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It was coined because World War I soldiers heard this type of shell fly past them before they heard the gun's report. What hyphenated show-biz term is it?



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Answer: whiz-bang

Originally, the word whiz-bang denoted a high-velocity shell from a small-caliber gun; eventually, it came to describe fast-paced entertainments.

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It also just describes things that are "good". ("He did a whiz-bang job on the final paper.")
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