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  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 13. The word origin today is

  • cliffhanger. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here.

  • A cliffhanger is a story or situation in which the film is shown in parts or

  • segments. So it could have many parts. It could have just two or three parts or

  • could have 10 parts and at the end of each segment it leaves you... It leaves the

  • audience in suspense. So that they will be more certain to

  • want to see the next part. So it leaves you in anticipation. Oh my God. What's

  • going to happen next. Oh No ! What happened ? What's going to happen ?

  • So kind of like that. So let's continue. The origin of cliffhanger comes from the

  • serial films which were popular in the first half of the 20th century. This, this

  • series was shown in chapters and each part was screened at a movie theater

  • for a week and the next week would have a continuation. So this was really before

  • the days that people had TVs in their house. So this was a way that the movie

  • theater got people to come back every week to watch it. So I remember, I

  • remember even I think, I think I talked with my father about this. He said that people

  • will go to the movie theater all day. They'd be there for six or seven hours

  • during the day. And they'd show a lot of shorts. They show a lot of cartoons and

  • stuff. But they they showed a lot of films like this with they would show 5 minutes and

  • then it was a really action part and again people wanted to see it. So this,

  • this way they would be more encouraged to come back the next week. So now of

  • course since TV got invented it kind of took away from this but this is what it

  • originally came from. So let's continue here. This was all done again before the

  • advent of television. So television wasn't you know , televisions

  • didn't appear in people's houses until maybe the early 1950s and

  • then only a few people had them. And it wasn't really until the late 50s or

  • early 60s that you know, most people started

  • having TVs. . They were affordable at that time. So of course at the end of each

  • chapter, the hero or a likable character was left in a perilous, perilous

  • means dangerous situation. And then you know, they cut it off and they probably

  • say to be continued. So that's how they would leave you in suspense. Okay. Let's

  • continue. The term cliffhanger itself did not appear until the mid 1930s and of

  • course the term alludes to the idea of the hero hanging on to a cliff and, and

  • cutting it right off at that scene. And then you know leaving the audience in

  • suspense. I think there were few of the serials I did even see when I was a

  • kid where that's exactly what happened. The good guy would be fighting the bad

  • guy. the bad guy would hit him. He'd fall, he just catch on maybe hanging

  • right on the end. That was your typical idea. That's where the term cliffhanger

  • came from. Of course, there were a lot of other dangerous situations. I think

  • another typical one where the bad guy ties up some girl on the railroad tracks

  • and the Train is coming and then cut it off. Boom !

  • To be continued. So anything like that was referred to as a cliffhanger. Okay.

  • So let's just give one example here. The end of part one was a real cliffhanger.

  • Okay good. Anyway I hope you got it. I hope it's

  • clear. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 13. The word origin today is

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