, perhaps even irrational response based on preconceived notions." Rating 8/10 if I don't think about it.
Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of Blogger or Google. They don't often represent views held by friends and family of the author, his church or workplace, his wife or even himself.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. --Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance"