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stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 6 |
Hi all, I'm new and I need your help. I need a word for a friend who's working on a project. I'm looking for a particular word, featured once in Word-a-day. It's an -ism word, defined as the belief that inanimate objects willfully oppose people, that they are "out to get" us.
Thanks!
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
I can't keep all of Anu's words in my head, of course, but one we use frequently around this household -- and I'm not sure that's a Word-A-Day, but -- is "resistentialism." Does that fit?
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
that must be it; from March 4, 2004:
the worthless word for the day is: resistentialism
Paul Jennings's mock philosophy which maintains that
inanimate objects are hostile to humans. [OED2]
"Resistentialism is a philosophy of tragic grandeur...
Resistentialism derives its name from its central thesis that
Things resist men... Resistentialism is the
philosophy of what Things think about us."
- P. Jennings, The Spectator, 23 Apr. 1948
"'Things are against us.' This is the nearest English trans-
lation I can find for the basic concept of Resistentialism."
- P. Jennings, Oddly Enough (1950)
"I must object to Oxford's dubbing resistentialism a "mock
philosophy." There is nothing mock or sham about it, as
anyone who has ever had to call a plumber on a Sunday
morning to unclog a refractory toilet will attest."
- Charles Elster (who devotes most of two pages in
his "There's a word for it!" to this word)
-joe (paranoia runs deep) friday
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Joined: Mar 2000
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027 |
There is nothing mock
There we have it again: one man's mock is another man's stock (philosophy).
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Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 6
stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 6 |
Thank you all, yes indeed that is the exact word I was looking for!
Snap
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Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 6
stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 6 |
Actually, the exact word I'll be using is antiresistentialism. It is to be used in regard to a descritpion of the behavior of electrons, and how they behave like particles if you measure them in one manner, and like waves if you measure them in another, even when the only thing changed in the experiment is how you perform the observation. It's almost as if the electron knows what you are looking for, and adjusts its behaviour accordingly.
Thanks again for your help.
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