Word Routes
Exploring the pathways of our lexicon
Susan Boyle is Gobsmacked (and Poleaxed Too)Tue Apr 21 00:00:00 EDT 2009By Ben Zimmer
Unless you've been living under an Internet-free rock, you've probably seen the enthralling video of Scotland's Susan Boyle singing on the television show Britain's Got Talent. According to the latest numbers, the video of Boyle's performance has already attracted more than 100 million online views. But it's not only her singing prowess that is attracting worldwide attention: it has also been reported that "Web searches for the term gobsmacked spiked after Boyle used the British slang meaning utterly astonished when describing her reaction to newfound widespread acclaim."
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