Bill Gates revisited - Wordsmith.org

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I am looking for a word

From time to time I use "Bill Gates" as a standin or symbol for the massively confusing and frustrating digital world

But there's a better term for "standin" or "symbol", implying a sort of symbolic positure

Dale--why don't you try a thesaurus?

No excuse, laziness, I had hoped for the very term off the top of somebody's head

I think you're looking for a neobillism.

daleh, I'll give you the word if you promise not to use obscure abbrs or the Bill Gates synecdoche ever again.

Anna: I can't make any promises but I thought that (except for "pre" and "de") my abbrs were pretty common

What about 'hat'?

crash-test dummy

"Synecdoche " was a good one and I like "crash-test dummy" too, where tsu also used the hyphen correctly; and so thanks to all

However, in the meantime I ran across "avatar", which seems to fill the bill even better

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I like "crash-test dummy" too, where tsu also used the hyphen correctly

Yup. Woulda been totally incomprehensible without the hyphen.

Yet the hyphen is a good habit in the case of compound adjectives and I commend you for it. No doubt you recall the purple people eater

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No doubt you recall the purple people eater

The one that everybody except a few recalcitrant English majors understood was purple and ate normally colored people?

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No doubt you recall the purple people eater

The one that everybody except a few recalcitrant English majors understood was purple and ate normally colored people?

I think, dear Faldage, that you meant...normally people of color.

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The one that everybody except a few recalcitrant English majors understood was purple and ate normally colored people?

I think, dear Faldage, that you meant...normally people of color.

Please pardon me while I ROTFLMAO!

That's me on the floor right beside you, Betsy, the one KFIA.

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No doubt you recall the purple people eater

The one that everybody except a few recalcitrant English majors understood was purple and ate normally colored people?

I think, dear Faldage, that you meant...normally people of color.

And what, pray tell, Mr. Wannabe Recalcitrant English Major, does the adverb "normally" modify in your oh so recalcitrant english majorish deconstruction of my unhyphenated phrase?