al-in-chgo's definitions
Adjective "butch" (deeply or stereotypically masculine-looking and -acting, applied to both men and women) made into a jocular noun. "Butch" is nowadays almost always an adjective ("I love your butch new leather jacket"), now that the old use as a noun to mean "boy vendor" (newsbutch or news butcher) peaked during the 1950s and is now archaic if not completely obsolete. The closest nominative uses of "butch" are adjuncts or idioms like "butch haircut" or "Harold is a butch top, not a femme bottom."
"Masculinity" means possesion of masculine traits or appearance, while "butchiosity" introduces a note of irony: the appearance or trying to act in a conventionally or socially-acceptable masculine manner expected by the straight world.
"Butchness" is problematic, as it is not consisently used to mean the quality of visible masculinity; instead, the user is often forced into grammatical adaptations like "He behaves in a butch way," or "Sometimes he overcompensates and out-butches himself."
"Butchiosity" is almost certainly a back-formation inspired by the 1977 Woody Allen movie ANNIE HALL (screen play: W. Allen and Marshall Brickman): "Was it heavy a rock concert? Did it achieve . . . heaviosity?"
"Masculinity" means possesion of masculine traits or appearance, while "butchiosity" introduces a note of irony: the appearance or trying to act in a conventionally or socially-acceptable masculine manner expected by the straight world.
"Butchness" is problematic, as it is not consisently used to mean the quality of visible masculinity; instead, the user is often forced into grammatical adaptations like "He behaves in a butch way," or "Sometimes he overcompensates and out-butches himself."
"Butchiosity" is almost certainly a back-formation inspired by the 1977 Woody Allen movie ANNIE HALL (screen play: W. Allen and Marshall Brickman): "Was it heavy a rock concert? Did it achieve . . . heaviosity?"
"Your buddy ought to butch up his act, or he'll never make it in the suburbs." "I don't think it's so much a matter of butchiosity as the fact that he hasn't been around suburbanites since going to college and knows next to nothing about kids, lawnmowers and pro sports."
"Who is that great-looking hunk?" "Oh, him satirically, "her". He looks like a tower of butchiosity but on the inside there's a major flaming queen screaming to be let out."
Compared to "masculinity," "butchiosity" introduces a note of irony: the appearance of masculinity, or trying to appear conventionally masculine. Machismo is lexically coherent as a loan-word from Spanish but has connotations of an ingrained, often unacceptable and patriarchal behavior, overmasculine from the start; or old-fashioned notions of being a man. Instead, "butchiosity"comes with a twist: it can imply a trying-too-hard, self-conscious or overstudied presentation of an image of masculinity, especially in an attempt to meet the straight world's expectations of same.
An act not a trait, as it were.
"Who is that great-looking hunk?" "Oh, him satirically, "her". He looks like a tower of butchiosity but on the inside there's a major flaming queen screaming to be let out."
Compared to "masculinity," "butchiosity" introduces a note of irony: the appearance of masculinity, or trying to appear conventionally masculine. Machismo is lexically coherent as a loan-word from Spanish but has connotations of an ingrained, often unacceptable and patriarchal behavior, overmasculine from the start; or old-fashioned notions of being a man. Instead, "butchiosity"comes with a twist: it can imply a trying-too-hard, self-conscious or overstudied presentation of an image of masculinity, especially in an attempt to meet the straight world's expectations of same.
An act not a trait, as it were.
by al-in-chgo January 25, 2010
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Altering or adding to a prior word or term term that must be further defined in the light of later developments or technical innovation.
Example: No one called "World War One" that until there was a "World War Two" with which to contrast it. The going term during the 1914-1918 war and up to 1939 was "The Great War."
Altering or adding to a prior word or term term that must be further defined in the light of later developments or technical innovation.
Example: No one called "World War One" that until there was a "World War Two" with which to contrast it. The going term during the 1914-1918 war and up to 1939 was "The Great War."
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Other employment of term retronym:
Telephone becomes "rotary-dial phone" to distinguish it from the push-button phones that became widespread in the 1970s and early 1980s (although rotary-dial phones still work if all you want to do is place a call and don't need to access features like querying a bank account balance).
