Etymology

scissor statement

Today it means: A polarising and incendiary topic, opinion or phrase. Full definition →

Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

Coined by American psychiatrist and blogger Scott Alexander Siskind (writing as "Scott Alexander") in his 2018 short story “Sort By Controversial”, where he wrote: “In some dead language, scissor shares a root with schism. A scissor is a schism-er, a schism-creator.”

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.