Word Of The Day: “tweedious”
Submitted by Sarah D. Bunting on January 2, 2012 – 6:08 PM25 Comments
tweedious. adj. 1. portmanteau of “twee” and “tedious.” 2. portmanteau of “tweet” and “tedious.”
I assumed the first definition is the obvious one, but when I said the word aloud with no context, Wing defined it the second way. I will also accept a third definition involving professors/academia (“tweed”) if one is offered.
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Tags: our friend English poetry degree + internet = mandatory protective goggles pretension Zooey Deschanel
My own feeling is that any definition which also includes a pictures of Zooey Deschanel is correct. Any definition at all.
Tweed (jacket) + tedious (his/her lectures) + orderous (because the prof smokes a pipe while wearing said jacket) = tweedious.
Ok, that was a bit of a stretch. Never mind.
Oh man, this is so useful! I can imagine the noun form might come in handy, too (although “tweedium” also kind of sounds like a psychic who contacts the afterlife via Twitter).
What those refer to as the monotone, drone singing style of Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy.
Tweedious (adj): of or related to academic debates requiring a high level of specialization and jargon, thus inducing a particular mix of aggravation, boredom, and confusion in the non-specialized listener.
At the department cocktail party, two professors had an argument so tweedious none of their colleagues even tried to join in.
Lordy, yes, tweed + tedious + TENURE, as in my anthro prof who looked like Indy Jones’s less-cool grandpa. The man was tweedious as hell (and, gossip in the department had it, banned from digging in Canada and National Park Service turf after he “forgot” to return certain artifacts)
The second definition was my first thought too. Nothing like scrolling through pages of retweet links to get to actual user comments.
I dunno, tedious and twee sums up Zooey Deschanel pretty much perfectly. I suggest to Wing that the portmanteau of “tweet” and “tedious” be tweetious.
Tweedious should certainly be valid for tweed + tedious, but the pronunciation is the key here. Deschanel’s Manic Pixie Twee Girl is twee-dious, whereas stuffy tenured academics arguing obscure concepts with appropriated language whilst dressed in tweed are tweed-ious.
You know, I don’t TRY to hate Zooey Deschanel, but I find that I just DO. Is this a problem? Is there a treatment?
Oh, Rebecca, how glad I am to hear you say that. I feel the same way. Never mind treating it… can we start a support group? LOL
Someone make her stop staring at me.
Oh, heck, that’s easy. Mary Engelbriet calandars.
My mom went through a twee-dious period with that shit. One calandar, okay. THREE calandars (one a page-a-day) and various posters and such? The twee was ultra-deedious.
That might be verging on the creep-dious. …Wait, I’m thinking of Thomas Kinkade.
Topic for first support group: What IS it about her singing style that bugs me so much??
@Rebecca – oh, that’s easy. She sings totally in the back of her throat (think: Dudley Doright. Also: Shakira.) and is always slightly flat. So ugly tone + inability to sing in tune = tweedious. :)
I have found my people! I have an irrational hate of Zooey Deschanel too. If only my friends would stop trying to make me watch her TV show…
I don’t think I’ve ever consumed much ZooeyD product. I tend to think of her in a cut-some-slack kind of way, but only because her mom was awesome — not at all tweedious — in The Right Stuff. Which really has nothing to do with Zooey. Go figure.
(TRS is one of my alltime alltimes. I think it is woefully under-loved. Which may be because it’s long, and maybe because it was released in the year of Terms of Endearment: Juggernaut)
I always giggle at Abby Elliot’s impression of Zooey on SNL, though.
Rebecca, Jeanne, Kristen B –
I know why I can’t stand her. It’s the “DON’T YOU THINK I’M CUTE I’M SO CUTE AND FREE SPIRITED AND CHILDLIKE AND ALL THE BOYS LOVE ME” stare … it makes me want to push her down a flight of stairs. Where she would probably fall in a cute, artfully-arranged heap.
Also: she made a really snarky comment in the press about people who like to run and how she watched the (LA?) marathon and they all looked like “little lost puppies, and I was like, you PAY for this?” And I so wanted to RUN HER OVER. (After which she would lie in the road with Bambi-like eyes. And maybe sing about it.)
I immediately went to the tweed, but can’t think of a definition. I’m working on it…!
Man, I was such a huge fan until “New Girl.”
@MinglesMommy…
I giggled for 15 minutes straight after reading your post. So true! Every word.
@Wendalette – thanks, I was worried I was being too harsh (and uncute) LOL :)
The first definition was my first thought.
@Rebecca, Kristin beat me to the explanation of the problem with the way she sings, but in case you’ve never taken choir or voice lessons, the best way I can explain it is this: When you sing, the tone should be focused toward the front of your face, but not in your nose, and the space inside your mouth should be similar to what it would be if you were about to sneeze. She sings like she’s about to yawn.
My hate continues: “I was like, ‘It’d be cool to have a traditional college experience,’ ” she says. “Then I was like, ‘Oh, but none of these people understand what’s cool about me. My specialness is not appreciated in this place.'”
http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/zooey-deschanel-reveals-bullied-school-girls-spit-face-childhood-article-1.1008096
…Ugh. There’s a way to put that that’s relatable and un-smug; then there’s the way SHE picked.
FYI – I just used “tweedious” over on a Gawker thread about Karmin. I am going to make this word happen. Oxford Dictionary, here we come!
http://gawker.com/5883775/the-haters-guide-to-karmin?comment=46907495#comments
(Sorry, no idea how to do the link thing, because I’m old…so very old…)