polyester Protestant
- noun
- /ˌpɒliˈɛstər ˈprɒtɪstənt/
- Slur
:
[insulto ofensivo para protestante superficial]
- Although he grew up in a traditional church, his flashy outfits made people call him a polyester Protestant.
Examples
-
Some critics lampooned suburban pastors as polyester Protestants in the 1970s.
-
Don't be such a polyester Protestant at the family gathering!
-
She laughed and said her family had gone from staunch Calvinists to polyester Protestants overnight.
-
She is a polyester Protestant.
-
His trendy hairstyle and colorful clothing led his friends to call him a polyester Protestant.
-
After moving to the suburbs, her style changed dramatically, turning her into a polyester Protestant.
-
Many people in the community joked about their neighbor, who always dressed like a polyester Protestant.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components give partial cues: 'polyester' evokes synthetic/cheap/artificial clothing and 'Protestant' names a religious person, so a learner can infer a Protestant characterized by artificial or showy appearance. However, the pejorative, culture-specific stereotype and pragmatic judgment require world knowledge and are not fully predictable from the words alone, making the expression only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Polyester Protestant comes from the picture of church members wearing shiny polyester clothes, which led people to make fun of showy Protestants as looking 'artificial'. So the phrase now describes someone who seems 'superficial' or 'fake'.
