spin doctor en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (US) audio
Etymology
From spin (“a favorable comment or interpretation”) + doctor. First use appears c. 1984 in the New York Times.
Meanings
-
A person employed to gloss over a poor public image (or present it in a better light) in business and politics, especially after unfavourable results; a lobbyist; a PR person.
Many believed that the reduction in public spending was a disaster but the spin doctors presented it as a triumph for lower taxation.
Lord Steel, the former Liberal leader, has launched a despairing attack on the prevalence of spin doctors in politics, noting that he is given "daily outpourings of tweets to circulate" and bombarded by email with "lines to take" on current issues.
2013 October 31, Rowena Mason, quoting David Steel, “Lord Steel criticises culture of spin and tweeting in modern politics”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:A dozen men in good suits and women in silk dresses will circulate smoothly among the reporters, spouting confident opinions. They won't be just press agents trying to impart a favorable spin to a routine release. They'll be the Spin Doctors, senior advisers to the candidates, and they'll be playing for very high stakes.
1984 October 21, “The Debate and the Spin Doctors”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:William Hague, shadow foreign secretary, said the Williams document was "further evidence that spin doctors, not intelligence analysts, were leading from the first in deciding what the British people were told about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction".
2008 February 19, Richard Norton-Taylor, quoting William Hague, “Iraq weapons dossier draft reveals role of 'spin doctor'”, in The Guardian:Now that the cold war has ended and political ideologies have been replaced by pollsters and spin doctors, Machiavelli's cleareyed assessments of power dynamics and pragmatic advantage are suddenly in vogue.
2000 December 3, Alexander Stille, “The Original Spin Doctor”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| spindoctor | alternative, rare | lexicographic | |
| spin doctors | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Relateds
spin machine · spin doctoring · spin control
Synonyms
spinster · spinmeister · spin merchant
Translations (26)
pl spin doctor (person hired to improve public image) · de Imageberater (person hired to improve public image) · de PR-Berater (person hired to improve public image) · it curatore di immagine (person hired to improve public image) · it portavoce (person hired to improve public image) · da spindoktor (person hired to improve public image) · fi PR-konsultti (person hired to improve public image) · fr spin doctor (person hired to improve public image) · fi lobbari (lobbyist) (person hired to improve public image) · de Spindoktor (person hired to improve public image) · it lobbista (person hired to improve public image) · es asesor de imagen (person hired to improve public image) · pl spin doktor (person hired to improve public image) · pt marqueteiro (person hired to improve public image) · da særlig rådgiver (person hired to improve public image) · de Schönredner (person hired to improve public image) · de Tatsachenbeschöniger (person hired to improve public image) · fr façonneur d’image (person hired to improve public image) · cmn 公關專家 /公关专家 (person hired to improve public image) · cy dewin delwedd (person hired to improve public image) · ru политтехнолог (person hired to improve public image) · fi imagokonsultti (person hired to improve public image) · es agente de prensa (person hired to improve public image) · it esperto di comunicazione (person hired to improve public image) · cy dewin delwau (person hired to improve public image) · nl spindoctor (person hired to improve public image)