manic pixie dream girl
- noun
- /ˈmænɪk ˈpɪksi drim ɡɜrl/
- Offensive
:
manic pixie dream girl
- The charming and whimsical nature of the manic pixie dream girl captivated the protagonist, pushing him to take a spontaneous road trip.
Examples
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In the film, the quirky character played by Zooey Deschanel embodies the essence of a manic pixie dream girl, inspiring the male lead to live life to the fullest.
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Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation was a depressed manic pixie dream girl.
Blog text (19) -
Yeah, it's a screwball comedy of and, and maybe one of the first kind of manic Pixie dream girl type characters that Barbra Streisand plays.
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She appears as the quintessential manic pixie dream girl, her free-spirited personality reviving his dull existence and leading him on unexpected adventures.
Synonyms
A person in a story who is amusingly odd and playful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The individual words (manic, pixie, dream, girl) give a partial, literal impression of an energetic, whimsical young woman, so a learner could guess some surface qualities. However, the full meaning is a culture-specific film/fiction trope — a character whose main role is to inspire a male protagonist — which is not derivable from the constituents alone and requires prior exposure or cultural knowledge.
Etymology
Manic pixie dream girl was invented by a film critic and paints a clear picture: a lively manic, small fairy-like pixie who feels like a dream girl and rushes into a man's quiet life to bring fun and adventure. That's why the phrase means a female character whose main job is to 'inspire' the male lead to change.
