[Ads-l] "Neatist"

[Yagoda, Ben]

I'd guess "neatist" is a coinage by Scott and Borgman, especially as it works differently from the general run of modern "-ist" words (sometimes serious, usually fanciful or derisive) that follow from "racist": "ageist," "speciesist," "heightist," etc. The root is is a noun (not an adjective like "neat"), and the logic isn't biased *against* the noun (say, "height"), but biased *on the basis* of it. 

So the better word would be "neatnessist." But that wouldn't work in the comic, of course, because, as Jeremy would say, it's so awkward.

Ben

> 
> Date:    Fri, 26 Dec 2014 15:08:34 -0500
> From:    "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject: "neatist", noun and attributive; not in OED3
> 
> "Neatist":  Someone who is obsessive about being neat, or intolerant 
> of messy persons.
> 
> Jeremy:  "Don't be so neatist."
> Mother:  "What?"
> Jeremy:  "Neatist: biased against disorder, It's intolerance, Mom, 
> and I can't support it."
> 
> 2014 Dec. 26.  "Zits", by Jerry Scott & Jim Borgman.  [Courtesy Boston Globe.]
> 
> Not in Urban Dictionary!  Nor in Google News.
> 
> Hits in Google Web, but it's hard to separate out the misspellings 
> (deliberate or ignorant) -- and I refuse to try.   About 42 hits for 
> "neatist" in Google Books (none for "neatists"), all seeming to be 
> OCR errors or misspellings.
> 
> Joel
> 

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