STORMING ADJECTIVE (YOUTH CULTURE)

In British slang: outstanding in vigour, speed, or skill; 'cracking'. Etymology: Formed on the verb storm, probably as a transferred use of the military sense 'to make a vigorous assault on; to take by storm'. History and Usage: This sense of storming was a feature mainly of sport reports and tabloid journalism from the seventies onwards; in the same sources, a stormer was anything that could be described in the superlative: something very large, very successful, or very good. When, during the Gulf War of early 1991, the tabloid papers in the UK described the US Commander General Norman Schwarzkopf as Stormin' Norman, they were taking advantage of both the rhyme and the pun with the military sense of storm from which this adjective derives. The outstanding performer in the open was Stuart Evans who had a storming game. Rugby News Mar. 1987, p. 2 There are conflicting views on whether Gen Schwarzkopf...deserves the nickname 'Stormin' Norman', which he detests. Independent 18 Feb. 1991, p. 3