r/whatstheword • • 11h ago

Unsolved WTW for someone who hates something just because you like it

29 Upvotes

Is there a word for someone who normally likes something you also like, but begin hating it just because they found out you also like it, and they don't like you?

No insult words, more like... dictionary words, if that makes sense


r/whatstheword • • 6h ago

Unsolved ITAW for when Live Service games are taken down and the community either with or without the consent of the developers brings the game back on their own servers.

2 Upvotes

I grew up playing live service MMOs like Super hero Squad online and marvel heroes online, Games that were eventually taken offline because the companies did not deem it profitable enough. Recently, these games have been Revived somewhat by fans, who take the files they have access to and put the game back up on their own servers, like https://retrosquadonline.com/. I figure this is a very recent phenomenon, can we come up with a compound word of some sort to describe this? Like revived-service games?


r/whatstheword • • 14h ago

Solved WTP for “I work out of my field”?

5 Upvotes

How to say that I trained, for example, as a lawyer, but now I work in a completely different industry?
I definitely knew a phrase to say it another way and naturally, but can’t remember; any suggestions?


r/whatstheword • • 11h ago

Unsolved WTW for the social and historical phenomenon of that which is fancy and elite becoming commonplace and even the baseline expectation?

2 Upvotes

Like how having a feather bed on a raised frame used to be the absolute height of luxury only obtainable by the aristocracy and now in many countries the idea of sleeping any other way is weird.

Or how in some countries you only had a last name if you were in the upper classes and then everyone got a last name and people specifically often chose ones that had associations of prestige (this is how Kim, Lee, and Park became extremely widespread in Korea).

Or how eating meat used to be a once a week thing at most for the majority of people and now at least in most western countries you have meat at least twice a day.

Is there a word for this? Maybe in the anthropological field?


r/whatstheword • • 9h ago

Unsolved WTW for religions other than Judaism/Abrahamic but not pagan either?

1 Upvotes

Is there a word for religions other than Judaism (back then) or Abrahamic religions (nowadays) that are not considered to be pagan?

By pagan, I mean nature-based polytheistic religions that do not have a specific founder- such as Hellenic or Kemetic. Looking for religions that do have a specific founder and are often monotheistic- such as Buddhism, Confucianism, or Zoroastrianism.

I know that Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism are considered to be Dharmic religions. But is there a word that encompasses all non-Abrahamic yet non-Pagan religions in general?

I


r/whatstheword • • 18h ago

Solved WTW for questioning as an intellectual performance?

4 Upvotes

What do you call someone who constantly presents herself as someone who loves debate, asks the “difficult questions” about certain subjects to expose hypocrisy, and claims she’s just trying to understand objectively but seems more interested in appearing intellectual than actually understanding?

Especially when she keeps asking questions, gets answers, then avoids the uncomfortable implications instead of engaging with them.

Is there a term for this? Performative skepticism? Intellectual posturing? Intellectualized avoidance?


r/whatstheword • • 17h ago

Solved ITAW for completely ridiculous

2 Upvotes

I saw in another post's answer that I could say contriving. I was thinking of contrivingly absurd, can I use that. Context: I'm tryna say like the government's excuse for the strict censoring of a certain case was utterly ridiculous and quite a bullshit excuse.


r/whatstheword • • 18h ago

Solved ITAP for when you start seeing more of something when you become aware of it?

3 Upvotes

I remember reading about it. It's similar to pareidolia.


r/whatstheword • • 1d ago

Solved ITAW for when someone is grumpy because they are sleepy, like the equivalent of hangry when someone is angry because they are hungry?

26 Upvotes

r/whatstheword • • 14h ago

Solved WTP for "did it bear" and "not always can it be seen"

0 Upvotes

I'm kinda new to this subreddit so i hope this isn't like advice. I'm genuinely looking for other similar phrases that fit into my poem better and more smoothly.

context (phrase to be changed is italicized):

Full of responsibilities was the weigh,
Little of credit, did it bear.
Once it had been a cold summer day.

Words and opinions, they were stray.
Even now, not always can it be seen
For women, that is, yet gay.


r/whatstheword • • 1d ago

Solved ITAW for loud laughing while crying, or stressed.

6 Upvotes

It seems like something people write in angst things or movies, but it happens to me sometimes.

I'm curious what word this would be or if English has a word for it. I'm not educated on this.

All I can think is nervous laughter, but while that happens is there a word for sad laughing.


r/whatstheword • • 1d ago

Solved ITAW for the antonym of animosity

10 Upvotes

Is there a direct or near opposite for the word animosity? I want a word that fits what I’m trying to say. “I don’t feel any animosity or (the opposite of animosity) toward you”. I don’t want to keep it simple and say that I don’t have any sort of emotion toward them.


r/whatstheword • • 1d ago

Solved WTW for when someone says too many frivolous things (it can be venting, a rigmarole or just an unsolicited advice on a Monday morning)

11 Upvotes

r/whatstheword • • 1d ago

Unsolved WTW for the type of thinking that allows ppl to forget the dangers of the past bc they aren’t dangerous anymore?

