In Copyediting magazine's "Dictionary Update," Grant Barrett writes:
zombie bank, noun. A bank that is continually near failure, especially one propped up by government assistance.
Zombie banks are being kept alive by Fed advances.
--American Banker, May 13, 1991
Zombie banks struggling with billions of bad assets could continue to exist, but do very little business for a long time.
--The Boston Globe, January 30, 2009
I find this zombie-as-adjective thing catchy. Since I finished reading this edition of "Dictionary Update," I've been zombifying everything: imagining zombie Facebook accounts, zombie girlfriends (which is totally what Julie turns into in the beginning of the second season of Friday Night Lights), and -- ahem -- zombie offices.
Forget the zombie thing, tell me more about Copyediting magazine!
Posted by: JD (The Engine Room) | April 19, 2009 at 05:55 PM
And you do know about zombie Jane Austen, right?
Posted by: mighty red pen | April 22, 2009 at 08:45 PM
zombie rules http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1185
Posted by: goofy | April 24, 2009 at 10:06 AM
@JD: You can find out more about "Copyediting" magazine here: http://www04.mcmurry.com/product/CE/.
@MRP: No, but I'm definitely going to look it up now.
@goofy: I'm dying to tell Mr. K-- about Zombie Rules. I might insist that, next semester, he use them in conferences with his students.
Posted by: Editrix | May 05, 2009 at 05:58 PM