Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Informal Of or relating to discotheques or to the energetic music and dancing performed at discotheques.
- adj. Informal Marked by assertive action: a go-go sales executive.
- adj. Of, relating to, or engaging in a type of speculative, short-term stock-market operation: a go-go fund.
- adj. Characterized by the fast growth and development that invites speculative investment: go-go industries such as microprocessing and laser technology.
Wiktionary
- n. music A style of funk music from the 1970s.
- adj. Of, or relating to this style of music.
- adj. Of, or relating to the style of music played at discotheques.
- adj. Fast and lively.
Etymologies
- 1964, US, partly from Whisky a Go Go, an influential American nightclub (in turn from French à gogo ("abundant")), partly by reduplication of go, from 1962 slang the go ("the rage, fashionable"), from sense the go ("in motion") as in on the go. (Wiktionary)
- From à gogo.Intensive reduplication (influenced by go-go1) of go1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The so-called go-go years of the 1960s had given way to recession, inflation, a Dow in a prolonged decline—off 45 percent in 1973 alone—and pervasive gloom.”
“The Argument, and it's got a polyrhythmic sound that was influenced by go-go, which is our local, indigenous music.”
“As some of the 1980s’ most successful business figures—Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken, and Charles Keating among them—were carted off to serve prison terms, and government agencies attempted to sift through the ruins of banks and savings and loans, what had been dubbed the go-go decade seemed to lose some of its luster.”
“Over 20 years, which counts the go-go 1990s, its lead is narrower: 8.4% versus 8.3%.”
“Chuck Brown, the 74-year-old godfather of go-go, was up for the very first Grammy of his career but came up short, losing best R&B performance by a duo or group with vocals to Sade.”
The Washington Post: Lady Antebellum, Arcade Fire take home top prizes at 53rd Annual Grammy Awards
“Any Grammy ceremony would benefit from a little go-go.”
The Washington Post: Lady Antebellum, Arcade Fire take home top prizes at 53rd Annual Grammy Awards
“Many of those real-estate loans taken out during the go-go years are maturing.”
The Wall Street Journal: Goldman Opts Out of Japan Property Stake
“In the go-go years of the U.S. housing boom, virtually anybody could get a few hundred thousand dollars to buy a home, and private lenders flooded the market, aggressively pursuing borrowers no matter their means or financial history.”
“Museum of Flight In another dysfunctional uniform, Hughes Airwest in the 1970s had flight attendants wear go-go boots and billowing capes with hoods – a getup that tended to get in the way when opening aircraft doors or performing other tasks.”
The Wall Street Journal: Clothes That Do More Than Look Good
“One of Ireland's top investors who gobbled up trophy properties in Manhattan, London and Eastern Europe during the market's go-go years now owes hundreds of millions of dollars and is holding a global fire sale of his assets.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘go-go’.
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Hyphenated Repeats
Exactly reduplicated words connected by a hyphen.
aye-aye, cleek-cleek, arc-arc, killy-killy, dum-dum, tom-tom, argon-argon, carbon-carbon, win-win, lose-lose, bye-bye, choo-choo and 113 more...
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Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV
Words from the songs of Frank Black, a.k.a. Black Francis
zugzwang, valhalla, montalvo, ishist, tritons, mosh, siam, llano del rio, protohuman, tumbleweeds, ludwigshafen, ballyhoos and 349 more...
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You Can Say That Again
dum-dum, dik-dik, doo-doo, aye-aye, bling-bling, bye-bye, boo-boo, buddy-buddy, frou-frou, gado-gado, gee-gee, gang-gang and 32 more...
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Theorie: The Madwoman's Underclothes
'The Madwoman's Underclothes' book is a collection of writings by Germaine Greer from 1968 to 1985. The title refers to what she sees as being the media's obsession with her going bra-less. Warning...
homespun, shuck, flyte, animadversion, groover, tom jones, fucker, cocksman, sweety-sharp, goatman, ha-ha, corridor of power and 84 more...
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bluetangle's list
I like words.
leucomelanous, encephalopathy, logical positivism, discursive, wysiwyg, indecision, interlocutor, go-go, googlewhack, effervescent, tizzy, rebarbative and 4 more...
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Jubilee
Tweets
Looking for tweets for go-go.
bilby "All of them, the go-go dancers, the prostitutes, the widows whose president misappropriated their meagre funds, the dead, the imprisoned, are casualties of American policy in Vietnam. If the Americans were to vanish tomorrow, the scars of their presence would not heal for a generation."
- Germaine Greer, 'Saigon', Sunday Times, 1971. Apr 13, 2008