Etymology Blend of snow cone + clone, in reference to the phrase “If Eskimos have dozens of words for snow, X have as many for Y” (which is an example of a snowclone). Coined by American television writer and economist Glen Whitman in January 2004, in response to Geoffrey Pullum on the blog Language Log.
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Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences A formulaic phrase that can be customized to fit a variety of contexts.
I stumbled upon the site the other day, when I was looking up the origins of the "Im not an X, but I play one on TV" snowclone.2005 November 5, auuV, “Some articles that I like. They are about language,”, in alt.running.out.of.newsgroup.names (Usenet):
Suddenly snowclone hunters were documenting media usages suggesting that, in space, no one can hear you belch, bitch, blog, speak, squeak or suck.2005 December 3, David Rowan, “"Snowclone" journalism”, Trendsurfing, in The Times, archived from the original on 06 Sep 2006:
4 more examples
Regular readers learned there first about snowclones, the basic building blocks of cliches, like "X is the new Y" or "you don't need a degree in A to do B."2006 June 20, Michael Erard, “Analyzing Eggcorns and Snowclones, and Challenging Strunk and White”, in The New York Times, page F4:
If so, you're being snowed under by snowclones — a category of fill-in-the-blank cliché identified by linguists.2006 July 23, Mark Peters, “Not Your Father's Cliché”, in Columbia Journalism Review, volume 45, number 2, page 14:
When you read phrases like these in a newspaper, you've stumbled across a particular type of cliché: the snowclone.2006 November 18, anonymous author, “Snowclone”, in New Scientist, volume 192, number 2578, →DOI, page 80:
The snowclone is mainstream enough now to appear in the title of a recently published book: This Is Your Brain on Joy.2009 June 24, “this is your brain on X”, in The Snowclones Database:
Etymology Blend of snow cone + clone, in reference to the phrase “If Eskimos have dozens of words for snow, X have as many for Y” (which is an example of a snowclone). Coined by American television writer and economist Glen Whitman in January 2004, in response to Geoffrey Pullum on the blog Language Log.
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To use a snowclone in speech or writing.
Many journalists are guilty of serial snowcloning, but snowclones aren't always a symptom of laziness – they can be a cultural in-joke.2006 November 15, “The word: Snowclone”, in New Scientist, number 2578: