frumious

en-adj

frumious (comparative more frumious, superlative most frumious)

more frumious (comparative)
most frumious (superlative)

Blend of fuming + furious, coined by Lewis Carroll in the poem Jabberwocky (1871).


beanwater

(US, slang, chiefly New England) High spirits.


walk on sunshine

en-verb

walk on sunshine (third-person singular simple present walks on sunshine, present participle walking on sunshine, simple past and past participle walked on sunshine)

walks on sunshine (present singular third-person)
walking on sunshine (participle present)
walked on sunshine (participle past)
walked on sunshine (past)

Popularised by the 1983 Katrina and the Waves song Walking on Sunshine

That little girl we'd practically adopted made me walk on sunshine. There could be no option where she wasn't doing great. I wouldn't be able to handle it.

2016, Bree Dahlia, Legal (An Older Woman/Younger Man Romance):

The time before the Third Round of qualifying, the summer of 2012, when the impossible seemed within their reach – this was the country at its finest. Bowers had enjoyed seeing the fruit of his efforts pay off as much as he loved watching his countrymen get swept up in his soccer passion. Regardless of the outcome, he and the island's small set of believers were walking on sunshine.

2014, Sean Reid, Love Thy Soccer: The Fan Rewrites the Book on the American Game:

They praised her work in Assam so profusely that she walked on sunshine for a few days. However, the heady experience of Karachi was followed by a miserable phase of Daisingari.


bromantical

en-adj

bromantical (comparative more bromantical, superlative most bromantical)

more bromantical (comparative)
most bromantical (superlative)

Blend of bro + romantical, equivalent to bromantic + -al.

2011 Marc Anthony, Will Smith, and Dwyane Wade Get Bromantical for Monday Night Football, Miami New Times

2013 Brad Pitt & Shia LaBeouf Went On A Bromantical Camping Trip With Their Fury Team, PerezHilton.com

2014 Enlisted Stars Crash the Bones Set to Annoy David Boreanaz and Celebrate Their Milestone 4th Episode Eonline.com
to make sure that this momentous occasion does not get overlooked, Geoff Stults and Parker Young have prepared a bromantical celebration with Bones' David Boreanaz

Of or pertaining to a bromantic tendency or character.


quakebreech

quakebreech (comparative more quakebreech, superlative most quakebreech)

more quakebreech (comparative)
most quakebreech (superlative)

Hang me, if I do not fancy I ſtill hear that confounded Noiſe, which made my Guts wamble in my Belly! Faith and Troth, I found that Bout that my Mothers Son was in Quake-breech fear.

1705, John Stevens, A Continuation of the Comical History of the Most Ingenious Knight, Don Quixote de la Mancha, volume 3, translation of original by de Avellaneda, Alonso Fernández, page 59:


lepidopterophobia

From the taxonomic name Lepidoptera + -phobia.

An abnormal or irrational fear of butterflies.


allosexuality

The condition of being allosexual (in any of its many senses).


multisexuality

For quotations using this term, see Citations:multisexuality.

The quality, state, or practice of being multisexual.


skoliosexuality

Some argue that it legitimizes the fetishization of trans people and undermines the legitimacy of transgender identities. Others, however, argue that the term accurately describes a real orientation and that skoliosexuality no more requires the fetishization of trans people than being a lesbian necessarily involves the fetishization of women.

2017, Don LePan, Laura Buzzard, Maureen Okun, How to Be Good with Words, →ISBN, page 158:


chap someone's hide

en-verb

chap someone's hide (third-person singular simple present chaps someone's hide, present participle chapping someone's hide, simple past and past participle chapped someone's hide)

chaps someone's hide (present singular third-person)
chapping someone's hide (participle present)
chapped someone's hide (participle past)
chapped someone's hide (past)

get on someone's nerves
get on someone's nerves

(colloquial) To annoy someone; get on someone's nerves.


happy landings

en-noun

happy landings pl (normally plural, singular happy landing)

But one set of Washington policies is all happy landings: the Government's campaign to stop skyjackers is working.

1973 June 18, “American Notes: Eureka! Something Works!”, in Time, retrieved 2018-06-05:

He missed much of his senior year, drifted, but finally graduated. He hasn't gone to college and realizes now that he wants that experience. […] Some of these stories have happy landings.

2002, Andrea Van Steenhouse, Empty Nest...Full Heart: The Journey from Home to College, →ISBN, page 47:

(idiomatic, by extension) Successful outcome or outcomes.


grotchy

Alex Kirs and Jack Gaughan both sent beautifully long grotchy letters which are too good to let pass. I'm saving them for next issue, along with a pertinent letter from Rick Norwood on STAR TREK.

1968 March 5, Richard E. Geis, “THE I-ALSO-GOT-LETTERS-FROM DEPT”, in Psychotic, number 24, page 46:

(dated, fandom slang) Tending to complain; irritable.


polyfamily

Group marriage must be contrasted with polyfamilies, which is similar to group marriage but where some members may not considered themselves married to all other members.

2008, Miriam Koktvedgaard Zeitzen, Polygamy: A Cross-Cultural Analysis, Bloomsbury Academic, →ISBN, page 13:

Interestingly, despite the percentages above illustrating that many polyfamilies in the Polyamory Survey had children or wanted children, only approximately 30 percent of survey respondents had told their children about their poly relationships or their desire to be in one...

2010, Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli, Border Sexualities, Border Families in Schools, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, →ISBN, page 172:

A group of people in a polyamorous relationship, who consider each other as family.


toddlercon

From toddler + -con (“abnormal sexual attraction”).

suf

(anime) Japanese-inspired erotic or suggestive art depicting very young children, of toddler age.


big dick energy

The Spice Girls had Big Dick Energy in abundance, years before Twitter coined the term.

2018, Lauren Bravo, chapter 5, in What would the Spice Girls do?: How the Girl Power Generation Grew Up, Transworld Publishers, →ISBN:

I didn't really want Brunhild being associated with big dick energy. We were just a fledgling nation, so it’d be bad for our image.

2018, Patora Fuyuhara, In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 11, →ISBN:

“Told you so.” My brother finished his drink and grabbed both their empty glasses. “He needs to quit worrying about upsetting people and use that big dick energy he’s got for his own good.”

2019, Kristin Harte, Penance: A Vigilante Justice Novel, Kinship Press,, →ISBN:

(slang, vulgar) Unassuming self-confidence.


rub one's hands together

en-verb

rub one's hands together (third-person singular simple present rubs one's hands together, present participle rubbing one's hands together, simple past and past participle rubbed one's hands together)

rubs one's hands together (present singular third-person)
rubbing one's hands together (participle present)
rubbed one's hands together (participle past)
rubbed one's hands together (past)

2017 Interest rate rise: What you are saying BBC News, 2 November 2017. Accessed 3 August 2018.
""It's been over 10 years and it's about time we got a little bit more," Ms Tongue pointed out. "I'm rubbing my hands together, definitely.""

2018 Riley Beveridge, No final decision on 2019 AFLW Fixture Brisbane Lions, 3 August 2018. Accessed 3 August 2018.
""But I thought when those two new teams came in … I was rubbing my hands together thinking 'we are going to get a legitimate competition here, we will play everyone once and head into a finals series, you beauty'."

(idiomatic, colloquial) To anticipate something eagerly.


compersive

—which (according to Lovelock's predictions) could be as little as just Antarctica—we will have to be very symbiotic and compersive indeed.

2010, Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, Gaia and the New Politics of Love: Notes for a Poly Planet, →ISBN:

Whether poly people as a whole have achieved the intended compersive intimacy is debatable, [...]

2015, Jillian Deri, Love's Refraction: Jealousy and Compersion in Queer Women's Polyamorous Relationships, →ISBN:

It's one thing, people say, to be compersive about a colleague's success, but it's quite another to feel happy about your partner being intimate with someone other than you. Yet, it is possible to cultivate compersion in any social situation, [...]


QAnon

/ˌkjʉː ɘˈnɔn/

Q clearance
United States Department of Energy

From Q + anon. From the United States Department of Energy's Q clearance + anonymous. Compare Q (“QAnon”).

2017 November 18, Amazing Answers, “RE: Who is QAnon?”, in alt.atheism (Usenet):

In October, an anonymous 4chan account began making cryptic posts about earth-changing political and judicial events to come. Ever since then, conspiracy theorists, journalists, and amused observers have speculated about who was behind the account that has come to be known as QAnon.

2018 May 29, Mike Rothschild, “Who is Q Anon, the internet’s most mysterious poster?”, in The Daily Dot:

The question “Who is the most hilarious person QAnon could turn out to be?” yielded thousands of responses. Here are the best and most common ones.

2018 August 6, Joe Berkowitz, “Who is the mastermind behind QAnon? Twitter has some fun theories”, in Fast Company:

In The mysterious figure called “Q” or “QAnon” first appeared online on Oct. 28, 2017, with a post on the far-right /pol/ message board of 4chan that they had inside information about a secret plot being hatched by the Trump administration.

2018 November 11, Michael Barkun, “Failed Prophecies Won’t Stop Trump’s True Believers”, in Foreign Policy:

(US politics) An anonymous poster on the Internet message boards 4chan, 8chan and 8kun, claiming to possess Q clearance, who originated a pro-Trump conspiracy theory claiming that Donald Trump is working against a cabal of Satanic, cannibalistic pedophiles comprised of his political opponents.

These bizarre results, first spotted by the NBC reporter Ben Collins, are not the result of the latest #MeToo era investigation reporting. Instead, they are the entirely unsubstantiated manifestation of a sprawling rightwing conspiracy theory known as QAnon.
[…] Joseph Uscinski, a University of Miami professor who studies conspiracy theories, said by phone that QAnon remains a “fringe” belief held by “a very small number of people”.

2018 July 31, Julia Carrie Wong, “What is QAnon? Explaining the bizarre rightwing conspiracy theory”, in The Guardian:

It's nebulous and continuously changing to adapt to current events, but the overarching conspiracy theory has been given a name: "QAnon".
 […] The baseless core of the QAnon story is that the Mueller investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia is actually an investigation into global elites, and that the president is masterminding a secret plan to arrest top politicians and Hollywood stars for corruption and child abuse.

2018 August 2, Elizabeth Cassin, Mike Wendling, “QAnon: What's the truth behind a pro-Trump conspiracy theory?”, in BBC:

QAnon, whose supporters also call it “The Storm” or “Great Awakening,” is a wide-ranging conspiracy theory that burst into greater visibility this summer, after supporters at a Trump rally wearing Q shirts prompted a rush of national media coverage about it.

2018 September 12, Abby Ohlheiser, “Reddit bans r/greatawakening, the main subreddit for QAnon conspiracy theorists”, in The Washington Post:

Like much of the new conspiracism, QAnon began with conspiracy entrepreneurs.[…]11. For instance, on August 3, 2018, the authors consulted the discussion of “clues” by QAnon researchers on the following Reddit.com message board: https://www.reddit.com/r/greatawakening/comments/84sam4/does_anyone_have_the_link_to_the_current_8chan/.

2019 April 16, Nancy L. Rosenblum, Russell Muirhead, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy, Princeton University Press, pages 133 (Who Owns Reality?) and 195 (Notes):

(US politics) The conspiracy theory originated by this anonymous poster.

If QAnon's claims were true, they would shake the very foundations of global government and explain the confusion of politics in recent years. As it is, they are not true – but their importance could nonetheless be hugely significant.

2018 August 2, Andrew Griffin, “What is QAnon? The origins of the bizarre conspiracy theory claiming that Trump-Russia investigation is a hoax to catch pedophiles”, in The Independent:

A group dubbed "QAnon" has emerged at Trump campaign events recently. They follow and try to decipher the online posts of someone named "Q", who traffics in conspiracy theories focused on people in government and media.

2018 August 3, Jeff Brady, “QAnon: The Conspiracy Theorist Group That Appears At Trump Rallies”, in NPR:

"What a movement such as QAnon has going for it, and why it will catch on like wildfire, is that it makes people feel connected to something important that other people don’t yet know about,” says cult expert Rachel Bernstein, who specializes in recovery therapy. "All cults will provide this feeling of being special.”

2018 November 12, Renee Diresta, “Online Conspiracy Groups are a Lot Like Cults”, in Wired:

(US politics) The movement supporting this conspiracy theory.


predophile

[T]he alliance concluded that education, not filtering, is the most effective method for protecting children from pornography and predophiles[…]

1997, Information Retrieval & Library Automation, volumes 33-35:

2018, “Chrissy Teigen, John Legend news: Couple respond to their alleged involvement with Pizzagate Predophile ring conspiracy”, in Christian Today:

A pedophile who is predatory; a predator who is pedophilic.


BWWM

Initialism of black woman, white man: an interracial romance novel genre


serophobia

en-noun

serophobia (usually uncountable, plural serophobias)

Consistent with the fall in overall serophobia online, violent threats and the use of slurs or tropes against people living with HIV or AIDS fell over the 2.5 year period studied. Online violent threats relating to serophobia fell 35%, while slurs and tropes fell by 22%.

2021 November 30, Gemma Joyce, “Understanding Online Serophobia: How Hate Speech Against People Living with HIV and AIDS is Evolving”, in Brandwatch:

Fear of, dislike of, or prejudice against seropositives.


nephophobia

Another "ia" was evolving here, she felt, to send Mrs. Goodchild scuttling delightedly: nephophobia, a terror of clouds.

2004, Peter Rushforth, Pinkerton's Sister, →ISBN, page 410:

Lions, Tigers and Clouds….Oh My...Is it possible, you wonder, that I have Nephophobia?

2011 July, Mark McCourt, “Curing Nephophobia”, in SECURITY, page 10:

Natural environment phobias include weather-related conditions such as fear of thunderstorms (astrophobia), clouds (nephophobia), hurricanes (lilapsophobia), snow (chionophobia), cold (cryophobia), wind (ancraophobia), and rain (ombrophobia), among others.

2014 Augsut, Jill S. M. Coleman, Kaylee D. Newby, Karen D. Multon, Cynthia L. Taylor, “Weathering the Storm: Revisiting Severe-Weather Phobia”, in BAMS, page 1179:


blood-curdling

en-adj

blood-curdling (comparative more blood-curdling, superlative most blood-curdling)

more blood-curdling (comparative)
most blood-curdling (superlative)

A blood-curdling scream was heard in the haunted house.

`Yes, yes,' said the other, and chuckled in a rather blood-curdling tone.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

As the van hurtled towards her, she threw the bag at the bonnet of the van. As it struck, she let out a blood-curdling scream, as if she had been run over. “AAAAARRR GGGGHHHH!!!!!!”

2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:


Trumpophobia

At home, I see intolerance, various forms of prejudice, demonisation and the exploitation of fear – the last like shooting at the side of a barn, in the American context – at work in our Trumpophobia. This is the soft despotism of the American neoliberal.

2016, Stan Grant, Quarterly Essay 64 The Australian Dream: Blood, History and Becoming:

Heer, who writes a bi-weekly column with headings such as “Steve Bannon is Turning Trump into an Ethno-Nationalist Ideologue” and “Donald Trump is the Bizarro Noam Chomsky”, appears to have contracted a particularly virulent strain of Trumpophobia

2017 April 5, D McCann, “The new totalitarians: Fresh thoughts on James Burnham”, in Quadrant:

Comedian Bill Maher — currently in the midst of his 15th season on HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher" — has certainly been the beneficiary of increased viewership due to Trumpophobia.

2017 May 7, Zach Freeman, “Maher needed to put away his notebook and be present at Chicago Theater”, in Chicago Tribune:

Alan Dershowitz, a Clinton voter in the last election, warned that the effort to escalate perfervid Trumpophobia from criminalization of policy differences (as well as sour grapes over the lost election) to “psychiatrization” was even more sinister and anti-democratic.

2018 January 10, Conrad Black, “Michael Wolff and the Death Rattle of Trumpophobia”, in National Review:

We may disapprove of Donald Trump's crude behaviors and documented low respect for truth[3]. However, these may have created a kind of Trumpophobia that leads otherwise thoughtful people to exaggerate earlier positive influences of US foreign policy

2018, FT Manheim, “Is Donald Trump's Influence on World Affairs Really Worse than Earlier American Policies?”, in papers.ssrn.com:

(US, politics, informal) Fear of Donald Trump


gabra

Who like army. No freedom and NCOs always shout. They have loud voices. They shout only we gabra (panic).

1978 September 17, “Inside the mind of a rifleman”, in The Straits Times:

In the sports field, the nervous little boy who is drafted into the squad to make up a full team gets all “gabra” (or confused) when he receives the ball and “cocks up” the match resulting in his team’s defeat.

1986 November 18, “Slanging the message across”, in The Straits Times:

Just poke fun only you gabra.... how to survive like that?

2001 June 4, soc.culture.malaysia (Usenet):

(Singlish, colloquial) Panicky and confused.


cringeful

cringeful (comparative more cringeful, superlative most cringeful)

more cringeful (comparative)
most cringeful (superlative)

As the audience is propelled towards a state of cringeful suspense, the script is littered with recriminations and wit.

1993 -, Theatre Record - Volume 13, Issues 1-9, page 222:

Viciously massaging conditioner through her dripping hair, Paula lets the footage play to the cringeful end.

2011, Cath Kenneally, Jetty Road, →ISBN, page 44:

And if you see a woman in a cringeful relationship and conclude that you'd rather stay single, have you considered that there just might be other options besides the measly two your Physical Mind is presenting?

2013, Debbianne DeRose, How I Met the Man of My Dreams:: a Guide to MANifesting® Yours, →ISBN:

Tending to make one cringe; embarrassing or frightening.


cheerable

cheerable (comparative more cheerable, superlative most cheerable)

more cheerable (comparative)
most cheerable (superlative)


ray of sunshine

en-noun

ray of sunshine (plural rays of sunshine)

(figurative, endearing) A person (or thing) that brings happiness into the lives of others.


spectrophilia

These systems may be in the alternative insemination via mouth streams or spectrophilia or they may be in the actual birthing act or simulation of the act via ritual.

2007, Erica Eaton, Liminal: Spaces-in-between Visible and Invisible, page 52:

A paraphilia involving sexual excitement from ghosts or from images in mirrors.


feel-goodism

I despise the cheap feel-goodism of inspirational cliches, especially when tied to any sport (baseball, anyone?), and I was pleased to learn that fiction writer Earl Stanley Gardner had to take a roundabout way to discover his calling.

2005, Steve Abbott, Steve Abbott Greatest Hits, page 12:

One thing is certain: This sort of programmatic “feel-goodism” falls short of the more radical biblical unity that is the subject of so much admonishment and instruction in letters to the early church.

2009, Dave Rahn, Terry D. Linhart, Evangelism Remixed:


hijabophobia

From hijab + -o- + -phobia. Attested in books at least as early as 1999, but popularized in academic usage much later by scholars like Manal Hamzeh in 2012.

Fear of hijabs; Islamophobia directed at hijabi women.


all smiles

Very happy; without any worries or concerns.


child molestation

(crime) Sexual abuse of a child by an adult or older child.


turn on the waterworks

en-verb

turn on the waterworks (third-person singular simple present turns on the waterworks, present participle turning on the waterworks, simple past and past participle turned on the waterworks)

turns on the waterworks (present singular third-person)
turning on the waterworks (participle present)
turned on the waterworks (participle past)
turned on the waterworks (past)

(dated, informal, figuratively) To start crying, especially in a way that the speaker finds irritating.


self-guilt

From self- (prefix meaning ‘of, by, in or with oneself or itself’) + guilt.

prefix

How can you find your wings to fly when rocks of self guilt keep holding you down? Forgive and move forward.

2013, Lynette Leckie-Clark, The Magic of You: Stepping into Your Cosmic Body, page 61:


contentsome

en-adj

contentsome (comparative more contentsome, superlative most contentsome)

more contentsome (comparative)
most contentsome (superlative)

If thou continuest in thy body, 'tis easie for thee, and sweet and contentsome to heap up treasures for eternity: and if thou partest from it, thy hopes are great and fair that the journey thou art going is to a world of unknown felicity.

1866, original 1665, John Morris, Kenelm Digby, Words of Comfort for the wayfarer, the weary, the sick, and the aged:

I hope you've had a contentsome winter isnt^([sic]) it joyous to feel spring is on the way—leastways that the winter has probably done its worst for this year it busted my pipes.

1990, Emily Carr, Nan Cheney, Doreen Walker, Dear Nan: Letters of Emily Carr, Nan Cheney, and Humphrey Toms:

Martha, Nan's sister-in-law, comforts the baby; she says her own child '“was wonderful contentsome.”'

2015, Carl Wells, By Noble Things She Stands:

Characterised by contentedness, contentfulness, or contentment


gloomies

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-gloomies.wav

A fanciful plural of gloomy: gloomy + -ies (suffix forming plural nouns ending in y). Gloom is derived from Middle English *gloom, *glom, from Old English glōm (“gloaming, twilight; darkness”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley- (“to gleam, glow, shimmer”).

suffix

suffix forming plural nouns ending in <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">y</i>

der

The drear departing day, the coming night, / Increase the gloomies of the tempest's sound, / And damp the last faint hope those trembling souls had found.

1825, [Richard Rotton], “Canto I”, in Herban, a Poem. In Four Cantos, London: G. B. Whittaker, […], →OCLC, stanza XXXVI, page 23:

[…] Chichester was too good-natured not to exert himself for the enlivenment of a handsome girl suffering under a fit of the gloomies—more especially of one who happened to be an intimate friend of his sweet Cecilia!

1840, [Catherine] Gore, chapter XI, in The Dowager; or, The New School for Scandal. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […] , →OCLC, page 295:

If anything happens to me I want you to promise me something. Promise me you'll make a new life for yourself. As soon as you can. You're very young. Don't get the gloomies and be a martyr, please.

1964, H[erbert] E[rnest] Bates, chapter 15, in A Moment in Time, London: Pollinger in Print, published 2006, →ISBN, page 168:

The Pacific Northwest is often overcast, and the Grumneys' decision to keep almost all of their trees around and in the middle of the compound meant we could be into the dark and gloomies if we were not careful.

1996, Jeffrey Prentiss, “A Cost-conscious House in North Carolina”, in Country Houses (Fine Homebuilding Great Houses), Newtown, Conn.: Taunton Press, published 1997, →ISBN, page 14:

But thanks for the opening night gift. If anything can keep away the gloomies and bad luck, this will.

2004 August, Flo Fitzpatrick, chapter 29, in Ghost of a Chance, New York, N.Y.: Zebra Books, →ISBN, page 287:

He's down in the dumps because nobody wants to buy his art and his wife died, while she's got a case of the gloomies in response to public apathy for the plight of the underclass.

2018 December 12, Charles Bramesco, “A Spoonful of Nostalgia Helps the Calculated Mary Poppins Returns Go Down”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2019-05-24:

(informal) Preceded by the: gloom, despondency.


nerve rack

A hypodermic will secure much needed rest and promptly relieve bone ache and nerve rack.

1903, Burnside Foster, Saint Paul Medical Journal - Volume 5, page 372:

Prayer has been abundantly answered in my case, and I desire your further intercessions that right soon all nerve rack and strain may pass away and that I may be once more full of power and vigor for the work of the Lord.

1917, The Christian Workers Magazine - Volume 18, page 420:

I think after these evenings of suspense and nerve rack a reaction of fatigue and depression is apt to follow the next morning.

1927, Ruby Elliot Cromer, Lamuriac and other sketches, page 18:

A state of extreme emotional distress from a nerve-racking experience.


scareless

en-adj

scareless (comparative more scareless, superlative most scareless)

more scareless (comparative)
most scareless (superlative)

As directed by Richard Loncraine, "The Haunting of Julia" is virtually scareless, and the camera angles provide advance tipoffs to the few frightening episodes that punctuate the dull ones.

1984, The New York Times Film Reviews, page 62:

Zero brains for this tasteless, classless, humorless, scareless pile of wasted film.

2016, Andy McKinney, A Gross of Zombies: Reviews of 144 Zombie Movies:

Devoid of scares; not at all frightening.


out of spirits

A party of natives in Tierra del Fuego endeavoured to explain to us that their friend, the captain of a sealing vessel, was out of spirits, by pulling down their cheeks with both hands, so as to make their faces as long as possible.

1872, Charles Darwin, Francis Darwin, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals:


abrosexual

From Ancient Greek ἁβρός (habrós, “graceful”) + -sexual.

der

For quotations using this term, see Citations:abrosexual.

(rare) Having a changing or fluid sexual orientation, one that changes over time.


Hinduphobe

A person who hates, dislikes or is prejudiced against Hinduism and Hindus.


in the cold light of day

/ɪn‿ðə ˈkəʊld laɪt‿əv ˈdeɪ/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-in the cold light of day.wav

Probably an allusion to a situation being seen more clearly in daylight, and after some time has passed. The word cold is used in the sense of “dispassionate; not prejudiced or partisan; impartial”.

In the cold light of day, I felt I had overreacted.

In my over-wrought state of the night before, it had seemed reasonable enough; but here, in the cold light of day, it seemed preposterous.

1912 March, Burton E[gbert] Stevenson, “Preparations”, in The Mystery of the Boule Cabinet: A Detective Story, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, published 1918, →OCLC, page 119:

To the dreamer, a dream can seem at the time eerily indistinguishable from everyday consciousness yet, in retrospect, upon waking, so self-evidently different. The fragmented narrative, the improbability of much of what happens – flying, for example, or the transmogrification of one individual suddenly into another, and so on – seem ludicrous, even embarrassing, in the cold light of day.

2016, Susan Greenfield, “Dreaming”, in A Day in the Life of the Brain: The Neuroscience of Consciousness from Dawn till Dusk, London: Penguin Books, published 2017, →ISBN:

In the cold light of day, we're a flame in the wind / Not the fire that we've begun.

2018 August 16, Marshmello, Steve Mac, Dan Smith (lyrics and music), “Happier”, performed by Marshmello and Bastille:

Viewed calmly and dispassionately after allowing emotions to cool or after having sobered up.

in alle rust

viewed calmly and dispassionately after allowing emotions to cool


paytriot

Nothing illegal about any of this to my knowledge. Indeed, this is the very above-board racket of running an independent political committee. Everyone does it. Left, right, center and none of the above. And anyway, why shouldn't a true pay-triot get paid?

2013 May 15, Stephen Lemons, “Joe Arpaio's Fave Pay-triot John Philip Sousa IV Fires Back, Makes Bank Off Peddling Joe”, in Phoenix New Times, archived from the original on 2019-03-11:

He has been called out as a supposed “secret government agent,” labeled a parasitic “pay-triot,” and even laughed at for his “botched” suicide attempt (where one commentator suggested that if a Green Beret wanted to kill himself, he would certainly know how to do it).

2018, Jeanne M. Haskin, ‘When All Roads Lead to the Standoff: How Corporate Governance Fuels White Supremacy, Algora Publishing, page 110:

Many of them turned to Neon Revolt, one of the most popular Q bloggers and a "paytriot" (i.e. someone who's trying to make a living off of Q Anon). Neon Revolt is widely read and respected among qultists. He directed Redditors to go to Voat's new Q sub, v/TheAwakening, the one started by former Reddit GA admins. This of course angered Voaters, but had nothing on what was going to happen next.

2018 September 15, Plexipus (username), “‘The famous Q blogger and "paytriot," Neon Revolt, accuses v/GreatAwakening of being compromised in a poorly researched post. Huge drama BOOM on Voat. But could there be more to his story than he realizes?”, in Reddit, archived from the original on 2018-09-15:

(derogatory, rare) A right-wing activist (especially a supporter of the QAnon movement) who uses the movement to make money for themselves rather than to advance its goals.


The Storm

From Donald Trump's mention of "the calm before the storm" in an October 2017 interview.

Like Pizzagate, the Storm conspiracy features secret cabals, a child sex-trafficking ring led (in part) by the satanic Democratic Party, and of course, countless logical leaps and paranoid assumptions that fail to hold up under the slightest fact-based scrutiny. However, unlike Pizzagate, the Storm isn’t focused on a single block of shops in D.C., or John Podesta’s emails. It’s much, much bigger than that.

2017 December 19, Paris Martineau, “The Storm Is the New Pizzagate — Only Worse”, in New York, archived from the original on 2018-12-26:

In an online universe where conspiracy theories not only sprout like kudzu but attract bigger audiences the more outrageous and strange they grow, it was probably inevitable that an uber-theory like “The Storm” would become an overnight sensation.

2018 January 17, David Neiwert, “Conspiracy meta-theory 'The Storm' pushes the 'alternative' envelope yet again”, in Southern Poverty Law Center:

There are many extreme political conspiracy theories, with varying degrees of plausibility, things like “Pizzagate,” “The Storm,” “QAnon,” and “Russiagate.”

2018, West Mick, Escaping the Rabbit Hole: How to Debunk Conspiracy Theories Using Facts, Logic, and Respect:

QAnon, whose supporters also call it “The Storm” or “Great Awakening,” is a wide-ranging conspiracy theory that burst into greater visibility this summer, after supporters at a Trump rally wearing Q shirts prompted a rush of national media coverage about it.

2018 September 12, Abby Ohlheiser, “Reddit bans r/greatawakening, the main subreddit for QAnon conspiracy theorists”, in The Washington Post:

conspiracy theory
conspiracy theory#English


terror cell

A small group of terrorists who belong to a larger terrorist organisation.


spit tacks

en-verb

spit tacks (third-person singular simple present spits tacks, present participle spitting tacks, simple past and past participle spat tacks or spit tacks)

spits tacks (present singular third-person)
spitting tacks (participle present)
spat tacks (participle past)
spat tacks (past)
spit tacks (participle past)
spit tacks (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-spit tacks.wav

(slang, New Zealand, Australia, intransitive) To be angry.


Germanophobia

If we deal with state Germanophobia, the first observation concerns the uniqueness of war in the sense that it means that the government became overtly rather than covertly xenophobic in order to create a level of support on the home front necessary for victory on the battlefield, especially before conscription was introduced at the beginning of 1916. In Britain during the First World War, the government established various agencies for the propagation of Germanophobia.

1996, Panikos Panayi, Germans in Britain Since 1500, page 115:

"Van," as he was known to friend and foe alike, has been accused of Germanophobia, criticized for being indifferent to events outside of his Eurocentric perspective, and castigated for possessing an inflexible mind.

