[Ads-l] "Neatist"

[Laurence Horn]

Ah right, I'd overlooked the "intolerant" part, which moves "neatist" into the column with "racist" and "sexist", and even more that of "ageist" and "speciesist", so my complaint about its adjectival as opposed to nominal usage is hereby withdrawn.

LH
 
On Dec 27, 2014, at 10:39 AM, Yagoda, Ben wrote:

> 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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