The Rice University Neologisms Database

Stylish; characterized by contemporary, suave fashion similar to the clothing of designer Giorgio Armani. The author sought to be clever and funny by writing “Armani-ed and dangerous.” Don Johnson played a detective who searched for “armed and dangerous” criminals on the hit television show Miami Vice. The author considered Johnson’s role as a detective and clearly thought that it would be ironic and comical to describe Johnson as “Armani-ed and dangerous.” This constitutes a play on words where “Armani” and “arm” have similar sounds but have different meanings. The author wanted to express Johnson’s keen fashion sense by equating his clothes to Armani fashion. This results in creative variation such that the author avoids using ambiguous words like fashionable. The author uses Armani not to exclusively select a certain designer but to pinpoint the type of fashion exhibited by the star of Miami Vice. In effect, Armani is only used because Armani is a noteworthy, respected name in fashion such that Armani has become a symbol of fashion. This constitutes an example of widening. This creative method of explaining fashion is able to pique the interest of the reader. The –ed suffix does not reflect the past tense or the past participle; instead, the –ed suffix can be glossed as “characterized by or resembling” in words like flat-footed or satisfied. The author uses the word Armani as a type of widening such that Armani reflects not just Armani clothes but classy fashion in general. The eponymic widening of Armani coupled with the –ed suffix combine to form a neologism that means “fashionable.”