Monday, April 26, 2010

neologism



Here's a concept we need a word/short phrase for in English:

the experience of not liking something until you learn that someone you care about likes it


Anyone have any suggestions as to how to form this word? I can't think of a way to combine Greek or Latin roots together elegantly enough to convey this. I mean just love+another isn't right and love+because+another isn't right either and anyway it's awkward to stick a preposition in the middle of a word like that.

Unless you're German. Ichmagesweileseuchgefällt? Someone help me out here.

EDIT: Maybe I'm overthinking this. Rude Boy Syndrome?

Discussion Question:
What are other words the English language is lacking?

16 comments:

  1. Man I love that euro-beat. I'm not one to really know what I'm talking about but I"ll throw one out there - something that talks about "a true follower"... something about following some leader

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  2. OOOOH I like where you're going with that!

    How about something like:

    I had a nach dem geliebten Führer moment when Nick told me he loved that Rihanna song!

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  3. On second thought I guess you really can't use the word Führer casually in English anymore

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  4. neolikeism? neophilia? repensaphilia?

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  5. Geliebte-bestimmt Geschmack!

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  6. YES Melody Ann and EE come through as always!

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  7. Consider myself a word nerd,unfortunately I am Danish and doesn't speak English, so I have no ideas for your new word ;-D

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  8. Hi Louise! What might the Danish call the experience of not liking something until you learn someone you care about likes it?

    Thanks for reading!

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  9. i'm not sure i fully understand the premise here. does the first person actively dislike the thing before learning the third person likes it?

    cause if you're unaware of the thing first, then we say things like 'james turned me on to x'.

    must this word be about liking things? could it be a generic term about a friend changing your opinion about a thing? then this word could be modified to reflect your new opinion?

    instead of using the preposition "because", what about "across" or "through"?

    you might also think about the act of changing? maybe contra-something?

    i also like nick's idea of following.

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  10. I am looking for a word or phrase to describe the experience of not being able to find something that is normally in abundance, like an A.T.M. It can be so frustrating, and you could always swear that there is never one around when you need, even though you might have driven past 20 others that day. Don't you hate that?

    Speaking of hating things, there should also be an antonym for the word or phrase you're looking for, where you don't like something until you find out that someone else does. I really liked a certain book, until I found out that a person I really loathe loves it, and now, just looking at the book makes me mad.

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  11. SUGGESTIONS VIA FACEBOOK/TWITTER:

    Coby: amomimicus or mimikosphilia

    Davina: transamicatory

    Paul: metaxiotic

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  12. J-dog:

    I'm talking about the way you feel about, say, Mary Nell's favorite song that maybe you never really liked before you found out it was her favorite, but once you learned that she loved it you started to hear it from her perspective and came to appreciate it because someone you love loved it

    that was a rambling example but I think you feel me.

    I think Davina killed it with the very simple and very euphonious 'transamicatory.' I think it's perfect. I can't wait to use it in a book and try to make it catch on haha.;

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  13. Meghan--

    YOU ARE SO RIGHT ON BOTH COUNTS. I think the opposite of 'transamicatory' would be 'transodious' or something similar.

    But ooooooh I love the word for the thing that ought to be everywhere that you can't find. Maybe something with like hidden+abundance? Let me think on that.

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  14. ♪I♪FEEL♪YOU♪

    transamicatory was high on my list. sadly i didn't want to recommend an 'actual' word (suggestion) in a forum that i knew to be populated with super word nerds.

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  15. What I want to know, is exactly what experience made you decide that you needed a word for it...

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  16. The *transamicatory* experience I had with Rude Boy, the song I posted at the top of the post. I found the track kind of annoying at first--all I could hear was Rihanna crowing COME HERE RUDE BOY BOY and it really put me off. But Nick mentioned that he really liked the swelling synth beat and it made me consider the song in a whole new way. I mean the way she says "Tonight imma let you be the captain" is pretty compelling

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