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#156459 03/03/06 09:08 PM
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What's an (is there an) antonym for celebrity, both person and state, aside from the obvious possibilities like non-famous person and obscurity?

For context, Edgar Allan Poe writes:

Mr. Hawthorne, the author of Twice-Told Tales is scarcely recognized by the press or by the public, and when noticed at all, is noticed merely to be damned by faint praise. [M]y own opinion of him is that although [...] he is fairly to be charged with mannerism, treating all subjects in a similar tone of dreamy innuendo, yet [...] he evinces extraordinary genius, having no rival [...] in America [...] That this opinion [...] is a spoken and not a written one, is referable to the facts, first, that Mr. Hawthorne is a poor man, and, secondly, that he is not an ubiquitous quack.

And the heading for this excerpt: Poe imputes Hawthorne’s [insert term for lack of celebrity] to ...

#156460 03/03/06 09:13 PM
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Plebrity?

Mittyriety?

My guess is there is no word for that concept.


TEd
#156461 03/03/06 10:14 PM
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it seems as though there just aren't as many nouns for labeling a nobody (although there are adjs. aplenty):
A totally insignificant person: nonentity, obscurity, cipher, nebbish, nobody, nothing; mediocrity, insignificancy, man in the street. [Roget]

"an O without a figure" - Shakespeare

#156462 03/04/06 05:43 AM
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Thank you for the suggestions.

How does "an O without a figure" mean unfamous?

#156463 03/04/06 07:17 AM
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When the Fool in Lear says "thou art an O without a figure," he means the numeral zero. This is echoed in the remainder of the line when he repeats the thought by saying "thou art nothing."

#156464 03/04/06 08:47 AM
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Quote:

Plebrity?

Mittyriety?

My guess is there is no word for that concept.




Hmm. I guess you're right.

By the way, why is your avatar a tractor pulling a harrow? Just curious.

#156465 03/04/06 10:29 AM
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It's a pun on my name. I leave it for you to figure out. Hint. Not a harrow.


TEd
#156466 03/04/06 11:19 AM
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To turn over and spread out (grass, hay, or straw) to dry or for bedding Remington.

I see.

#156467 03/04/06 06:57 PM
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non-entity?

#156468 03/04/06 08:09 PM
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Quote:

non-entity?




juan! you've just mantled Roget!!

- joe (how is that?) cool

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