Since June I’ve been reading way too many guidebooks.
One of the things which always amuses / annoys me is how travel guidebooks need to keep inventing new adjectives. For example, “Nestled behind the Great Gate are a bunch of smart restaurants that make for a good pit stop.”
I have no idea what a smart restaurant is. Well placed? Well lit? English speaking staff?
The quest for meaningful adjectives plagues everyone from Lonely Planet to food describers to the average Joe trying to write a paper. This reminds me of my old post on all the ways a premium cheese company describes cheese (“subtly earthy” or “pungent” or “complex”).
Here’s a writing hack to jump start your descriptions: take an adjective, make it an adverb, and then combine it w/ the target word. “Startlingly cute”, for example.
I’m just glad that the practice of using “tony” as an adjective has finally died.
“Smart” means you probably shouldn’t wear jeans or gym shoes when you go there.
smart is a more common modifier for the Brits–we Yanks don’t use it as much. Jackie is right–it means you should be clean & spiffy & not-too-casual if ya drop by.