fashionista
fashionista – sostantivo numerabile
Personal style is what distinguishes a fashionista from a truly stylish lady.
China’s fashionistas are diving headfirst into a new fad.
I’ve found that Guardianistas make the most offensive, ill-informed statements but think it’s ok because they’re trendy-lefty opinions.
A student who works in a Linlithgow coffee shop made it to the finals of a barista competition with a special blend of coffee and Irn Bru.
Non sono molti i termini inglesi che terminano in –ista. In un post recente abbiamo visto come il suffisso sia stato aggiunto dai media al cognome del nuovo segretario del partito laburista preferendolo al più tipico e neutro –ite, e caricandolo così di connotazioni negative; scelta ovviamente non casuale.
Tra le altre rare parole troviamo barista, mutuato dall’italiano, e Guardianista, epiteto per lo più spregiativo per i lettori e i giornalisti del Guardian, quotidiano britannico liberal. Il termine più frequente, tuttavia, è fashionista: coniato dal suo inventore semplicemente per riferirsi a chi si occupa di moda o ci gravita intorno, ha assunto anni dopo una sfumatura negativa.
Origini del termine
Fashionista è una creazione di Stephen Fried, autore della biografia della top model Gia Carangi pubblicata nel 1993. Fried afferma di esser stato influenzato da Sandinista, nome dato agli appartenenti al movimento rivoluzionario nicaraguanense di cui si parlava spesso negli anni in cui la carriera di Gia Carangi era all’apice, nonché il titolo di un album dei Clash del 1980.
fashionista – countable noun
Personal style is what distinguishes a fashionista from a truly stylish lady.
China’s fashionistas are diving headfirst into a new fad.
I’ve found that Guardianistas make the most offensive, ill-informed statements but think it’s ok because they’re trendy-lefty opinions.
A student who works in a Linlithgow coffee shop made it to the finals of a barista competition with a special blend of coffee and Irn Bru.
There are not many English words that end with the suffix –ista. We saw in a recent post how it has been added to the surname of the new leader of the UK Labour Party, where its selection in preference to the more usual – and more neutral – –ite adds negative connotations which are far from accidental.
Of the other common English words ending in –ista, barista is taken directly from the Italian, while Guardianista is generally used as derogatory – or sometimes affectionate – shorthand for the readers and writers of the left-of-centre newspaper. The most frequently used –ista word by far, however, is fashionista. As originally used by its inventor, the term referred simply to all the people involved in the fashion business; it was only later that it started to be used to refer to someone who is obsessively interested in fashion.
Origins
Fashionista is an example of a word whose creation can be pinpointed exactly. It was coined in 1993 by Stephen Fried in his book about the supermodel Gia Carangi. Fried says he was influenced by the term Sandinista, referring to supporters of the left-wing Nicaraguan political party, which was much in the news at the time when Carangi’s career was its height. The term was slow to catch on but usage took off in the late 1990s.