1997, Michael Lawrence Roi, Alternative to Appeasement, page 1:

In the mid-1860s, Russia also experienced an outbreak of Germanophobia.

2017, Juliet Johnson, Marietta Stepaniants, Benjamin Forest, Religion and Identity in Modern Russia:

The hatred or fear of Germany and anything German.

germanofobie

hatred or fear of Germany or anything German


nasophilia

A paraphilia involving sexual attraction to the nose or nostrils; nose fetishism.


oculophilia

A paraphilia involving sexual attraction to eyes and the licking of eyes; eye fetishism.


hysterical historical

en-noun

hysterical historical (plural hysterical historicals)

(slang) A historical-romance novel with a focus on sex and violence.


passive-aggressiveness

The quality of being passive-aggressive.


emotional labor

Coined by American professor and author Arlie Russell Hochschild in 1983 in her book The Managed Heart.

coinage

It was that “pinch,” or conflict, between such feelings and the pilot’s Call for authenticity that led me to write down in my own notebook, "emotional labor."

1983, Arlie Russell Hochschild, The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling, University of California Press:

Emotional labor does not observe conventional distinctions between types of jobs. By my estimate, roughly one-third of American workers today have jobs that subject them to substantial demands for emotional labor.

2007, Helena Wulff, editor, The Emotions: A Cultural Reader, Berg Publishers, →ISBN, page 88:

Further, theory on emotional labor—or organizationally mandated “rules” requiring employees to engage in “surface acting, deep acting, and the expression of spontaneous and genuine emotion” […] suggests that such emotional expectations create pressure to identify with one's work role.

2016, Michael G. Pratt, Majken Schultz, Blake E. Ashforth, Davide Ravasi, editors, The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Identity, Oxford University Press, →ISBN:

The act of managing feelings and displaying certain expressions in order to meet the requirements of a job.

In emotional labor jobs (Hochschild 1983), emotional displays are a matter of survival rather than personal choice, as job security and pay are dependent on them.

2015, Alicia Grandey, Deborah Rupp, William Bice, “Emotional labor threatens decent work: A proposal to eradicate emotional display rules”, in Journal of Organizational Behavior, →DOI, page 770:

Jobs which require such management and display.

The divide in who does what when it comes to housework persists because of our gendered expectation for women to perform emotional labor. We are the ones who decide whether to do a task ourselves or to delegate it to someone else, and doing physical labor is often the easier road.

2018, Gemma Hartley, Fed Up: Navigating and Redefining Emotional Labor for Good:

Like domestic labor, emotional labor is generally dismissed and not labeled work, but research shows it can be just as exhausting as paid work. Emotional labor can lead to insomnia and family conflict, according to a study published in Personnel Psychology.

2018 November 14, Kristin Wong, “There’s a Stress Gap Between Men and Women. Here’s Why It’s Important.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

One of the biggest shifts is that much of the conversation about emotional labor has left its original sphere of the workplace and moved to the home.

2018 November 26, Julie Beck, “The Concept Creep of ‘Emotional Labor’”, in The Atlantic:

The display and management of emotion in non-professional, interpersonal relationships; emotion work.


J/Cer

They are both in a script-like style I am a committed J/Cer, so I do include romantic developments.

1996 September 19, CWilson980, “Voy Alternate Basics J/C pt 1”, in alt.startrek.creative (Usenet):

The story I'm referring to was identified as a vignette and it was very sad, well at least it was sad for a J/Cer such as I.

1998 April 12, Di, “Help finding a Story”, in alt.startrek.creative (Usenet):

A lovely 'what if' that all ardent J/Cers would love to see.

2001 March 23, Kattz, “VOY Feedback Vote #3 by CyberMum”, in alt.startrek.creative (Usenet):

A fan who ships the Star Trek characters Kathryn Janeway and Chakotay.


J/C

Initialism from the names Janeway and Chakotay.

(Had I missed "Elogium" I would have oh-so-little material for the J/C crusade!)

1995 December 1, schlock, “STARDIARY #6: MAYBE IT'S TIME TREKKERS WENT *ON STRIKE*.”, in alt.startrek (Usenet):

I am thinking of starting an all-ages list for J/C fans […]

1998 October 6, MsSpooky83, “OT-J/C mailing list?”, in alt.startrek (Usenet):

Christine says this is possibly her last J/C fic, but I seriously hope it's not as her 'voice' in VOY fic is truly memorable.

2013 March 29, ASC Awards, “ASC Awards Comment Digest #246 Janeway/Chakotay”, in alt.startrek.creative (Usenet):

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Kathryn Janeway and Chakotay from the television series Star Trek: Voyager.


polycule

Blend of polyamory + molecule. Coined around the 2010s.

Our polycule doubled in size when my spouse started seeing Boris, whose husband has six other partners.

The five of us started calling ourselves a "polycule" back in the fall of 2012, when our relationships and sexual lives were so thoroughly entangled with one another that we looked like several relationship atoms often sharing orbits together.

2015, Julie Fennell, “Polyculous bonds”, in Elisabeth Sheff, editor, Stories from the polycule: Real life in polyamorous families, Portland, OR: Thorntree Press, →ISBN:

While nonmonogamy doesn't always mean having multiple partners, Ezra's polycule comprises multiple sexual partners.

2018 November 16, Josephine Yurcaba, “Ezra Miller Discussed Polyamory and Past Abuse”, in Teen Vogue, archived from the original on 2019-05-28:

Unbeknownst to him, Janice had, some three weeks prior, broken up with one of her partners from a polycule in Colorado.

2018, T. J. Thomson, “The Evolution of Story: How Time and Modality Affect Visual and Verbal Narratives Quarterly”, in Visual Communication, volume 25, number 4, →DOI, page 204:

The duo and eight others comprising the financial whiz’s inner circle shared a tony penthouse in the Bahamas, a living arrangement that some, including tech mogul Elon Musk, reportedly described as a “polycule”– that is, “a connected network of people and relationships, all of whom are in some way involved emotionally, sexually, or romantically with at least one other person”.

[2023 September 30, Victoria Bekiempis, “‘Dark’ donations, free love and the fall: the Sam Bankman-Fried trial is here”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Sarah is more reserved, especially when it comes to sharing details about “tender” situations, and she’s also protective of the other members of her polycule. What one part of the polycule says about another could have huge, messy ripple effects throughout the whole group.

2024 January 16, Allison P. Davis, “What Does a Polycule Actually Look Like?”, in New York Magazine:

But among all the throuples, polycules and nesting partners, there exists another category of polyamory that still throws many for a loop: solo polyamory, or having concurrent intimate relationships while maintaining independence.

2024 August 2, Gina Cherelus, “You’re ‘Solo Poly’? So … You’re Single?”, in The New York Times:

A polyamorous group of indivuals connected by their overlapping romantic, sexual, or platonic relationships.


blood-boiling

Just as our combined anticipation was starting to build to a blood-boiling crescendo, the swell lines disappeared from underneath us, intercepted by the coastline of approaching islands to our north.

2005, Tom Anderson, Riding the Magic Carpet: A Surfer's Odyssey in Search of the Perfect Wave, →ISBN:

The bearded Russian sage who inspired both Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King couldn't resist a blood-boiling bayonet fight, or a good duel with an old writer friend who had insulted him.

2015, Andrew Kaufman, Give War and Peace a Chance: Tolstoyan Wisdom for Troubled Times, →ISBN, page 6:


liberal homophobia

The intellectual Daniel Borrillo refers to liberal homophobia as that which accepts homosexuality so long as it is not discussed. This type of homophobia is represented in phrases like, 'I don't care what anyone does in private so long as they don't tell me about it'. In the professional world, this is crystallized in the recently abolished slogan of the US army: 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'.

2012, Margarita Alonso, Best Inclusion Practices: LGBT Diversity, Routledge:

After the deadly shooting attack at Barnoar, liberal homophobia surfaced along with support for the community. It took the form of a debate over coming out of the closet and "outing". Many people said that a person's sexual orientation was his own private business, and spoke out against the expectation that well-known people would come out of the closet. The debate ignored the fact that society considers only one sexual orientation a private matter. Heterosexuality is always public, and may always be talked about.

2013 June, Aeyal Gross, “Israel's liberal homophobia”, in ILGA:

To fully understand “liberal homophobia”, we must consider the centrality of the private/public distinction in liberalism along with the correlation of homosexuality/heterosexuality to this divide.

2015, Aeyal Gross, “The Politics of LGBT Rights in Israel and Beyond: Nationality, Normativity, and Queer Politics”, in Columbia Human Rights Law Review:

Another type of men’s group, or trend in critical thought on men, is often forgotten in our typologies: the “gay groups” along with their commercial and association networks. Their omission highlights the heterocentrism on the part of men studies, which can only deconstruct masculinity in its heterosexual expression. A common current form of liberal homophobia is demonstrated in accepting this sphere, even mentioning the GLBT movement, but eventually not granting gays the status of men that would enable us to include them in our deconstruction of hegemonic masculinity.

2017 January, Daniel Welzer-Lang, “Epistemology of Critical Studies on Men and Masculinity”, in Men’s Studies Press:

Acceptance of homosexuality as long as it remains a private issue.


NOMAP

minor-attracted person
minor-attracted person#English

Initialism of nonoffending minor-attracted person; a pedophile, hebephile or ephebophile who does not engage in child sexual abuse, the consumption of child pornography, or other child sex offenses.


unjovial

en-adj

unjovial (comparative more unjovial, superlative most unjovial)

more unjovial (comparative)
most unjovial (superlative)


sidonglobophobia

But perhaps the strangest phobia we've heard of is sidonglobophobia. It's the extreme fear of cotton balls - usually these individuals can't touch them, and are particularly terrified of the sound cotton balls make when torn apart.

2015 October 9, Signe Dean, “Here's The Science Behind The World's Rarest And Weirdest Phobias”, in Science Alert:

I, on the other hand, have sidonglobophobia, or an intense fear of cotton balls.

2017 July 19, Crystal Ponti, “Investigating My Lifelong Phobia of Cotton Balls”, in The Cut:

David Burns, 40, who suffers from sidonglobophobia — a condition that makes him “fearful and anxious” when around cotton wool balls — was sacked after reacting to repeated provocation which included being pelted with the balls and finding them tied to pieces of machinery he was working with at Plastic Mouldings Ltd in Irvine, North Ayrshire

2018 October 25, David McCann, “Worker teased over phobia of cotton wool wins payout”, in The Times:

David Burns, 40, has sidonglobophobia – a fear of cotton wool.

2018 October 28, “Sidonglobophobia sufferer dismissed over collegial ‘banter’ wins £9,000 payout”, in Scottish Legal News, retrieved 2018-08-02:

Sensory phobia of cotton or cotton balls.


gender euphoria

Even though he wasn't out as trans* to anyone yet, he felt a rush of gender euphoria when the waiter called him "sir."

The profound feeling of joy and comfort that some transgender people and others feel when their internal gender identity aligns with their external gender presentation.


roll about

en-verb

roll about (third-person singular simple present rolls about, present participle rolling about, simple past and past participle rolled about)

rolls about (present singular third-person)
rolling about (participle present)
rolled about (participle past)
rolled about (past)

(intransitive, colloquial) To laugh very heartily.


water fear

en-noun

water fear (countable and uncountable, plural water fears)

Both men and animals afflicted with rabies dread the appearance of water or any other liquid; hence the term, hydrophobia, or water-fear.

1921, Harold Melvin Stanford, The Standard Reference Work:

Those colloids which absorb considerable water are hydrophyllic colloids, that is, water-fond colloids; while those which absorb but little or none are hydrophobic colloids, that is, water-fear colloids.

1926, Principles of General Pharmacy and Chemistry:

One type of water fear harbored by many youngsters is directly traceable to an unfortunate childhood experience.

1947, The Journal of Health and Physical Education, volume 18, page 304:

This symptom which gave rise to the term hydrophobia or water-fear is the foundation of the cold water "cure."

1958, Louisiana Folklore Miscellany - Volume 1, Issues 3-4, page 54:

This latter possibility seems particularly plausible from the perspective of the nonassociative model of water fear described previously.

2001, Michael W. Vasey, Mark R. Dadds, The Developmental Psychopathology of Anxiety, page 195:

The Lewis (1974) study of water fears also tested another variant of the modeling approach, participant modeling, in which the model carries out the feared activity with the fearful person.

2004, John R. Weisz, Psychotherapy for Children and Adolescents:

We are not aware of any careful cross-cultural or developmental work showing that water fear is innate, however.

2006, Michelle Genevieve Craske, Dirk Hermans, Debora Vansteenwegen, Fear and Learning: From Basic Processes to Clinical Implications:

Although the modeling-plus-participation treatment was the most effective in the reduction of water fears, both modeling alone and participation alone were more effective than a no-treatment control condition.

2013, Benjamin B. Lahey, Advances in Clinical Child Psychology, volume 1, page 310:


snake fear

The present writer is inclined to think that cat-fear is analogous to snake-fear.

1908, The Scrap Book, volume 5, page 556:

All groups would demonstrate reductions in snake fear during treatment.

1966, Abstracts of Dissertations and Theses, page 51:

[…] it is meaningful to consider differences between high and low snake fear groups in general, rather than considering each separate measure of fear individually.

1970, Jean Tronick Barnett, Development of Children's Fear: The Relationship Between Three Systems of Fear Measurement, page 34:

There was no snake fear in infant primates (Lorenz 1971) or in human infants up to 2 years old; in humans caution appeared by age 3% and definite fear by age 4 (Jones & Jones 1928), while fear increased from age 4 to 6 (Morris & Morris 1965).

1987, Isaac Marks, Fears, Phobias and Rituals: Panic, Anxiety, and Their Disorders:

His snakefear if anything was more unhealthy than healthy, carrying with it an almost uncontrollable tendency to freeze into a panic-stricken target.

1998, James Jones, The Thin Red Line, page 52:

Intense snake fear is prevalent in both humans and other primates. Humans and monkeys learn snake fear more easily than fear of most other stimuli through direct or vicarious conditioning (Ohman and Mineka, 2003).

A well-known research example is the use of Fear Thermometer ratings during behavioral approach tasks in the early snake-fear desensitization experiments.

2012, Alan S. Bellack, Michel Hersen, Handbook of Clinical Behavior Therapy with Adults, page 29:

Presumably, when preparedness for snake fear was being naturally selected, delaying one's fearresponse while one drew a distinction between poisonous and nonpoisonous snakes was not the most adaptive way to respond to the situation of suddenly coming across a snake.

2012, Allan V. Horwitz, PhD, Jerome C. Wakefield, DSW, PhD, All We Have to Fear: Psychiatry's Transformation of Natural Anxieties into Mental Disorders:


Jonerys

Leaked pictures show actors Emilia Clark^([sic]) and Kit Harrington^([sic]) on set together, meaning that their paths are finally going to cross and, let’s face it, we’ve all been shipping Jonerys (and we can just ignore Jon’s real parentage. Ahem).

2017 July 11, Jadie Troy-Pryde, “Daenerys’ list of admirers is out of control in Game of Thrones season 7”, in Marie Claire:

The episode description of the season finale, titled The Dragon And The Wolf, points in that direction as well, with a subtle hint about a steamy 'Jonerys' moment.

2017 August 27, Kabita Maharana, “Jon Snow and Daenerys sex scene teased in Game of Thrones season 7 finale description”, in International Business Times:

Jonerys offspring to be named later

2019, Jeremy Egner, "Who will win 'Game of Thrones'? Here are the favorites", The Daily Mail (Greene Country, New York), 20-21 April 2019, page C2

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen from the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series and its television adaptation Game of Thrones.


Braime

Next up: Spider-Stark, A Braime Reunion, and VIOLENCE.

2016 June 10, Vinnie Mancuso, “‘Game of Thrones’ Guide, Week 8: Every Question We Have Before ‘No One’”, in Observer:

Bad news for all you Braime shippers out there, as Nikolaj Coster-Waldau doesn't think his character Jaime will get together with Brienne in Game of Thrones.

2017 July 14, Matthew Erao, “Game of Thrones: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau Doubts Jaime/Brienne Romance”, in Screen Rant:

It also comes after he finally hooked up with Brienne, a long-in-the-making love connection that “Braime” fans have been waiting for since season two.

2019 May 7, Lindsey Romain, “What Is Jaime Planning to Do with Cersei?”, in Nerdist:

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Brienne of Tarth and Jaime Lannister from the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series and its television adaptation Game of Thrones.


Jonsa

Jon Snow and Sansa Stark, dubbed "Jonsa," is a widely discussed pairing among Game of Thrones fans, despite their dubious half-sibling / cousin status […]

2019 April 10, Benjamin Fearnow, “Jamie x Brienne, Gendrya and Jonsa: The Weird and Wild Couples 'Game of Thrones' Fans Want to See Get Together”, in Newsweek:

The moment sets the relationship between Jon and Sansa (Jonsa) at tension with the relationship between Jon and Dany (Jonerys).

2019 April 15, Henry McKenna, “Is Sansa Stark in love with Jon Snow?”, in USA Today:

Jonsa fans, convinced that Jon was just pretending to fancy Daenerys for political gain, went searching for subtextual support for their theories.

2019 April 21, Joanna Robinson, “The Game of Thrones Fan War Only George R.R. Martin Saw Coming”, in Vanity Fair:

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Jon Snow and Sansa Stark from the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series and its television adaptation Game of Thrones.


Gendrya

While likely an overt reference to Gendry's Baratheon heritage, but many Gendrya shippers also hope that secret has something to do with the younger Stark sister.

Still, not everyone's onboard the Gendrya hype train.

2019 April 14, Jen Glennon, “Will Gendry And Arya Get Together On 'Game Of Thrones'? Premiere Hints 'Gendrya' Could Happen In Season 8”, in Newsweek:

'Gendrya' shippers have eagerly awaited this moment since season one.

2019 April 25, Catherine Regen, “Game of Thrones strikes controversy”, in Old Gold & Black, page 19:

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Gendry and Arya Stark from the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series and its television adaptation Game of Thrones.


playersexual

en-adj

playersexual (comparative more playersexual, superlative most playersexual)

more playersexual (comparative)
most playersexual (superlative)

All of the marriageable characters in farming simulator Stardew Valley are "playersexual", meaning they will marry the player regardless of gender.

2016 December 29, Gita Jackson, “2016 Was A Great Year For 'Shipping Our Favourite Characters”, in Kotaku Australia:

The fact that 65 characters can be interested in a same-sex relationship within Skyrim but only with the player is indicative of the fact that these characters are not bisexual, pansexual, or some other form of plurisexual—they are playersexual.

2020, Alayna Cole, Dakoda Barker, Games as Texts: A Practical Application of Textual Analysis to Games, unnumbered page:

DA2 provides a notable contrast with both Origins and Inquisition in that all non-DLC romanceable characters are “playersexual”; […]

2020, Alexandra M. Lucas, “Innovative Origins, Playersexuality, & Complex Inquisition: The Evolution of Relationship Mechanics in Dragon Age”, in Lindsay D. Grace, editor, Love and Electronic Affection: A Design Primer, page 183:

(video games, of an NPC) Attracted to the player character, especially without regard to gender, race, etc.


red flag in front of a bull

A metaphor for the muleta used by bullfighters.

That message always acted like a red flag to a bull and they charged in, determined to hog-tie him and put a wedding ring through his nose.

2007, Georgina Gentry, To Love a Texan, page 63:

Of course his complicated financial dealings must have been a direct provocation to the IRS, a red flag in front of a bull.

2008, John Calvert, Another Sort of Life:

To a committed individualist such as Norton, this was truly a case of “waving a red flag at a bull,” and although there was undeniably a certain amount of overblown and probably mock-offended rhetoric in her response, equally there is no doubt that many of the objections she raised were her sincerely held opinions

2012, Henrik Bogdan, Martin P. Starr, Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism:

Yes, his mocking stung, but he hadn't cowed her; he'd just waved a red flag in front of a bull.

red rag to a bull
red rag to a bull#English


light-spirited

light-spirited (comparative lighter-spirited or more light-spirited, superlative lightest-spirited or most light-spirited)

lighter-spirited (comparative)
more light-spirited (comparative)
lightest-spirited (superlative)
most light-spirited (superlative)

From light (“not weighed down”, adjective) + spirited (“having spirit”, adjective).


Eastalgia

Blend of East + nostalgia, a calque of German Ostalgie.


unterrifiedly

en-adv

unterrifiedly (comparative more unterrifiedly, superlative most unterrifiedly)

more unterrifiedly (comparative)
most unterrifiedly (superlative)

If both must be taken or rejected together, an alternative which we emphatically deny, what sincere and earnest thinker now, whose will is unterrifiedly consecrated to truth, can be expected to hesitate long?

1871, William Rounseville Alger, A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life, page 547:

For he who wants to be the right kind of preacher, and faithfully perform his duty, must retain and assert his liberty unterrifiedly to tell the truth, without respect of persons, and rebuking if necessary great and small, rich, poor, powerful, friend and foe.

1892, Martin Luther, Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, page 348:

He embraced unterrifiedly a foreign policy "which recognizes the principle of compromise and rejects the compromise of principle."

1969, Bert Cochran, Adlai Stevenson: Patrician Among the Politicians, page 155:


mad as a wet hen

My stars! He was mad; mad as a wet hen. He was so mad he looked, as big as he was, to be actually swelled.

1899, Ferdinand Eugene Daniel, “The Doctor Puts Up a Job on the Major”, in Recollections of a Rebel Surgeon:

(US, colloquial, simile) Very angry; furious.


domatophobia

For most of us the basic idea of security is having four walls, three meals a day and a bed to sleep on. For sufferers of domatophobia, these basic life necessities form the basis of their crippling phobia […]

2010, Christian Jessen, Can I Just Ask?, page 126:


in hysterics

Ryan had the place in hysterics by converting two spot kicks before the interval and he then produced the coup de grace with seven minutes left. The only sour note for Larne was the dismissal of Chris Gallagher, with 30 minutes left.

2024 August 29, Alex Mills, “Larne headed for Conference League group stages as Andy Ryan hat-trick secures historic Play-Off joy”, in Belfast Telegraph:

(informal) laughing or celebrating very hard and unable to stop.


bodice-ripping

en-adj

bodice-ripping (comparative more bodice-ripping, superlative most bodice-ripping)

more bodice-ripping (comparative)
most bodice-ripping (superlative)

There was, nearly always, ecstasy at the moment of entry. Jesus. What a cheap, bodice-ripping insult of a word.

1997, Joanna M. Glass, If We are Women, page 33:

If you're going to be selling workshops on how to write a winning romance novel to romance writers' groups, you know every would-be bodice-ripping author in five states.

2006, Entrepreneur Press, Start Your Own Seminar Production Business, page 48:

His realist twenty-first century marital rape pays literal homage to the bodice-ripping violence of popular historical romances: He backhanded her again, much harder, and threw her backwards across the bed.

2010, Gay Lynch, Apocryphal and Literary Influences on Galway Diasporic History:

Polselli seemed to have been deeply a›ected by the British Hammer vampire movies, for his two early productions are steeped in nice-looking atmospheric sets and cast with busty, bodice-ripping actresses.

2015, Louis Paul, Italian Horror Film Directors, page 304:


necrobestiality

But even if you weren't boycotting the film on the basis of its disgraceful necrobestiality theme, boycotting it on the basis of its vampires is reason enough.

2012, Charlie Brooker, I Can Make You Hate:

American participants intuitively judged a wide variety of enormously immoral acts (e.g., serial murder, consensual incest, necrobestiality, cannibalism) as representative of atheists, […]

2021, Elaine Howard Ecklund, David R. Johnson, Varieties of Atheism in Science, page 137:

Sexual activity involving a dead animal.


elegious

elegious (comparative more elegious, superlative most elegious)

more elegious (comparative)
most elegious (superlative)

If your elegious breath should hap to rouze / A happy tear, close harb'ring in his eye.

1634, Francis Quarles, “Canticles v. 8”, in Emblems, Divine and Moral, book 5:

(obsolete) Melancholy, miserable, plaintive.


put the frighteners on someone

en-verb

put the frighteners on someone (third-person singular simple present puts the frighteners on someone, present participle putting the frighteners on someone, simple past and past participle put the frighteners on someone)

puts the frighteners on someone (present singular third-person)
putting the frighteners on someone (participle present)
put the frighteners on someone (participle past)
put the frighteners on someone (past)

That scumbag still owes me five grand. Send Billy round to put the frighteners on him.

(slang) To intimidate or coerce someone using threats of violence.


anemoia

Coined by American author and neologist John Koenig in 2012, whose project, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, aims to come up with new words for emotions that currently lack words. Constructed from Ancient Greek ἄνεμος (ánemos, “wind”) + νόος (nóos, “mind”), with reference to anemosis, the warping of a tree by high wind "until it seems to bend backward."

coin

Yet, from reboots to genre revivals, nostalgia remains a powerful force in pop culture. So does an associated phenomenon, called anemoia, which is essentially nostalgia for a past you’ve never experienced. Nostalgia and anemoia have been Broadway’s bread and butter for decades.

2015 November 15, Robert Trussell, “Awash in nostalgia”, in The Kansas City Star, volume 136, number 59, Kansas City, Mo., page 12D:

Goetzman (who also records his own own^([sic]) original music under the alias Raspberries and Rum) brought up another idea as a possible explanation for his Toto-based virality: anemoia. That’s the concept of a person feeling nostalgic for something they never experienced.[…]What I can say is this little video and its embedded nostalgia — or anemoia — seems to be bringing a little happiness to people all over the world.

2018 May 17, Shane Nyman, “Local guy’s ‘Africa’ remix perfects nostalgia”, in The Post-Crescent, volume 99, number 118, Appleton, Wis., page 6A:

A White Christmas is the perfect example of anemoia, nostalgia for a time we never knew.

2018, Trevor Harley, The Psychology of Weather, Routledge, →ISBN, page 102:

The theme of that YouTube chat was the idea of anemoia, a niche form of nostalgia that prompts a yearning for a historical time and place that you have never actually experienced. Photographs can be perfect anemoia triggers, and this one works by layering retro longing from several different eras.

2024 January 14, Tim Adams, “The big picture: layers of nostalgia on London’s Oxford Street”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(neologism, uncommon) Nostalgia for a time or a place one has never known.


chamber of horrors

en-noun

chamber of horrors (plural chambers of horrors)

An exhibition which displays horrific items, such as instruments of torture, frightful crimes being committed, etc.

Any place in which horrific things take place or have taken place.


soulmark

“Unfortunately, it's not defective. Though most people's soulmarks only recognize one other soul, yours seems to recognize two.”

2011, Angela Corbett, Eternal Starling, unnumbered page:

The changes to Darcy's soulmark correspond with her soulmate's state of mind.

2017, Kinga Kowalska, “Embodied Soulmarks and Social Expectations: The Materialization of Romantic Love in Soulmate AU Fanfiction”, in Anna Malinowska, Michael Gratzke, editors, The Materiality of Love: Essays on Affection and Cultural Practice, unnumbered page:

In the fan fiction adaptation, Someone_aka_me uses the same lines to forge a connection between Alec and Magnus, both figuratively (putting both characters in the same scene and having them react to and impact each other) and literally (this particular piece of fan fiction introduces an alternative plotline in which Magnus’s words activate a soulbond between them, as they match a pre-existing soulmark imprinted on Alec’s skin).

2018, Malin Brus, "'I Don't Think We've Been Formally Introduced?": Re-contextualising a Literary Model for First Meetings through Adaptation Theory and Fan Fiction", dissertation submitted to the University of Gothenburg, page 21

(fandom slang) A mark on a character's body identifying their soulmate(s); the physical manifestation of a character's soulbond.


mageiricophobia

/mæˌd͡ʒaɪɹɪkəˈfoʊbiə/

From Ancient Greek μαγειρική (mageirikḗ, “culinary arts”) + -phobia (“morbid fear of”), equivalent to magirics + -phobia.

af

Our own feeling about thirteen, especially when joined with Friday, has added another to the long list of phobias; treiskaidekaphobia, or "fear of the number thirteen" (some of the other phobias are the well-known claustro-, acro-, and agora-, fear of being closed in, of heights, of open spaces, respectively; less known are ailurophobia, "fear of cats," iatrophobia, "fear of doctors," nucleomitotophobia,^([sic]) "fear of atomic bombs," mageiricophobia, "fear of having to cook," and, recalling FDR, phobophobia, "fear of fear itself.")

1965, Mario Pei, The Story of Language, page 254:

I was quite excited when I came across "mageiricophobia"—an intense fear of having to cook. Perhaps I wasn't just lazy after all—perhaps I had a phobia! It took no more than a half-minute of reasoning to shoot down that theory. My phobia, if there is one, is not fear but a series of lacks: lack of interest, of enthusiasm, of talent.

2001, Hazel Josephine Barton, "Could I Have a Few Words with You?", A Wise Choice of Words, p. 355

Ah, Thanksgiving Day is next week... So Mageiricophobia is ablaze again and I've determined its cause: The mental and physical strain of menu planning and the constant contact with place setting arrangements, pots and pans, slicing, dicing and stuffing turkeys, only to witness food evaporation in mere minutes with a bigger mess to clean up afterwards.

2007 November 17, “The Cure for 'Mageiricophobia'”, in Northwest Indiana Times:

Fear of cooking, a powerful fear of preparing food.


nucleomitophobia

Coined by psychiatrist Milton Arnold Dushkin in the early 1960s, from nucleo- (“atomic nucleus”) + mito- (“mitosis”) + -phobia (“fear of”), in reference to a supposed resemblance of atomic fission to cellular division.

Nikita Krushchev's war of nerves was plainly having an effect on the U.S. citizenry... There were the usual neurotics. In Chicago, public officials received a spate of calls from women complaining that their hair curlers were radioactive, from men suspicious of the olives in their martinis. (Chicago Psychiatrist Milton A. Dushkin named the ailment "nucleomitophobia"—fear of the atom).

1961 September 29, “The People: Ready to Act”, in Time:

A physician says the Nuclear Age has spawned a new phobia—nucleomitophobia, or fear of the atom. An article in Today's Health, a magazine published by the American Medical Assn., said public officials have received a rash of calls from persons who believe they are radioactive.

