I saw the word ‘Bash-a-thon’ in the headline of the Time magazine article (August 3) –
‘Palin Joins in Romney Bash-a-thon’ followed by the lead coy:
“In an interview with Hannity, Palin takes Romney to task on debt. Says Bachmann performed better but "I'm not prejudging the field at this point."
I searched several dictionaries including Cambridge Dictionaries online and Free Merriam Webster for the meaning of 'Bash-a-thon,' without finding any entry. There was an example of usage of this word – “I’m ready for a bash athon today. Bring it on.” in forums.silvertails. net.
Although I understand that ‘bash-a-thon’ is ‘bash’ plus the affix, ‘athon’ meaning a long race, I wonder whether ‘bash-a-thon’ is an established English that worth for stowing in my English vocabulary, or just a casual combination of words like ‘McKinley moment,’ Reno era’ or ‘Snake metaphor’ as I posted question yesterday.
Best Answer
The latter: it's not a standard word that you'll find in any dictionary. The suffix -athon, as you've guessed, comes from marathon, and means "an event, as a sale or contest, drawn out to unusual length, often until a prearranged goal, as the contribution of a certain amount of money, is reached" (according to Dictionary.com).