The other night John and I were watching news on CNN when commentators/reporters started throwing around a word I didn't know: trope. It's pretty unusual for me not to know words, and I wondered if this was one that had suddenly become fashionable while I wasn't paying attention. Rather like "bespoke" awhile ago. Sometimes I do get out of the loop, it's hard to believe but true.
I have since learned that a "trope" is the figurative use of a word or an expression, a figure of speech. Oxford defines it here. I'm also thinking that if I didn't know what "trope" meant that most of the audience watching didn't either (John didn't). So why would the commentators use it, several times? To confirm their intellectual superiority? The word dates back to the mid-16th century, is of Latin and Greek origin. So it's not a new word by any means, rather a very old one. It also meant that we didn't understand the point of their story, which rather defeats the purpose for news reporting.
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