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SQUIB
, supposed to be derived from the See also:German word schieben, to push or shove forward with a sliding See also:movement, the name for a projected See also:kind of firework that is flung out of a groove and breaks with a flash and a clatter
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Hence, in the See also:literary sense, a squib is a slight satirical See also:composition put forth on an occasion; and it is intended that it should make a See also:noise by its See also:explosion, not by the See also:possession of any permanent importance
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See also:Steele says, in the Tatler, that " squibs are those who in the See also:common phrase of the See also:world are See also:call'd libellers, lampooners and pamphleteers," showing that, at the beginning of the 18th.See also:century, the See also:man who composed the See also:satire, as well as the satire itself, was called a squib See also:Swift speaks of the rapidity with which these little literary See also:fireworks flew about from See also:place to place, and he himself was a proficient in the making of noisy squibs
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Perhaps the best type of a squib in See also:English literature is See also: |
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