Woosterism

English

Etymology

Wooster +‎ -ism, after Bertie Wooster, the protagonist of P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves series of comic novels.

Noun

Woosterism (countable and uncountable, plural Woosterisms)

1. foppish, affected speech or behaviour
   • 2001, Tony Vaux, The Selfish Altruist: Relief Work in Famine and War, page 10:

     Employers, still influenced by a touch of 1930s Woosterism, liked the idea of recruiting a young graduate who had had a fling or two, even if it was with socialism.

   • 2006, Mitzi Brunsdale, Gumshoes: A Dictionary of Fictional Detectives, page 12:

     In his earliest appearances he favors an upper-class drawl and inane Bertie Woosterisms masking bursts of insight that solve frustrating cases his stolid friend Inspector Charles Parker cannot fathom.

   • 2009, John Banville, The Untouchable:

     'Ah, the Julian calendar, yes. What-ho for jolly old Julian.'
     I winced; he never sounded more Jewish than when he came out with these Woosterisms.