1961 November 19, Cedar Rapids Gazette, page 122:

When they are frantically expanding armament and making preparations for war, and they need to create war hysteria, they encourage man-made nucleomitophobia to spread rampantly, letting people know how radioactivity is already "threatening normal life in the United States." But when they want to sell their milk, they have to try "to find ways and means to set people's minds at ease regarding the question of radioactivity." Under the capitalist system, which is characterized by irresoluble contradictions, such jokes cannot be avoided.

1963 January, Michael Freeberne, translating an article in the 1 March 1962 Hongqi (《红旗》) in "Chinese Vignettes", Problems of Communism, Vol. XII, No. 1, p. 15

Bertie Rupp, who wanted to become a farmer in his youth, is entrapped by city life and achieves brief celebrity as the man who aestheticized continuous computer stationery. Disenchantment and nucleomitophobia (an exaggerated fear of atomic Armageddon) cause him to drop out.

1988, Brian Stableford, "American Book of the Dead", Fiction & Fantasy Book Review Annual

I SUFFER, I HASTEN TO SAY, FROM NUCLEOMITOPHOBIA, THE FEAR of atomic attack, and my quest for a cure has led me to grapple with the great debate on war and peace as it is being carried on in the United States.

1999, Arthur Herzog III, The War–Peace Establishment, page vii:

Fear of nuclear weapons is known as nucleomitophobia. The same term applies to fear of atomic energy... The fear is based on a feeling by individuals that they have no control over the fate of the world and that nuclear weapons can kill off all of human life and civilization. This fear is also related to a fear of death and a fear of apocalypse, or the end of the world.

2008, Ronald M. Doctor & al., The Encyclopedia of Phobias, Fears, and Anxieties, 3rd ed., s.v. "nuclear war and nuclear weapons"

Fear of nuclear radiation, now especially atomic bombs.


the knives are out

(informal, chiefly UK) People are angry.


have one's heart in one's boots

en-verb

have<has,,had> one's heart in one's boots

have one's heart in one's boots (third-person singular simple present has one's heart in one's boots, present participle having one's heart in one's boots, simple past and past participle had one's heart in one's boots)

has one's heart in one's boots (present singular third-person)
having one's heart in one's boots (participle present)
had one's heart in one's boots (participle past)
had one's heart in one's boots (past)

(informal) To feel very afraid; to be terrified or in dread.


Kylux

(Examples: how people feel about Reylo, how people perceive Kylux, etc.)

2016, "Dark Side of the Mind", quoted in Kimberly Leerkes, "Fandom As A Remixing Culture", thesis submitted to the University of Amsterdam, page 87

In May 2016, a month after TFA was available for legal download and purchase on DVD, Kylux was already the most popular pairing in the fandom with over two thousand stories; […]

2017 December, Cait Coker, Karen Viars, “Welcoming the Dark Side?: Exploring Whitelash and Actual Space Nazis in TFA Fanfiction”, in NANO: New American Notes Online, volume 12:

On the other hand, a handful of my Mutuals ship Kylux […]

2018, Indira J. C. Neill, "Tumblr as Platform Architecture, User Experience, and Interaction Artifacts", dissertation submitted to the University of Illinois at Chicago, page 102

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Kylo Ren and Armitage Hux from Star Wars.


Stormpilot

Stephanie didn't immediately latch onto Stormpilot after her first viewing of The Force Awakens, but now sees the developing relationship as playing on classic romantic beats.

2016 February, “Stormpilot: The Breakout Couple Of 2015”, in Colorblock Magazine, page 13:

The popularity of Stormpilot as a slash pairing is grounded in canonical signifiers, as Andrew Wheeler (2016) writes: […]

2017, Anastasia Salter, Bridget Blodgett, Toxic Geek Masculinity in Media: Sexism, Trolling, And Identity Politics, page 199:

The ambiguity act doesn't work as well for Boyega and Isaac, but The Rise of Skywalker appears to offer Stormpilot shippers (and you know who you are) no definitive reason to jump ship.

2019, André Hereford, “Forceful Finale”, in Metro Weekly, 16 December - 26 December 2019, page 39:

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Finn and Poe Dameron from Star Wars.


Bellarke

I ship Bellarke (Bellamy and Clarke from The 100) so hard.

2016, Kiara London, Kiss Cam, unnumbered page:

This was an especially touching scene because every fan wants Bellarke.

2018, Ainsley O'Quinn & Russ Upton, "New season of The 100 brings many changes", The Sentry (Jackson Preparatory School), May 2018, page 18

Two distinct communities coalesce around fans of Clexa and fans of Bellarke.

2019, Erin Kenny, “'Ship Wars' and the OTP: Narrating Desire, Literate Agency, and Emerging Sexualities in Fanfiction of The 100”, in Ingrid E. Castro, Jessica Clark, editors, Child and Youth Agency in Science Fiction: Travel, Technology, Time, page 195:

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Bellamy Blake and Clarke Griffin from The 100 novel series and its television adaptation.


Reylo

When Star Wars: The Force Awakens came out, the fandom found itself dividing across one really hard, bright line: the Reylos and the anti-Reylos.

2017 December 15, Ani Bundel, “More Than The Force Connects Kylo Ren & Rey In 'The Last Jedi' & It's Intense”, in Elite Daily:

And with the Reylos, rose the Anti-Reylos who argued that the ship was indicative of racism and perpetuated abusive relationship tropes.

2020, Victoria Song, "How Fandom Destroyed and Protected Me", Gizmodo Australia, 3 February 2021

She goes onto state that Reylos experienced harassment over the death of Kylo Ren, as well as inherently political harassment that included sexist and racist taunts.

2020, Alexandria P. Sutherland, "Star Wars, Parasocial Relationships and Breakups, and The Force...of Fandom", thesis submitted to the University of Tennessee, pages 29-30

(fandom slang) A shipper of Rey and Kylo Ren.


Clexa

This year, in the truly perfect hour of television that was 3.03, Clexa progressed from adversaries to unbreakable partners.

2016 March 9, Vidya Srinivasan, “Reshop, Heda”, in The Tufts Daily, Tufts University, page 6:

Many fan videos in the Clexa fandom put the emphasis on the relationship between the two characters, aggregating scenes from different episodes.

2018, Mélanie Bourdaa, “A Strong Social Bond: Discussion, Debates and Friendship”, in Paul Booth, editor, A Companion to Media Fandom and Fan Studies, page 394:

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Clarke Griffin and Lexa from the television series The 100.


Johnlocker

As much as I dislike shipping people in real life, CumberBrealey/Beneloo/Cumberloo are my OTP.
(Come at me, Johnlockers!)

2014, "Hades", "On Benedict Cumberbatch", The Nerdwriter, February 2014, page 9

Since the Johnlockers won't call out others within their own ship, I will.

2018, Daneel, quoted in Katie Wilson, "Red Pillers, Sad Puppies, and Gamergaters: The State of Male Privilege in Internet Fan Communities", in A Companion to Media Fandom and Fan Studies (ed. Paul Booth), page 434

As a microcosmos, TJLCers and Johnlockers demonstrate that queer viewers can weaponize consumer culture to challenge essentialist stereotypes that still restrict what is socially expected and encouraged of individuals based on their biological gender, sexual preference, and mental health status.

2018, Diana W. Anselmo, "Gender and Queer Fan Labor on Tumblr: The Cast of BBC's Sherlock", Feminist Media Studies, Volume 4, Number 1, Winter 2018, page 96

(fandom slang) A shipper of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson from the television series Sherlock.


Initialism from the names Janeway and Seven.

In that sense, Seven transcends femininity herself (and J/7 transcends lesbian slash) because feminine sentimentality is insufficient.

1998 February 11, Emily Salzfass, “Re: Pokes at Antnests”, in alt.startrek.creative (Usenet):

I've just started a new Web site (still under construction) for J/7 fanfic and have posted my new story "Sensations" on there.

1999 May 17, Tenderware, “New Janeway/Seven Site!”, in alt.startrek.creative (Usenet):

Tigermoth wrote some really hot, interesting J/7 stories, and I hope that she continues to do so, and perhaps branches out into some longer pieces!

2006 March 30, Rocky, “ASC AWARDS Comment Digest # 71 VOY Stories”, in alt.startrek.creative (Usenet):

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Kathryn Janeway and Seven of Nine from the television series Star Trek: Voyager.


Mystrade

The latter include Lestrade (as played by Graves) appreciation and fanfic sites [URLS redacted], a significant strand of (self-evidently, fanon/non-canon) ‘Mystrade’ slash activity, in which Lestrade is imagined to be in a romantic/sexual relationship, or even civil partnership, with Mycroft Holmes (played by Sherlock’s co-creator, Mark Gatiss) […]

2011 November, Claire Monk, “Heritage Film Audiences 2.0: Period Film Audiences and Online Fan Cultures”, in Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies, volume 7, number 2, page 474:

It seems natural in the context of fandom that Mystrade and Wincest are important generic categories, or that Kirk and Spock is an entirely different fictional animal from Kirk/Spock.

2013, Anne Jamison, Fic: Why Fanfiction Is Taking Over the World, page 361:

[…] whereas SailorChibi's Walking Together is labelled an 'AU' featuring 'Johnlock & mentions of Mystrade'.

2016, Maria Lindgren Leavenworth, “Paratextual Navigation as a Research Method: Fan Fiction Archives and Reader Instructions”, in Gabriele Griffin, editor, Research Methods for Reading Digital Data in the Digital Humanities, page 62:

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Mycroft Holmes and Greg Lestrade from the television series Sherlock.


TJLCer

Stalwart TJLCers were the only ones clever enough to have unearthed the plot and follow the trail of the imaginary breadcrumbs.

2017, Christopher Redmond, About Being a Sherlockian: 60 Essays Celebrating the Sherlock Holmes Community, page 171:

TJLCers still believe that outing Sherlock and John as a romantic couple on worldwide television can propel ideological shifts in national attitudes and global awareness, resulting in broader social equality for everyday queer people.

