lollapalooza

English

WOTD – 7 April 2012    

Alternative forms

• lallapalooza, lalapalooza, lallapaloosa, lolapalooza, lolapaloosa

Etymology

From lallapalootza, lollypaloozer

Noun

lollapalooza (plural lollapaloozas)

1. (informal) An outstanding, extreme, or outrageous example of its kind.
   • 1991 Nov. 3, Studs Terkel, "Keillor's elegy to randy radio" (Book Review of WLT A Radio Romance by Garrison Keillor), Chicago Sun-Times (retrieved 23 July 2011):

     Here is a novel of low comedy and high raillery. It's a lollapalooza that turns out to be a comic elegy for old-time radio.

   • 1998 Feb. 22, Douglas McGrath, "Bottom of the Barrel" (Book Review of Star-Spangled Men: America's Ten Worst Presidents by Nathan Miller), New York Times (retrieved 23 July 2011):

     Promising to destroy the Soviet Union would have been a lollapalooza even for Reagan, since part of his election strategy was to fight his image as a warmonger.

   • 2009 February 17, Jim Travers, “Harper's political payoff is the photo-op”, Toronto Star:

     Far from the grand events that were once considered – speaking to Parliament or a more modest version of the lollapalooza that brought millions into Chicago streets – this six-hour hi-how-are-you redefines low key.

Translations

outstanding; extreme; outrageous example of its kind

• Finnish: omituisuus (fi), kummallisuus (fi)

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Translations to be checked

• Spanish: excepcional (es), extremo (es), escandaloso (es)