Similarly, telephone also becomes "corded phone" to distinguish the traditional hard-wired telephone from those that are wireless in some way, such as cordless phones.
"Regular" coffee to distinguish it from decaffeinated coffee; some people say "caffeinated" coffee but strictly speaking this is a grammatical back-formation, not a retronym, because "to caffeinate" would mean to ADD caffeine to traditional coffee.
Note, though, that Coca-Cola is a "caffeinated" or "caffeine-containing" soft drink in its usual red-can form. Now that there is a Caffeine-Free Coca-Cola "caffeinated" could find use as a retronym for "the real thing."
"Manual" or "standard" or "stick" transmission on a car, none of which terms was necessary before automatic transmissions on cars became widespread and assumed to be the norm.
And, of course, "acoustic" guitar.
Other employment of term retronym:
Telephone becomes "rotary-dial phone" to distinguish it from the push-button phones that became widespread in the 1970s and early 1980s (although rotary-dial phones still work if all you want to do is place a call and don't need to access features like querying a bank account balance).
Similarly, telephone also becomes "corded phone" to distinguish the traditional hard-wired telephone from those that are wireless in some way, such as cordless phones.
"Regular" coffee to distinguish it from decaffeinated coffee; some people say "caffeinated" coffee but strictly speaking this is a grammatical back-formation, not a retronym, because "to caffeinate" would mean to ADD caffeine to traditional coffee.
Note, though, that Coca-Cola is a "caffeinated" or "caffeine-containing" soft drink in its usual red-can form. Now that there is a Caffeine-Free Coca-Cola "caffeinated" could find use as a retronym for "the real thing."
"Manual" or "standard" or "stick" transmission on a car, none of which terms was necessary before automatic transmissions on cars became widespread and assumed to be the norm.
And, of course, "acoustic" guitar.
by al-in-chgo March 6, 2010
Get the retronym mug."Economic moat" is a term coined by investor Warren Buffet. It means how susceptible a company is to competition by other companies. Coca-Cola and Phillip Morris (Marlboro cigarettes) are companies with wide economic moats because of the popularity and consumer loyalty of their marquee brands. Boeing has a narrow but deep economic moat because its 777 and 787 aircraft are not subject to immediate displacement, but companies like Airbus and Bombardier could play catch-up over the course of several years by developing similar models that would threaten their primacy. That would close the moat.
-- "Give me an example of a company with a wide economic moat."
-- "The local water company, because no competitor can rush right in with a distribution system (pipes)."
-- "Besides, who else is gonna fill that moat? lol."
-- "The local water company, because no competitor can rush right in with a distribution system (pipes)."
-- "Besides, who else is gonna fill that moat? lol."
by al-in-chgo May 3, 2013
Get the economic moat mug.by al-in-chgo March 23, 2010
Get the covert mug."Don't spit in the wind" is a commonly euphemized phrase in the USA, out of "Don't piss in the wind," a British nautical phrase with a literal meaning. Both phrases mean "Don't do something self-defeating," in the sense of "If you try to expectorate (urinate), don't do it into (against) the wind or the saliva (urine) will blow back on you in a nasty way."
A futile act is "spitting in the wind." So is a selfless but unheeding act that "boomerangs" or has dire consequences the doer hadn't contemplated, an act that "did more harm than good."
A futile act is "spitting in the wind." So is a selfless but unheeding act that "boomerangs" or has dire consequences the doer hadn't contemplated, an act that "did more harm than good."
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"You don't tug on Superman's cape /
You don't spit in the wind / *or 'into the wind'
You don't pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger /
and you don't mess around with Jim."
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Popular song, "You Don't Mess Around With Jim", ca. 1972,
James (Jim) Croce, singer/songwriter.
Lyrics copyright (c) EMI Music Publishing (as of this date).
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"You don't tug on Superman's cape /
You don't spit in the wind / *or 'into the wind'
You don't pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger /
and you don't mess around with Jim."
.
Popular song, "You Don't Mess Around With Jim", ca. 1972,
James (Jim) Croce, singer/songwriter.
Lyrics copyright (c) EMI Music Publishing (as of this date).
