TURTLE

noun Also written turtle (Lifestyle and Leisure) (Youth Culture) In full, (in the US) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle or (in the UK) Teenage Mutant Hero Turtle: any of a group of four fantasy characters for children, in the form of terrapins who have supposedly been mutated through being covered in radioactive slime in a New York sewer. In the plural, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the trade mark of a series of children's stories, programmes, games, and toys based on the exploits of these characters. Etymology: An abbreviated form of the full name, Teenage Mutant etc.; in US English, turtle is the standard word for all the animals of the order Chelonia, which in British English are known variously as terrapins, tortoises, and turtles. History and Usage: The pizza-loving Turtles were the invention of American comic-book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird in 1988 and early in their history as comic-book figures were apparently used by a New York pizza house as a way of providing amusement for children while they were waiting to be served with their pizzas. The idea proved so successful that soon a whole range of Turtle licensed products appeared on the market, including computer games, toys, stationery, and a television series. The craze for Turtle licensed products was particularly intense in the US in 1989 and in the UK in 1990; so intense, in fact, that it became known as turtlemania. The Turtles, also known in the merchandising hype as the awesome foursome or the heroes in a half shell, helped to popularize a version of Californian youngsters' slang heavily influenced by Valspeak and surfers' talk; this language, including the cry of Cowabunga and adjectives such as awesome, rad, tubular, etc., has been called turtlespeak. In the US the Turtles were known in full as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but when they were introduced to the UK market the name was changed to Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in some cases (presumably because the word ninja was felt to be too unfamiliar to British ears). The name is often abbreviated to Ninja Turtle rather than simply Turtle (even in the UK). Actors wearing mutated-turtle outfits and hired to sign autographs at a toy store outdrew President Reagan, who made an appearance in town on the same day. New Yorker 11 Dec. 1989, p. 142 Their new line of cereals includes Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Nintendo Cereal System...and Batman, as well as Breakfast with Barbie. People 19 Feb. 1990, p. 9 Turtlemania! headline in The Sun (Brisbane) 5 Apr. 1990, p. 24 Hollywood declined to fund a full-length Ninja Turtles feature, thus missing the chance to cash in on this extraordinary craze. 20/20 July 1990, p. 21 Now the rock world is reeling from the most awesome teenage heart-throbs of the lot--the Turtles. Daily Star 23 Oct. 1990, p. 19