(pun.duh.TEER)
n.
A young and inexperienced critic or commentator.
Example Citation:
Washingtonians still cling to their notions of power, even as the city's importance is draining away. Instead of great cold war statesmen, we have Clinton, Gingrich, Hastert and Carville. Instead of Walter Lippmann, we have 20-something punditeers on MSNBC.
— David Brooks, "A Money Player in A Power Town," The New York Times, December 26, 1999
Earliest Citation:
On PBS' MacNeil/Lehrer Show, Secretary of State James Baker explains that there wasn't "anybody, anywhere" who foresaw the fall of the Berlin Wall.
On the op-ed page of Sunday's New York Times, Eric Alterman, who is writing a book on Washington pundits, observes that "not one of America's foreign policy gurus" predicted the East Germans would tear down the Berlin Wall.
The words of the secretary and the punditeer naturally lead a columnist to heed the call of a third authority, New York sportscaster Warner Wolf, who is forever saying: "Let's go to the video tape." Well, I did. And there on Cable News Network's "Closing Arguments 1988" year-end showcase for punditry, I saw Pat Buchanan, Bob Novak, Rowland Evans, Tom Braden and Bernard Shaw listening in rapt attention to this one pundit. "Internationally, the Berlin Wall will come down in 1989," said Martin Schram on that CNN show last December. "Write it down. It will happen."
— Martin Schram, "Guess Who Called Shot on the Wall's Fall," Newsday (New York, New York), November 15, 1989
Notes:
The origin of this word is obscure, but it's most likely a blend of pundit and mouseketeer.
Related Words:
Categories:
New words. 2013.