Concepts/things that should have word representation in English.

[Zephyr_Nova]

Oftentimes I find myself looking for words that simply don't exist in order to complete whatever train of thought/verbal exchange I'm having.  This is a thread for compiling those.  Bonus points for suggested word to represent the thing, and/or an example of some such word in another language.

I'll start:

1. That bit between the upper lip and the nose upon which a moustache will grow if a man does not shave.  I nominate the term stachia (pronounced with a soft "ah" in UK vs. hard "ay" in US).

2. A word indicating when you are okay with an outcome because, despite it being unfortunate on the surface, it is ultimately for the best.  Ex: "I could _____ the fact that blah blah blah, because blah blah blah."  "Accept" and "justify" are both on the right track, but don't quiet capture the idea in full.  I nominate: acquimate (same family tree as "acquiesce").

Edited October 29, 2019 by Zephyr_Nova

[drillkicker]

Greek has many of these, and in the Orthodox Church we simply use the Greek words to describe them.  An example is philotimo, which is a certain kind of geniality that comes from complete simplicity and honesty, and which spurs one to any amount of self-sacrifice for one's neighbors.  Russian also has the word prelest, which is a kind of spiritual delusion that happens when people believe themselves to be receiving divine visions or miracles when they're actually just very gullible and prideful (and this is very, very common among "spiritual" people both inside and outside of the Church).

[Zephyr_Nova]

As in Greek has a lot of words the English language is presently lacking?

Prelest is a good one.

[drillkicker]

Greek is notorious for being an extremely technical language, so they have a lot of words with very specific definitions and Greeks have always made sharp distinctions between them (which caused headaches for the Egyptians in the past).

[Zephyr_Nova]

Sounds like my kind of language!

[psn]

You singlular/plural.

We inclusive/exclusive.

[YEK]

Prelol, the moment when you feel a joke coming on and it makes your anus pucker.

Postlol, after a joke when your serotonin drops back down and you realise your forever alone.

[iococoi]

17 minutes ago, yekker said:

makes uranus pucker.

Edited October 29, 2019 by iococoi

[Zephyr_Nova]

This thread is going places.  I can feel it.

The state of remembering a time when every decade in music/fashion/art was quite distinct from the last, but being unable to make that same distinction for the previous couple decades (or more): disenculturement/becoming disencultured, the disenculturization of the middle-aged.

[EdamAnchorman]

12 hours ago, Zephyr_Nova said:

1. That bit between the upper lip and the nose upon which a moustache will grow if a man does not shave.  I nominate the term stachia (pronounced with a soft "ah" in UK vs. hard "ay" in US)

Kind of what you're looking for, but I can see that you wouldn't know this from your Fred-drawn avatar:

Quote

The philtrum (Greek philtron, from philein, "to love; to kiss"), also known as the infranasal depression, is the vertical groove in the upper lip, formed where the nasomedial and maxillary processes meet during embryonic development.

Edited October 29, 2019 by randomsummer

[T3551ER]

Infranasal depression: The resulting grooves along the side of the nose from extended periods of wearing night-vision goggles. Colloquially, the emotional state of soldiers forced to operate under these conditions. 

"Bob's found it impossible to complete COD:MW due to the excessive night vision scenarios triggering his infranasal depression" 

 

[may be rude]

sorry to be meta but there should be a word for these things - when there's not a word for something. is there not a word for when there's a thing that doesn't have a word for it? or a term? serious question. i've actually been thinking about this subject. it seems like one of the great things you can do with a work of creativity is to put a name on something that didn't have one, like how the book catch 22 gave people a name for that kind of self-contradiction, and all of a sudden it was easier to use that concept in conversation.

 

i notice these things once in a while. a lot of times there actually is a word or term, you just don't realize it.

 

i wish there was a succinct word/term for how politicians manipulate voters with disingenuous rhetoric. 

Edited October 29, 2019 by very honest

[cwmbrancity]

2 hours ago, very honest said:

sorry to be meta but there should be a word for these things - when there's not a word for something. is there not a word for when there's a thing that doesn't have a word for it? or a term? serious question. i've actually been thinking about this subject. it seems like one of the great things you can do with a work of creativity is to put a name on something that didn't have one, like how the book catch 22 gave people a name for that kind of self-contradiction, and all of a sudden it was easier to use that concept in conversation.

 

i notice these things once in a while. a lot of times there actually is a word or term, you just don't realize it.

 

https://www.google.co.uk/search?source=hp&ei=KWO4XfSsLNCdlwTcypSQCg&q=paradox&oq=paradox&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0l4j0i131j0l5.73717.76064..76538...0.0..0.65.420.7......0....1..gws-wiz.yHHUcui61n0&ved=0ahUKEwi05e247MHlAhXQzoUKHVwlBaIQ4dUDCAc&uact=5

 

2 hours ago, very honest said:

i wish there was a succinct word/term for how politicians manipulate voters with disingenuous rhetoric. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cunt#Etymology

[T3551ER]

@very honest Yeah, this led me down a rabbit hole just now b/c it seems like there should totally be a word for there not being a word for something. Very meta, kind like how hermeneutics is the study of theory. . . anyway, definitely interesting to think on. 

As to the the political manipulation thing, I wonder if "double-think" fits the bill? Maybe not exactly in definition, but perhaps what you're driving at (could be just living in what sometimes feels like a straight up Orwellian dystopian nightmare). 

 

[may be rude]

41 minutes ago, T3551ER said:

@very honest Yeah, this led me down a rabbit hole just now b/c it seems like there should totally be a word for there not being a word for something. Very meta, kind like how hermeneutics is the study of theory. . . anyway, definitely interesting to think on. 

