The following topic came up at a gathering of friends yesterday when one half of a couple referred to the other as anal because she is overly organized. The less than derogatory term would then, perhaps, be well-organized. If the opposite of being well organized were to be, say, laid back, what would be a more derogatory term for being overly laid back? Suggestions for a new word?
Carpe whatever
what would be a more derogatory term for being overly laid back? Hi sol - been a while!
You can often get the derogatory term by saying "So x that s/he is y" and see which y fits best, thus:
So laid-back that s/he is
comatose FiskP.S. Of course "anal" is short for the Freudian term "anally-retentive" for those who didn't know...
And Freudian terms ought now be passé.
Freudian terms ought now be passé
Well, yes, Bill - but on the other hand, "anally retentive" does (for its sins) summarise a certain combination of (supposed) character traits. I doubt many people using the term are being strictly accurate, let alone that they've read Freud, but what else do you call someone who - as far as you are concerned - is tidy and organised to the point of the behaviour looking compulsive?
Ah, "compulsively tidy".
Dunno, I still think "anal" is useful (i.e. I've occasionally found myself using it). I agree the term is offensive, but then you wouldn't be saying it to be nice.
Fisk
hows about lunchout? s/he is a total lunchout, i lunched out the stuff i had to do today etc
...Freudian terms ought now be passé.
I hate to disagree, Dr. Bill, but I think terms such as ego, id, superego, libido and many more of Freud's labels are useful, even though we may no longer accept his word as gospel. I'd include anal retentive. It's a fairly simple way to characterize a pattern of behavior. I tend to use it, but most often in a playful, tongue-in-cheek way. [Note: cheek--not a Freudian slip.]
Dear slithy: The song is over, but the malady lingers on.
Lazy, indolent, disorganized, forgetful, absent-minded professor, daydreamer, untidy, messy, slob, stoner, spacer, head-in-the-clouds, no common sense, fanciful, moon-eyed, orally fixated (another, less used Freudianism), unmotivated, easy-going, calm, imperturbable. I've been called all of these things. It all depends on how vicious or which shade of "laid back" the person wanted to indicate.
Cheers,
Bryan
You are only wretched and unworthy if you choose to be.
Ah! stoner is a classic, and just right for the job, Bryan.
Though I suppose calling someone "oral" would be an appropriate response to them calling you "anal" in the rare instance that both parties had read the Collected Works of Sigmund Freud.
Fisk
s/he is a total lunchout, i lunched out the stuff i had to do today etcAnother new one by me, dode, but pretty damn good, I think.
Is it like a Mancunian contraction/reversal of "out to lunch"?
<<What would be a more derogatory...? Suggestions for a new word?>>
What's the opposite of retentive. Append it to 'anal' and you've got the term you're looking for. Almost: you're looking for the shortened version, like "anal," for "anally-retentive." So, now that you've got your new term, all you've got to do is lop off the appended term and you're through -- the opposite of "anal" is "anal."
>
What's the opposite of retentive.Expulsive?
Eeeew.
think you need to cut back on the all bran and prune juice, there fiberbabe!
reckon, we calls them hippyfolk lunchouts too
Well, well, well, aren't we all a bunch of busybodies? Did it occur to any of you name-callers to ask the group in question what they would like to be called? I did. My friend Betty Prim, whose house is always immaculate, said this...Why must we be called anything?___ (25 letters)
Organized people are the norm._____ (25 letters)
Just because I like exact order,_____ (25 letters)
Does not mean that I am crazy or____(25 letters)
See. Perfect. 25 words and 100 letters. Even. Done.
Uh yes.Thank you Betty.
Now let's ask my friend Hooper about what to properly call those afflicted with the non-freudian non-malady of laid-backness.Man, like, you know, some people call me "moon-eyed" some people call me just plain "lazy". I don't much care 'cause I'm just about as wretched as I want to be anyway. Shoot, I had a friend that was so laid back that even his toes were comatose. But you know what, I don't much like being called anal-expulsive. Not so much because the thought is so unpleasant that it hurts my brain, but mainly because the concepts "anal-retentive" and "anal-rejection" are no longer hip. One might even say that they are out of the vogue and are now passe. Later Dude. -
Uh, thanks Hoop, go back to sleep.
worrabout "slacker" and "skiver"?
or "lazy bastard"....
Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
I'm surprised--in my very curosry, quick reading of this thread--that nobody's mentioned slothful, n. form sloth.
Interesting to note that "sloth" is one of the seven deadly sincs, but anal-rententiveness is not.
Compulsive behavior is interesting, but there are folks for whom compulsiveness really becomes pitiful behavior. I heard once of such a person who reorganized already completely organized objects late into the night. She would do so until 5:00 a.m., and, finally, fall exhausted into bed. I can't remember all the stories a relative of hers told me, but, upon hearing them, I realized that there's a big difference between being somewhat compulsive in habits about order and going way over the line so that order becomes a tyrant.
Tending myself toward compulsive slothfulness,
WW
the opposite of "anal" is "anal"Impeccably argued, sirrah
Mind you, given that the extra word is
dropped for
anally-retentive, perhaps it should be
added in the opposite case, thus:
anally-expulsive-expulsiveBut if you
expel the
expulsive, you are left only with the
retentive, thus:
anally-retentiveHmmm.
Talk about vanishing up your own
<ahem!>.
From a trivia quiz: 13. Of whom was Lincoln speaking when he said that he had....THE SLOWS?
I can't remember which general it was. Apparently "the slows" referred to some type of
inherited neurologic disorder. Who among us knows the answer?
General McClellan
http://home.hra.org/~phopki/civpeo.htmand more:
http://www.civilweek.com/1862/nov0262.htmhaven't been able to find out much about "the slows", though...
okay, now we're getting somewhere:
http://cousins.future.easyspace.com/medS.htmlanybody want to take it from here?
alright, from the same source:
In reply to:
Milk sickness
Poisoning resulting from the drinking of milk produced by a cow who had eaten a plant known as white snake root (USA)
okay, not in reference to "the slows" (which is on the site etaoin linked to - thanks e!), but I found, also on that site, an archaic name for a condition: "speckled dick." The definition said something like "might be typhus." Speckled dick. Just makes me think of that British pudding, Spotted Dick....How DO they come up with these names?!
(I know Spotted Dick has raisins in it, yes? hence the "spotted" - but why "dick"? derived from "Richard" maybe - but why "Richard" in the first place?)
Speckled dick is somehow very poetic, doncha think?! (though doubtless not for the sufferer of such a condition)
Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
that British pudding, Spotted DickLots of fun (food) stuff in this thread, MG, including a bit on Spotty Richard:
http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=wordplay&Number=5975I don't know where the "Dick" part came from, but wouldn't be entirely surprised now if it turns out to be a play on
speckled dick, distasteful as that may sound..
Actually the thread above is all about foods that don't sound nice. Maybe we should resurrect it.
Fisk
Dear etaoin: my warmest congratulations on finding something I could not. Bill
Since you refreshed my memory,I remember having read many years ago about a problem when
cow grazed in badly depleted pastures with no fences, and and ate weeds they normally would
not have. I searched for "botany white snake root milk sickness" and got what appeared to be
a very promising site, only to get sad message "Server not found" Drat.
20.FDA/CFSAN Poisonous Plant Bibliography (SI-SZ Authors)
Introduction. Poisonous Plant Bibliography: SI ... hemolytic anemias seen, in snake ... Cardiac
effects of white ... of the cause of milk sickness ... BH (1987) Mystery root ...
http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~djw/SI-SZ.html
From a trivia quiz: 13. Of whom was Lincoln speaking when he said that he had....THE SLOWS?[Answered:
General McClellanAlso noted:
"the slows" = milk sickness]Interestingly, Lincoln's mother died of milk sickness.
http://www.nps.gov/abli/plantj.htm(His reference to Mcclellan was figurative, not medical.)
Oh, hell! How'd he get in here?
Keiva: You are not welcome here.