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stranger
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There is a very nice word describing a person who is too concerned about being a perfectionist. I had once read it somewhere, thought my grey cells would be effective enough and didn't write it down.
Could someone please help?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Anankastic?
(Oh, I'll just be SO UPSET if I get this wrong!)
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stranger
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Anankastic is more of a compulsive disorder. Could probably be of any type.
Ever so elusive the word is!!
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Carpal Tunnel
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>too concerned about being a perfectionist.
from the Wonderful World of Pantophobia:
atelophobia - the fear of error or imperfection [fr. Gk atelos, imperfect]
hence, atelophobe - the driven perfectionist; one with a morbid fear of having things less than perfect
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Carpal Tunnel
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Atelophobe--sounds like somebody who's afraid of telephones!
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Carpal Tunnel
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...afraid of telephones!
Or antelopes.
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Once upon a time, back in about the 5th Century, there were fierce tribes of Mongol horsemen who rode across what is now Europe, raping and sacking and pillaging and generally having a very good time at the expense of the local residents. Several of their leaders became famous in the sense that they were feared by Western Europeans who did not wish to be raped, sacked and pillaged. One of these was Atelo, a descendant of Atilla, and the fear of him was so widespread and intense that 5th Century psychiatrists defined it in their diagnostic manual as atelophobia.
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there's little doubt that atelophobes everywhere are avoiding this thread as though it were the plague.
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Sorry, sorry, esp. to you, ujwalm; not a very nice thing to do to a new post-er*--my bad! (Although I did note that your question had in fact been answered, or so I thought.) I guess I won't tell you what Father Steve's Skywalker post reminded me of...
*I still refuse to call a person a poster.
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journeyman
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"Poster" seems better than being called a poseur, dundit?
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If ujwalm is not slightly amused, or, worse, is offended by the off-thread gibberish which has occupied a part of this thread, then he/she may have a difficult time on this board. Because we are unmoderated, there is always an opportunity for silly business to distract us from our avowed purpose of discussing lexicology. I knew a young fellow once who was strongly attracted to the study of theology and, being of a philosophical bent, was pretty good at it. He decided to go to seminary and was ordained. I asked him a few years later how it was going and he gave me a mixed response. He told me that he "loved the church" but "was sick of the people in it."
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he "loved the church" but "was sick of the people in it."
Customer service department I used to work in had the motto:
"We could have a great business here if it weren't for all the pesky customers."
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Pooh-Bah
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It's just like college -- how great would it be without the classes?
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In reply to:
from the Wonderful World of Pantophobia:
atelophobia - the fear of error or imperfection [fr. Gk atelos, imperfect]
hence, atelophobe - the driven perfectionist; one with a morbid fear of having things less than perfect
In the interests of any lurking atelophobes, I should point out that the online LSJ does not have an entry for atelos but for atelhs (where h = eta), and judging by the entry http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=#17008 atelhs does not seem to have meant imperfect in the sense of without error anyway.
Edit: On checking again, I see the LSJ also has ateleios, which is simply cross-referenced to atelhs.
Bingley
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But Greek ατελης (atele:s) seems to be derived from τελος (telos), there being no *τελης (tele:s). The meaning of atele:s is more incomplete or unfinished than blemished. One meaning of telos is tax, so a meaning of atele:s is 'free or exempt from tax, tribute, or tithe'. So, this pretend word atelophobe could just as likely mean 'fear of being taxfree'.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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okay, you Greek word gods ;) -- take it up with Charles H. Elster. atelophobia is in his There's a Word for It! [Scribner, 1996].
(and we may never know if it's the word that ujwalm was thinking of..)
<shrug>
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comb. form of Gr. ατελης imperfect, f. α priv.* + telos end, completion; used in many mod. L. terms of physiology, indicating some structural imperfection, as ateloglossia, imperfect development or malformation of the tongue; -gnathia, of the jaws; -myelia, of the spinal marrow; -stomia, of the mouth.
* <shaking head> privative - Having the quality of depriving; tending to take away.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Welcome, zmjezhd; where is R'lyeh, please?
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Thank you, Jackie. R'lyeh is mid-atlantic place.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R'lyeh
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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zmjezhd, come here a minute, will you? I have something special for people who trick me... wink
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something special
Sorry, Ms Jackie, but I'm spoken for.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Dang, he didn't fall for it! Hrmph. 
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In reply to:
But Greek ατελης (atele:s) seems to be derived from τελος (telos), there being no *τελης (tele:s).
Oh, certainly. I'm not denying that there is a form compounded from the privative alpha and telos, just saying that the form is atelhs rather than the quoted *atelos.
In fact, all the compounds that I can find in the LSJ where telos is the final element seem to have telhs.
Edit. Blast. Copying and pasting doesn't preserve the Greek. How do you get it to show on this board?
Bingley
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