Tangentialism

noun; a point or points made during a discussion that are off-topic or only loosely related to the actual subject of discussion, or the tendency to makes such points ;

noun or adjective; Tangentialist, as a noun describes a person or group of people who frequently make tangentialist remarks

While they were discussing the Trolley Car problem, Rupert made the tangentialist remark that modern trolley cars have safety systems which make it impossible for them to crash into people. He's quite the tangentialist. Unfortunately, the group's discussions were derailed by frequent tangentialism.

by ARog59 August 23, 2024

Tangentopoly

Mobsters who receive kickbacks on the basis of literally being the government. One of the corners of an iron triangle.

An English cognate of the Italian word 'tangentopoli'.

The military tangentopoly votes for most of its own funding.

by birdspit October 7, 2023

Tangent

(Adj.) Wild, as in disbelief, or having a good or crazy time; out of control.

Ex: You should’ve seen how much Manny drank last night - he got so tangent, it was ridiculous.

Ex: How tangent is Madison for continuing to date that jerk?

Ex: Did you know the average person swallows 8 spiders in their lifetime? That’s some tangent stuff.

Ex: I am soo excited to go out tonight! Gonna be so tangent

by Domin_noodles June 15, 2024

Tangent Trap

When an offhand comment said during conversation has danger of derailing the whole thing into talking about an entirely different topic.

Usually controversial, lures you in like bait then diverts your attention. It gets worse in group discussions.

Desmond: “So Eastside college is better because you get to choose what you wanna do of your own free will”

Isaac: “But what is ‘free will’ really? Does anyone really have it?”

Michael: “I dunno if you think about how we make decisions, they could already be determined by subconscious out of our control”

Desmond: “True, just because you feel like you’re choosing-”

Adé: “-NO! STOP! Don’t fall for the Tangent Trap! We were talking about good colleges.”

Desmond: “Oh yeah! I forgot”

by PityOnlyFools October 16, 2024

tangentwings331

A sad and lonely person with glasses, often times plays Fortnite, dont be Tangentwings331

Yo dude its tangentwings331, i bet he’s lonely

by deztroyed December 2, 2024

Tangential

When a line is just touching at one point of a circle or when a person is at boundary of a house is known as Tangent

I was tangential to her house

by Shiv 23 December 20, 2024

tangentialist

(n) person; someone who engages in tangental speech, a communication disorder in which the train of thought of the speaker wanders and shows a lack of focus, never returning to the initial topic of the conversation. Symptoms include unnecessary detail and storytelling that only slightly relates to the original topic or never reaches a conclusion.

The tangentialist Playful_Barber_8131 heard the word "peanut" in conversation, then proceeded to describe how the word origin is derived from the fact that peanuts are legumes and thus related to peas, hence "pea" + "nut" to get the word "peanut," and then went on to describe another fun fact about how American cheese doesn't have enough cheese in it to qualify as real cheese, so it's actually called a "processed cheese food," and that even though they like American cheese they like cheddar cheese a lot more, especially sharp English cheddar, as Cheddar is the epynmous place after which the cheese is named, and it's so interesting how a lot of foods are named after places and the food becomes more famous than the place, like champagne, and so on and so forth, never again returning to the original topic of conversation, which was "do you have any allergies?"

by InstantD March 21, 2025