Does this usage strike you as odd, or not?

[tree_and_leaf]

(Genuine question).

A winsome article about nuns, with truly lovely photographs.

Is this an American thing? Something to do with the idiolect of US church people (the post was made by an American on a FB group for young clergywomen, and I've noticed 'winsome' being used that way on that group before)? Or is it perfectly normal in UK English too and I'm just being strange?

On reflection, I realised I (a) had a strong sense that 'winsome' seems wrong when applied to a text (as opposed to a gesture, tone of voice, etc) and (b) think it's a revolting word that suggests Dolores Umbridge trying to be pleasant... Point (b) probably really is just me.

(The article, a NYT piece on a Dominican convent in New Jersey which is undergowing surprising growth among young women really is... um... an engaging and interesting read).

Comments

[shewhostaples]

'Winsome' always feels a bit twee and self-conscious to me.

[gramarye1971]

I can't remember the last time anyone I know on this side of the pond used winsome in a sentence -- granted, I don't move in church circles, so it may be a local thing? -- and I think you're right that it isn't really a good word to describe something inanimate. Also, unless you're talking about a child or something to do with children (and their enthusiasm and innocence), it strikes me as condescending or at the very least deliberately twee.

[tree_and_leaf]

cadenzamuse suggests it may be an evangelical homeschooler thing.

I am sure from context and the way the comment thread went that the OP didn't mean it in a condescending way, but I agree.

[kaberett]

... no, I'm pretty sure "winsome" applies to animate beings only.

[tree_and_leaf]

For some reason I'm now trying to imagine a winsome apple pie, and shuddering.

[kaberett]

AMERICAAAAAAAAAAA

[oursin]

Violet Elizabeth Bott is what I think of when I think 'winsome'.

[perennialanna]

Exactly. There is a degree of consciousness to being winsome.

[tree_and_leaf]

Hah! Yes.

[naraht]

It's not a way of using the term that I've ever encountered, and I'm familiar with a few different breeds of US church people...

[tree_and_leaf]

cadenzamuse says below that she's encountered it from evangelical homeschooling types.

[naraht]

Well, I know a ton of evangelical homeschooling types (having been a homeschooler and all). But maybe it's a more recent coinage.

[tree_and_leaf]

Or perhaps there's a regional element?

[antisoppist]

To me it means vomit-makingly twee and cute and is a really odd word to use about a text. I think I'd only use it when telling my children not to be it. "Stop trying to be winsome" when they're fluttering their eyelashes to try and get extra biscuits out of me.

[tree_and_leaf]

You know, I believe my mother used that line on me - that probably partly explains why I dislike it!

[serriadh]

My grandmother would occasionally approvingly describe someone's child as a 'winsome little girl/boy' which I usually took (entirely reliably ime) as a sign they'd be appallingly spoilt.

[cadenzamuse]

I know people who would use the word regularly and unironically (and quite possibly about inanimate objects). They're generally from a home schooled evangelical-ish background, and have this idea that Anne of Green Gables is a good model for one's speech and writing.

[tree_and_leaf]

Hm, I think you're on to something there!

[kaberett]

I had AoGG as a model as a child and I still think winsome is not for inanimate objects unless you're trying to ascribe them a decidedly uncanny-valley level of sentience!

[lilliburlero]

To me it's Pomona Todd practising her pretty wiles on grownups. I wouldn't use it of an inanimate thing, either, but in that example it strikes me as a sort of displaced usage: it's actually the nuns and the photos that are being described as winsome. (And to my eye, they are, in the Pomona Todd sense. But I haven't read the article, just glanced at the pictures.)

The online OED entry hasn't been updated since 1926, and mostly cites unironic usage, though.