As to the the political manipulation thing, I wonder if "double-think" fits the bill? Maybe not exactly in definition, but perhaps what you're driving at (could be just living in what sometimes feels like a straight up Orwellian dystopian nightmare). 

 

 

yeah, i feel like somewhere someone must have coined a term for it.

 

the state the of the world is shaped by public discourse and public discourse is shaped by what's easy to talk about and what's not, so it's a significant thing. there could be a whole field of study into needed terms and how to establish them. such injections would function as catalysts for social change.

 

double-think is related, but what i'm thinking of is not exactly that. what i'm talking about is when a politician knowingly deposits false or misleading rhetoric because they know it will trick their targetted demographic into the desired support. this one distinct phenomenon is central to a lot of confusion in the states. it's manipulation, but a specific species of manipulation that deserves its own term. dishonest or disingenuous manipulation of voters by a politician. that's a mouthful, that's the difference between something that has a term and something that doesn't. it's a lot harder to get the long definition across.

Edited October 29, 2019 by very honest

[T3551ER]

14 minutes ago, very honest said:

 

yeah, i feel like somewhere someone must have coined a term for it.

 

the state the of the world is shaped by public discourse and public discourse is shaped by what's easy to talk about and what's not, so it's a significant thing. there could be a whole field of study into needed terms and how to establish them. such injections would function as catalysts for social change.

 

double-think is related, but what i'm thinking of is not exactly that. what i'm talking about is when a politician knowingly deposits false rhetoric because they know it will trick their targetted demographic into the desired support. it's a specific species of manipulation that deserves its own term. dishonest manipulation of voters by a politician. this one distinct phenomenon is central to a lot of confusion in the states.

Yeah, I understand what you mean. I do wonder if what shapes public discourse these days is less what's "easy" to talk about as much as what is sensational. It's the sort of stuff that Tocqueville warned about (love of novelty, tyranny of the masses, etc.). It's not surprising that things  have turned out this way - a culture that is driven by neoliberal economic policies is going to inevitably fall prey to a steadily diminishing capacity for extended focus and rational thought in favor of whatever fires the most dopamine receptors the fastest. I blame Candy Crush. 

Anyway, "dishonest manipulation of voters by a politician" immediately made me think: sophistry. But, maybe that could be modified to be "political sophistry" and you'd come close (agree, not sure there is a word for this in particular, and there should be, as words crystallize meaning). 

  

[drillkicker]

3 hours ago, very honest said:

i wish there was a succinct word/term for how politicians manipulate voters with disingenuous rhetoric. 

Pandering

[may be rude]

5 minutes ago, T3551ER said:

Yeah, I understand what you mean. I do wonder if what shapes public discourse these days is less what's "easy" to talk about as much as what is sensational. It's the sort of stuff that Tocqueville warned about (love of novelty, tyranny of the masses, etc.). It's not surprising that things  have turned out this way - a culture that is driven by neoliberal economic policies is going to inevitably fall prey to a steadily diminishing capacity for extended focus and rational thought in favor of whatever fires the most dopamine receptors the fastest. I blame Candy Crush. 

Anyway, "dishonest manipulation of voters by a politician" immediately made me think: sophistry. But, maybe that could be modified to be "political sophistry" and you'd come close (agree, not sure there is a word for this in particular, and there should be, as words crystallize meaning). 

  

interesting points.

 

sophistry! that is basically it. thanks.

Edited October 29, 2019 by very honest

[drillkicker]

Sophistry is when you obfuscate logical reasoning to support a conclusion that isn't actually founded on logical processes, as in Zeno's paradoxes.  It isn't the same as pandering.

Edited October 29, 2019 by drillkicker

[may be rude]

38 minutes ago, drillkicker said:

Pandering

 

yeah, i considered pandering. it doesn't necessarily entail the disingenuous part. sophistry comes closer because, in some definitions, it specifies that the bad arguments are deceptive. that aspect - where the politician knows what they are doing, knows they're full of shit and knows they're duping people - is part of this toxic thing that i have been observing.

Edited October 29, 2019 by very honest

[Zephyr_Nova]

4 hours ago, randomsummer said:

Kind of what you're looking for, but I can see that you wouldn't know this from your Fred-drawn avatar:

That vertical groove is a tiny insignificant part of the stachia.  I'm talking about that whole area upon which a moustache grows, the area between the lines that lead from the edge of the nostril down to the edge of the lip on either side nasolabial folds.  And my avatar is my own handy-work, though I feel like Fred may have started the thread for MS-Paint portraits of that particular actress... Kirsten something-or-other?

[IDEM]

Liff

[xox]

Autechre /æʍðɸʃṯʀỉḳɝ(e)/

1. best music known to menkind

2. alt. title of the best subforum known to menkind

[perunamuusi]

Kalsarikännit: (Finnish) Staying at home and getting drunk in your underwear.

[EdamAnchorman]

4 hours ago, Zephyr_Nova said:

That vertical groove is a tiny insignificant part of the stachia.  I'm talking about that whole area upon which a moustache grows, the area between the lines that lead from the edge of the nostril down to the edge of the lip on either side nasolabial folds.  And my avatar is my own handy-work, though I feel like Fred may have started the thread for MS-Paint portraits of that particular actress... Kirsten something-or-other?

Yeah I knew it wasn't exactly what you were looking for, but close.  My bad on the av, I wish I could find my Fred mspaint avatar, got it saved somewhere.