Clipped
Clipped
ADJ If you say that someone has a clipped way of speaking, you mean they speak with quick, short sounds, and usually that they sound upper-class.
Could anyone explain why clipped is for upper-class? Don't middle and lower classes speak like that? Thanks!
Top answer
I don't think that the usage of "clipped", as it applies to accents, is fully predictable just from a knowledge of the basic meaning of "clip". You could argue that any class of person might speak with "quick, short sounds", but in practice "clipped" almost always refers to a particular kind of upper-class way of speaking English. I think it is a meaning that you just have to learn.
- I don't think that the usage of "clipped", as it applies to accents, is fully predictable just from a knowledge of the basic meaning of "clip".
- You could argue that any class of person might speak with "quick, short sounds", but in practice "clipped" almost always refers to a particular kind of upper-class way of speaking English.
- I think it is a meaning that you just have to learn.
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I don't think that the usage of "clipped", as it applies to accents, is fully predictable just from a knowledge of the basic meaning of "clip". You could argue that any class of person might speak with "quick, short sounds", but in practice "clipped" almost always refers to a particular kind of upper-class way of speaking English. I think it is a meaning that you just have to learn.
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