Lexical Compendium

Wait... what is this? Sometimes I come across a word, phrase, idiom, quote, reference, bit of slang, person of interest, etc that either I don't know or I find amusing, interesting, etc. This is a collection of those items so that I can refer back to them in emails, texts, etc.

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fridging

The term fridging describes a narrative trope in which a female character is used primarily to motivate the male protagonist.[2] The female character is harmed, killed, traumatized, etc in order to catalyze the protagonist's journey -- his grief or vengeance are what propels him forward.

The term comes from the comic Green Lantern in an issue in which the hero discovers his girlfriend murdered and stuffed into a refrigerator by a villain.[3] Comics writer Gail Simone later cataloged a long list of similar cases under the project "Women in Refrigerators," and the name stuck.[4]

In November 2025 I saw the remake of the movie The Running Man.[1] The primary motivation for the main character joining the deadly game show The Running Man is that he is unable to support his wife and sick daughter. These characters are only in the movie to motivate the protagonist. The picture he keeps of them seems to get more air time than the actual characters.


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References:

  1. IMDB: The Running Man (2025)
  2. Wikipedia: Women in refrigerators
  3. Comic Vine: Green Lantern #54 - Forced Entry
  4. Wikipedia: Gail Simone

Tags: movie , jargon , comics

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thagomizer

A thagomizer is a bit of paleontology jargon referring to the spikes on a stegosaurian dinosaur.

When I was young, the Stegosaurus was my favorite type of dinosaur. I had no idea what the spikes were called until very recently though. I especially didn't know that the word was coined by none other than Gary Larson of Far Side fame.

In 1982, Gary Larson wrote a comic in which a caveman, perhaps in a teaching role, explains to an audience that these spikes were named "after the late Thag Simmons."


(link to this entry)

References:

  1. Wikipedia: Thagomizer
  2. Thagomizer: Why Stegosaurus’ Spiky Tail Was Named After A Cartoon

Tags: dinosaur , stegosaurus , far side , paleontology , eponymous , comics

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