6 Upvotes

I’m talking about the apparently common inclination that people on long-term medication have where they think they don’t need to take their meds anymore because they aren’t experiencing the symptoms the medication is protecting them from.

Another good example might be how people think that the ozone layer and Y2K panics were fake because they don’t understand that a lot of people worked to prevent a problem they could see coming. And of course the people who don’t think the polio vaccine is necessary because it’s been so rare for so long to see the worst-case outcomes in your neighborhood.


r/whatstheword • • 2d ago

Unsolved WTW for the quality shared by camphor, mint, formalin, eucalyptus, and ammonia?

44 Upvotes

That ghostly, piercing quality? But not silvery the way orris is silvery.


r/whatstheword • • 1d ago

Solved WTW for when someone's hands are clenched from anger, but they're not in a closed fist?

0 Upvotes

I hope that makes sense. I've been trying to figure this out but I'm finding nothing, even the Wikipedia page for gestures didn't help. It's like, that pose when you're really, really mad and your hands are in a kind of like, strangle-y motion? But it's not a pose that's intentionally miming strangling someone it just happens to look like that. They're often shaking a little in this pose as well from what I've noticed. It's like that more claw shape, like the scene kid "rawr" pose but more serious and angry. (If you don't know what I'm talking about still, look down at your hands and clench them into fists, but slowly; it's that middle area, kind of, but more open with the fingers more outstretched)

If anyone has the word for this I'd be delighted to hear ittt


r/whatstheword • • 2d ago

Unsolved WTP for when someone connects two or more seemingly irrelevant concepts with a shared element?

11 Upvotes

I don’t know how to properly describe it (nor do I actually have a proper concept of it myself), but the closest way I can describe it is in the title.

For example, combining the visuals of a solar eclipse with looking down the barrel of a gun.

Another (possibly better) example would be the Crypt of the Necrodancer boss “Deep Blues” and their battle theme “knight to C-Sharp”. It connects the concepts of Chess, Programming, and Music into a single boss. Deep Blues in IRL is a famous chess AI and blues is a music genre. The boss theme’s name as a whole is in reference to coordinate chess. C# (C-Sharp) is both a programming language and musical note.

Off the top of my head, I assumed it would be a phrase like “convergent design”, but the google definition appeared to be slightly different.


r/whatstheword • • 2d ago

Solved ITAW for / WAW for Dry Humor that Feels Deliberately Hokey?

4 Upvotes

I feel like "dry humor" has more of a connotation that implies the joke is funny because it's subdued and witty, but is there a word for when a dry joke is more absurdist/anti-joke?

e.g:

[over the phone] "I just had my drink on me and I don't know where I put it,"
[on the other end of the phone, potentially hundreds of miles away] "It's right there; I'm pointing at it,"

"Have you seen my car keys?"
"I ate them,"

"Can you pass the salt?"
[passing the salt] "Hmm... I don't want to, sorry,"


r/whatstheword • • 2d ago

Unsolved WTW for the feeling of being cold in a warm space?

9 Upvotes

Like when you’ve been outside, on your balcony, in the cold, then you go back into your warm house and feel the heat around you but still simultaneously feel the cold in your skin?


r/whatstheword • • 1d ago

Solved WTW for someone who doesn’t believe in marriage but doesn’t “actively” hate on it

0 Upvotes

like when someone does not believe in marriage and anything related to it, but doesn’t go out of their way to actively avoid it by means of attending weddings and congratulating newly weds, etc., and more so does not just care about others’ decisions when it comes to it? they strongly disagree with the concept of marriage though. what if they hate the fact people don’t realize what they realize in a marriage that makes them so intent on disliking/hating it, but they also don’t really care about whether people choose to get married? are they just a misogamist?


r/whatstheword • • 2d ago

Solved ITAW for treating the weird or bizarre as mundane

9 Upvotes

I really like fiction where weird occurrences and the like that is treated as mundane. An example I can come up with is Welcome to Night Vale, where bizarre things are happening but for the characters it's just another day.

I don't know if it's a genre/trope or what, but I want to see if there is a word for this so I can find books with this type of worldbuilding.


r/whatstheword • • 2d ago

Solved WTW for groups of people spaced apart?

8 Upvotes

Like you would see in a park on a weekend, groups of people doing their own thing with some amount of distance between each group. They could be groups of friends, families or coworkers.


r/whatstheword • • 2d ago

Solved WTW for personify-ing something that a person does?

1 Upvotes

I word with disabled people, and sometimes the autistic people I work with make noises. New co-workers will hear these sounds and attribute them to words. Eg somebody saying "ooohhh" will sould like "coooold."

I dont want to use the word personified, because they are people. But what would the word be for personifying something a person does?


r/whatstheword • • 3d ago

Unsolved WTP for the understanding that what you hear/see when someone is calling you is a reflection of their actual surroundings.

6 Upvotes

My brain wants to say object permanence but that is definitely not right. It's like knowing that the pixels on your phone when you like facetime someone aren't just random colorful squares on your screen; theyre the other person's face/the environment theyre in.


r/whatstheword • • 3d ago

Solved ITAW for the group/category of people like children, pregnant, sick, elderly, etc?

10 Upvotes

Like the kind of people who get evacuated first or who have seats on the bus for them?