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What is that damned word... ?

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Mon Oncle Ignatius

21:31 / 07.10.07

Came to this discussion a bit late - how about sublimating?

grant

01:57 / 08.10.07

Cede.

05:53 / 08.10.07

Conciliating, Orange?

Saveloy

10:24 / 08.10.07

Is there a word to describe someone for whom joy or pleasure are alien concepts? Someone who simply doesn't experience them, and knowing of them doesn't feel compelled to seek them out. The dead centre between hedonist and puritan.

I thought it might be 'ascetic' but web dictionary says that is to do with deliberate self-denial. I think I'm after the pleasure equivalent of 'amoral'.

Asensual?

Maybe something to do with "Dissociated" or "Dissociation"?

Smoothly

15:11 / 08.10.07

Anhedonic, I think.

grant

16:55 / 08.10.07

Yes. Anhedonic.

It's typically considered a mental health symptom - anhedonia.

Saveloy

10:15 / 09.10.07

Excellent, thanks all. I think anhedonia is pretty much spot on, as far as my description above goes anyway.

But having thought about it a bit more, I reckon what I'm really after is a word for someone who is able to experience pleasure (physical and mental), and has in fact done so, but is... unimpressed by it. Close, perhaps, to dissociation (as suggested above), in that they put pleasure entirely to one side; discard it, in fact. But not on principle, or due to any moral code (to distinguish them from ascetics and puritans).

Smoothly

11:23 / 09.10.07

Tsk. There's no pleasing some people.

Saveloy

11:31 / 09.10.07

[SFX: Double Barrel shotgun being cocked and loaded]

Mistoffelees

12:33 / 09.10.07

But having thought about it a bit more, I reckon what I'm really after is a word for someone who is able to experience pleasure (physical and mental), and has in fact done so, but is... unimpressed by it. Close, perhaps, to dissociation (as suggested above), in that they put pleasure entirely to one side; discard it, in fact. But not on principle, or due to any moral code (to distinguish them from ascetics and puritans).

blasé, ennui?

Shrug

22:49 / 24.01.08

New Quandry:
I've always longed to use the word 'reactionary' as what it would mostly likely appear to mean (to me, at least) somebody or thing that works in reaction or opposition more like its antonym of 'radical' but somehow much more fitting.
What can I use?
Something better than 'oppositional' that I suppose evokes a more kinetic force to it but simultaneously evokes said 'reactivity'.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

22:51 / 24.01.08

I'm confused by your question. Are you looking for a synonym for "reactionary," or a working definition of "reactionary?"

Shrug

23:13 / 24.01.08

Sorry, Papers, a antonym. For me 'reactionary' should connote something with an appeal of opposition more reactivity. As I'm aware the word 'reactionary' usually refers to those more right wing, conservative endeavours and radical being its opposition seems incorrect for my usage.

(which, my apologies, is another fine mess of words)

Shrug

23:17 / 24.01.08

(Clear as cryptic crystal)

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

01:15 / 25.01.08

Weird. I don't think I've ever associated "reactionary" with being specifically right-wing; I've heard, I swear, the word used as a pejorative against strongly left-wing folk as well; it always had more to do with how automatic the reaction was.

I can't think of an appropriate, less loaded synonym, though.

grant

02:28 / 25.01.08

Are you wanting something along the lines of "counterrevolutionary"? I'm a little lost.

HCE

04:00 / 25.01.08

You want an antonym for reactionary, but something that suggests a more closely matched counterpart than radical. So instead of reactionary vs radical, you want reactionary vs [another word]. Is that right?

And you want this other word to have a particular tone or feeling to it, I think... but I'm afraid I can't make a very good guess at what tone you want it to have.

Something like 'actionary' if that were a word? Following on from grant's suggestion - would 'revolutionary' work?

Shrug

06:49 / 25.01.08

Sorry, guys, for muddle, I am all nighting it. Yes, revolutionary would be okay (but has connotations other than I'd like) a bit like backlash politic or an oppositional politic which may very well have to do.
Thank you for responses. xxx

Shrug

06:50 / 25.01.08

^
I
And I mean those.

sleazenation

08:23 / 25.01.08

Zealot?

Shrug

00:16 / 29.01.08

Not really "zealot" as it has religious connotations although thanks, sleaze.
I went with "oppositional politic" in the end.
I'm still curious as to Nick's original query, though, I guess we'll never know.

Saint Keggers

00:51 / 29.01.08

antagonist?

02:20 / 29.01.08

Agitator?

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

18:43 / 21.02.08

There has GOT to be a better word for "something that lends itself to being repeated many times with a slight interesting variation each time" than "iterability," which isn't a word and isn't exactly it, either.

Like I'm making a series of ads for a sauce company,* and I want to highlight each sauce as "Dining Experience #47: Salisbury Steak, Blue Cheese Dressing." and then another as "Dining Experience #59: Teriaki Chicken, Texas BBQ Sauce."

This idea, of "Dining Experience #___," it's an idea with... I don't want to say "repeatability," because that's not quite it, but it's something that can be repeated-and-modified in interesting ways.

Jack? Haus? Anyone else?

*not what I'm doing, but close enough.

Mistoffelees

20:02 / 21.02.08

theme, (leit)motif, fugue

Tsuga

22:40 / 21.02.08

mutability?

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

00:09 / 22.02.08

Ooh! Motif and mutability are both perfect. Thanks!

Less searchable M0rd4nt

18:39 / 01.03.08

Hai, I need a word meaning "magicians" but that is one syllable long. I have a rant on the boil and I want to call my boiling rant "Nazi magicians fuck off" but unless I have a word that is one syllable long the reference will be fail. I could call it Nazi mage fuck off, but that's no good coz there's lots of them.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

18:46 / 01.03.08

I suppose I could go the other way and use a really fucking long word.

Triplets

19:29 / 01.03.08

Poor Nick.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

20:17 / 01.03.08

Why?

Papess

20:38 / 01.03.08

Seer? I don't think that actually works, but then I don't know what you writing.

Or Wiz? Nazi Wiz? It sounds a bit sarcastic too, which might work.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

07:55 / 02.03.08

It's a rant about reactionary, right-wing bollocks in modern magical discourse, whether assumed as a pose or adopted in earnest, and why it's shit.

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