soap opera

soap opera
\ \ [20] The original soap operas were a radio phenomenon, in 1930s America. Serial dramas dealing with humdrum-butoccasionally- melodramatic domestic life were as common then as they are on television now, and several of those on the commercial US networks were sponsored by soap manufacturers. A writer on the Christian Century in 1938 said ‘These fifteen-minute tragedies…I call the “soap tragedies”…because it is by the grace of soap I am allowed to shed tears for these characters who suffer so much from life’. The soap connection soon linked up with horse opera, a mildly derisive term for a Western movie that had been around since the 1920s, to produce soap opera (a later coinage on the same model was space opera). The abbreviated version soap is recorded as early as 1943.

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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  • Soap-opera — Feuilletons télévisés par période / genre / origine Liste complète Un soap opera (anglicisme, parfois abrégé en « soap ») ou roman savon (au Québec) est un type de feuilleton radiodiffusé ou télévisé. Cette désignation provient du fait… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Soap Opera — Feuilletons télévisés par période / genre / origine Liste complète Un soap opera (anglicisme, parfois abrégé en « soap ») ou roman savon (au Québec) est un type de feuilleton radiodiffusé ou télévisé. Cette désignation provient du fait… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • soap-opéra — [ sopɔpera ] n. m. • 1981; mot angl. , de soap « savon » et opera, ces feuilletons étant à l origine produits par les lessiviers ♦ Anglic. Feuilleton télévisé populaire, tourné rapidement. Les soap opéras. Abrév. fam. SOAP . Les soaps américains …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Soap-Opera — Soap Ope|ra, Soap|ope|ra [ soʊp|ɔpəra], die; , s [engl. soap opera, aus: soap = Seife u. opera = Oper, ↑ Seifenoper]: Seifenoper. * * * Soap|ope|ra [ soʊp ɔpərə], (auch:) Soap Ope|ra, die; , s [engl. soap opera, aus: soap = Seife u. opera = Oper …   Universal-Lexikon

  • soap opera — / səʊp opərə/, it. /so pɔpera/ locuz. ingl. [comp. di soap sapone e opera opera (teatrale, ecc.) , propr. opera sapone , in quanto un tempo sponsorizzata da produttori di detersivi], usata in ital. come s.f., invar. (radiotel.) [sceneggiato… …   Enciclopedia Italiana

  • soap opera — soap ,opera noun count a television or radio series about the imaginary lives of a group of people. A soap opera is often simply called a soap …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • soap opera — 1939 (sponsors were often soap manufacturers), from earlier horse opera a Western (1927); shortened form soap first attested 1943 …   Etymology dictionary

  • soap opera — /so(p)&pEpera, ingl. ˈsəupˌɔpærʌ/ [loc. ingl., comp. di soap «sapone» e opera «opera», perché negli Stati Uniti furono le società produttrici di detersivi a sponsorizzare per prime queste trasmissioni] loc. sost. f. inv. telenovela (port.),… …   Sinonimi e Contrari. Terza edizione

  • soap opera — soap .opera n [Date: 1900 2000; Origin: Because they were originally sponsored by soap making companies] a television or radio story about the daily lives and relationships of the same group of people, which is broadcast regularly …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • soap opera — soap operas N COUNT A soap opera is a popular television drama series about the daily lives and problems of a group of people who live in a particular place …   English dictionary

  • soap opera — ► NOUN ▪ a television or radio drama serial dealing with daily events in the lives of the same group of characters. ORIGIN so named because such serials were originally sponsored in the US by soap manufacturers …   English terms dictionary

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