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by al-in-chgo September 15, 2011
Get the spit in the wind mug.A term a man, particularly a gay man, might use to describe his penis in length and then by width (sometimes meaning girth or circumference), in inches (20 by 15 cm). He's lying, of course. Or at least, no more than a two percent chance he's in that territory.
If he claims six by eight (six long, eight "wide" or perhaps in circumference), you're getting into choad territory. See choad also spelled chode. Demand immediate proof.
If he claims six by eight (six long, eight "wide" or perhaps in circumference), you're getting into choad territory. See choad also spelled chode. Demand immediate proof.
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"So he told me, 'I've got an eight by six.' At first I thought he was talking about a new kind of car engine, or something. I finally figured out what he meant, but he had already proven himself to be such a jerk that I had no desire to check out that particular attribute."
Old Joke -- Q: What's a Gay Eight? A: Six inches.
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"So he told me, 'I've got an eight by six.' At first I thought he was talking about a new kind of car engine, or something. I finally figured out what he meant, but he had already proven himself to be such a jerk that I had no desire to check out that particular attribute."
Old Joke -- Q: What's a Gay Eight? A: Six inches.
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by al-in-chgo March 1, 2010
Get the Eight By Six mug.County Seat of Washington County, Virginia, in southwestern Virginia about fifteen miles northeast of the Tennesse border. Population ca. 6,000.
Active (live-)stock market, seasonal burley tobacco market, site of Federal District court which accounts for beaucoup (way too many) attorneys for hire.
Biggest cultural attributes are probably the annual Virginia Highlands Festival held on the campus of Virginia Highlands Community College, waggishly referred to as "UCLA(q.v.)," and the Barter Theater, the State Theater of Virginia. Contrary to popular opinion, neither Gregory Peck nor Ernest Borgnine was born or grew up in Abingdon, nor Ned Beatty, although they all played the Barter early in their careers.
Worst-kept secret: The really choice furniture, antiques and miscellaneous items (and often, quite good deals) are not to be found at the open-air Highlands Festival, but at a semi-secret rummage sale held by a consortium of downtown Mainline Protestant churches, named for Plum Alley, which the week-long event occupies.
Little-known facts:
. Interstate 81 runs along eastern edge of town and affords easy access to Bristol, where there is also nothing for young people to do.
. One of several thousand communities in the USA that has earned the right to call itself "the buckle on the bible belt."
. Just for fun, Google for "Abington, Virginia" (note misspelling).
Active (live-)stock market, seasonal burley tobacco market, site of Federal District court which accounts for beaucoup (way too many) attorneys for hire.
Biggest cultural attributes are probably the annual Virginia Highlands Festival held on the campus of Virginia Highlands Community College, waggishly referred to as "UCLA(q.v.)," and the Barter Theater, the State Theater of Virginia. Contrary to popular opinion, neither Gregory Peck nor Ernest Borgnine was born or grew up in Abingdon, nor Ned Beatty, although they all played the Barter early in their careers.
Worst-kept secret: The really choice furniture, antiques and miscellaneous items (and often, quite good deals) are not to be found at the open-air Highlands Festival, but at a semi-secret rummage sale held by a consortium of downtown Mainline Protestant churches, named for Plum Alley, which the week-long event occupies.
Little-known facts:
. Interstate 81 runs along eastern edge of town and affords easy access to Bristol, where there is also nothing for young people to do.
. One of several thousand communities in the USA that has earned the right to call itself "the buckle on the bible belt."
. Just for fun, Google for "Abington, Virginia" (note misspelling).
"Abingdon, Virginia? Where is this Abingdon? How long to drive there from Richmond?"
"Oh, about six, seven hours if the Interstates don't clot up too much."
"That's impossible. Nowhere in Virginia takes seven hours to reach from the state capital."
"Look on a road map, for the extreme Southwestern tip which they always put in a separate little box."
"Oh, about six, seven hours if the Interstates don't clot up too much."
"That's impossible. Nowhere in Virginia takes seven hours to reach from the state capital."
"Look on a road map, for the extreme Southwestern tip which they always put in a separate little box."
by al-in-chgo February 26, 2010
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