15/10/26 21:25:14.12 IN2Fhe8g.net
★ good-bad books, good-bad times ★
Reading some essays by George Orwell, I found him using the word
"good-bad" at least on several occasions. I'd never met the word.
I find it interesting and funny. I don't know how widely it is used.
Let me quote the definition of the word and the quotations containing
it from the OED.
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★good-bad★ adj. designating something which is simultaneously
good and bad, esp. that is generally bad or inferior, but has
redeeming characteristics, or is a particularly good example of
an inferior thing; (also) relating to both good and bad.
(1) 1852 tr. R. de Maistre in Dublin Rev. Dec. 390
There is nothing so dangerous as ●good bad● books, that is to say,
bad books written by excellent men deceived.
(2) 1899 Chambers's Jrnl. 23 Sept. 674/1
Smugglers in the ●good-bad● old times pursued what they euphemistically
called the ‘fair trade’.
(3) 1933 A. Thirkell High Rising ii. 41
‘●Good bad● books?’ ‘Yes. Not very good books,..but good of a
second-rate kind.’
(4) 1949 M. Mead Male & Female xvii. 346
A frequent theme of modern movies is the ‘●good-bad●’ girl.
(5) 2003 R. Feasey in M. Jancovich et al. Defining Cult Movies xi. 173
They do not reject or invert standards of good and bad taste,
but rather distinguish between the ‘●good bad●’ movie and the bad movie
which is simply bad.
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This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2014).