Blockbuster: word to use today.

It's time for the Christmas blockbuster, folks

But, the thing is, what is a block, and why should anyone want to bust it?

I've always vaguely associated the term blockbuster with memories of Saturday Morning Pictures, an all-morning entertainment at my local cinema for under elevens (and it really was all under-elevens: as I remember it there wasn't an adult in the place except for a slightly rumpled (and, as I see it now, heroically brave) man who made announcements). In my town the queue to get in would sometimes stretch, yes, right round the block.

Sadly, though, the word blockbuster begins nowhere so harmless.

A blockbuster started off as a nickname in the press for a World War Two RAF bomb of such immense proportions that...well, you can imagine. From there it began to be applied to any very successful or forceful person or thing; and from there it became a usually lavish and always very successful film, play, novel, or other piece of popular entertainment.

Well, when I say successful, I really just mean that people liked it enough to recommend it to their friends. It's a matter of money, not artistic value (whatever that might be).

Still, blockbuster: it's a word that's come up in the world, hasn't it. 

And we must be grateful for that.



Word To Use Today: blockbuster. The first blockbuster bomb was dropped in 1943. Block comes from the Old French bloc, and bust is basically the same word as burst.

(Yes, all right, Gone With The Wind was technically made too early to be a blockbuster - but I'm not allowed to reproduce any Star Wars stuff here.)