2018, Diana W. Anselmo, "Gender and Queer Fan Labor on Tumblr: The Case of BBC's Sherlock", Feminist Media Studies, Volume 4, Number 1, Winter 2018, page 92

Treating a gay relationship as a puzzle that must be pursued by the clever viewers and hidden from "casuals" until the narrative reveal at the eleventh hour seems antithetical to the idea of normalized representation that TJLCers claim as the main reason they want Johnlock to be canon, […]

2019, E. J. Nielsen, “The Gay Elephant Meta In The Room: Sherlock And The Johnlock Conspiracy”, in Joseph Brennan, editor, Queerbaiting and Fandom: Teasing Fans Through Homoerotic Possibilities, page 91:

(Sherlock fandom slang) A proponent of The Johnlock Conspiracy (TJLC).


TJLC

The queer utopianism infusing TJLC fanworks is shaped by a strand of collective fan labor often dismissed by mainstream sources as self-indulgent and overemotional: that of protest, in this case against toxic heteronormativity.

2018, Diana W. Anselmo, "Gender and Queer Fan Labor on Tumblr: The Case of BBC's Sherlock", Feminist Media Studies, Volume 4, Number 1, Winter 2018, page 93

These expectations became confronted with the decision on the side of the screenwriters that angered many fans supporting the TJLC theory.

2018, Małgorzata Lisowska-Magdziarz, “Authors, Owners, Influencers, Entitled Fans And Ultimate Fanboys: TJLC Controversy And The Politics Of Media Content Creation”, in Tadej Pirc, editor, Participation, Culture and Democracy: Perspectives on Public Engagement and Social Communication, page 85:

Where TJLC differs from traditional Sherlockian fandom and fannish scholarship is in its insistence on a single correct reading of the text: […]

2019, E. J. Nielsen, “The Gay Elephant Meta In The Room: Sherlock And The Johnlock Conspiracy”, in Joseph Brennan, editor, Queerbaiting and Fandom: Teasing Fans Through Homoerotic Possibilities, page 83:

(Sherlock fandom slang) The Johnlock Conspiracy; a theory prevalent in Sherlock fandom before series four, which interpreted the show as having a strong queer subtext, and held that the showrunners intended an eventual romance between Sherlock and John.


Adlock

Adlock fans cite the episode "A Scandal in Belgravia" as evidence of Sherlock Holmes' enduring love for "the Woman," Irene Adler.

2016, Jennifer Phillips, Katharina Freund, “Engaging with 'Herself': Fandom and Authorship in the Age of Tumblr”, in Valerie Estelle Frankel, editor, Adoring Outlander: Essays on Fandom, Genre and the Female Audience, page 36:

As you've probably gathered, I do not ship Johnlock. I can roll with pretty much any Sherlock ship, except that one and Adlock.

The ships most likely to be attacked are those which feature a male/female pairing such as Sherlolly, Adlock (Irene Adler/Sherlock), and Warstan (John Watson/Mary Morstan), […]

2019, E. J. Nielsen, “The Gay Elephant Meta In The Room: Sherlock And The Johnlock Conspiracy”, in Joseph Brennan, editor, Queerbaiting and Fandom: Teasing Fans Through Homoerotic Possibilities, pages 87–88:

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler from the television series Sherlock.


Clintasha

There’s a lot of hate from the Clintasha crowd. It was never my intention that they were an item.

2015, Joss Whedon, quoted in Noelene Clark, "‘Avengers’ director plunges into Black Widow controversy", Pocono Record, 9 May 2015

Another example would be "Clintasha," the fan-coupling of Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff, who make a complete turnaround from their relationship in the first Avengers.

2015, Addie Bass & Gina Appleby, "Avengers Age of Ultron: Is It Worthy?", The Little Hawk (Iowa City High School), 2 June 2015, page A15

YaelLouder: All of your Clintasha fic is kind of fluffy.

2019, Katherine Locke, “Some Days You're The Sidekick; Some Days You're The Superhero”, in Katherine Locke, Laura Silverman, editors, It's a Whole Spiel: Love, Latkes, and Other Jewish Stories, unnumbered page:

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Clint Barton (Hawkeye) and Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow) from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.


Thorki

This book is not a work of fan fiction, nor a book of spells. There are no runes for casting nor Thorki weddings to attend.

2015, Pepi Valderrama, Geek Anthropology of Loki's Army, page 7:

The images of Thorki […] represent a range of implied possibilities between the characters--from romantic longings to more explicit imagery.

2015, Matthew Alan Cicci, "Turning The Page: Fandoms, Multimodality, And The Transformation Of The 'Comic Book' Superhero", dissertation submitted to Wayne State University, page 91

Some fans of the couple of Thorki are from a Marvel fan circle, which also belongs to the Western culture fan circles; however, some Asian culture fans will also be interested due to the fact that Thorki reflected a seme-uke couple pattern of a muscular and straightforward seme and a tsundere cunning uke.

2019, Nishang Li, "'Rotten Culture': From Japan to China", thesis submitted to the University of Victoria, pages 51-52

(fandom slang) The incestuous ship of adoptive brothers Thor and Loki from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.


Stony

The "Stony" fandom takes the comic remediation ship or genderswap and removes it from its aesthetic relationship by placing it within a new remediated work.

2013 July, Poe Johnson, “Cultural Memory as Fandom Ideology in the Remediated World”, in The Phoenix Papers, volume 1, number 2, page 51:

It tugged at my heartstrings with Steve's memories, as well as giving me so many Stony feels.

2013 July, “Fandoms Assemble 2013 Fanfic Awards”, in Fandoms Assemble, page 21:

The largest ships in the MCU are “Stucky” (Steve Rogers AKA Captain America and Bucky Barnes AKA the Winter Soldier) and “Stony” (Steve Rogers and Tony Stark AKA Iron Man).

2016, Olivia Riley, "Queerness and Emotion in Fanfiction", thesis submitted to the University of Minnesota, page 10

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Steve Rogers (Captain America) and Tony Stark (Iron Man) from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.


Percabeth

Blend of Percy + Annabeth. In this case, "Percy" is short for Perseus.

Though Percabeth didn't spend much time in the spotlight in "The Blood of Olympus," what little I saw of their romance felt rather clichéd.

2014, Mei Baek, "'The Blood of Olympus'", tjTODAY (Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology), 16 October 2014, page 11

Finishing the book with much dissapointment for the lack of Percabeth in The Lost Hero, I waited patiently for the 2nd book.

2014, Areeba Amer, "The Fangirl Who Waited", The GHS Torch (Greenhill Junior Classical League), November 2014, page 3

I should upload something new. Or even one of my more decent older pieces. I have a whole bunch I've photographed and saved on my phone. All my ships, straight-up kissing: Inej and Nina, Percabeth, a few original characters.

2018, Becky Albertalli, Leah on the Offbeat, unnumbered page:

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase from the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles franchise.


Hinny

Below are two images of fan art which represents the Hinny ship.

2014, Zakia Jeewa, "Social Network Fandoms & Online Role-Playing: Harry Potter and The Vampire Diaries Fans on Twitter", thesis submitted to the University of KwaZulu-Natal, page 99

On the other hand, one of the ships I hate is Hinny, a.k.a. Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley.

2015 February 13, Rebecca Fartharly, “What are your favourite fictional ships?”, in inQuire, University of Kent, page 10:

And that's my not at all biased take on why Hinny are the perfect couple.

2017, Andrew, "Romance in HP: Hinny", HPReadathon, Issue 2, February 2017, page 2

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley of the Harry Potter series.


Merthur

The bromance between Merthur remains intact, and it was great to see Merlin get his own back by slapping the king.

2012, Jodie Tyley, “Merlin Series Five: Volume One”, in SciFiNow, number 74, page 73:

Thousands of Merlin/Arthur stories were uploaded to www.fanfiction.net, in addition to other fan sites dedicated to 'Merthur', as the pairing became known.

2015, Philippa Semper, “'Camelot must come before all else': Fantasy and Family in the BBC Merlin”, in Gail Ashton, editor, Medieval Afterlives in Contemporary Culture, page 123:

Given some viewers' objections to the presence of Gwen on Merlin, it is perhaps unsurprising that the most popular "ship" (fandom term for relationship) in the fandom is Merther—the undeniable connection between the young wizard and the monarch he serves so devotedly.

2019, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games, page 96:

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Merlin and Arthur Pendragon from the television series Merlin.


Wolfstar

From wolf + star: Remus Lupin is a werewolf; and Sirius Black is named after the dog star Sirius (Sirius Black is an animagus who turns into a dog).

Remus’ lycanthropy almost always features in Wolfstar fics precisely because it is his lycanthropy that brands his sexuality as disallowable.

2016, Jaquelin Elliott, “Becoming The Monster: Queer Monstrosity and the Reclamation of the Werewolf in Slash Fandom”, in Revenant, number 2, page 99:

The continued enthusiasm demonstrated here alludes to the power SBP has within HP fandom: as Emmie describes it, SBP is “the cornerstone of the Wolfstar fandom” (“Shoebox Project”).

2018, Kasandra Arthur, "We Are Having All Kinds of Fun: Fluidity in Shoebox Project", thesis submitted to the University of Waterloo, page 142

Silveredglass, a reader and writer who primarily ships Drarry and Remus Lupin/Sirius Black or 'Wolfstar', found Harry Potter fandom through Tumblr.

2018, Emily E. Roach, “Polyjuice and Potterheads: The Changing Face of Fandom from LiveJournal to Tumblr”, in Fan Phenomena: Harry Potter, unnumbered page:

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Remus Lupin and Sirius Black of the Harry Potter series.


Ichabbie

Much has been made of the sexual tension between "Ichabbie."

2014 October 2, Laura Prudom, “'Sleepy Hollow' Season 2: Tom Mison on 'Ichabbie,' Jealousy and the Battle with War”, in The Niles Bugle, page 23:

Many fan blog posts argued that writers of Sleepy Hollow betrayed its Ichabbie shippers through their refusal to fully consummate the relationship.

2017, Evan Jeremy Johnson, "But The Crowd Was Not Satisfied: Blackface Minstrelsy And Lynching As Fandoms Of The Remediated Black Body", thesis submitted to the University of Texas at Dallas, page 78

Fans who had enjoyed the dynamic of Abbie and Crane did not appreciate the re-introduction of Katrina, as she stifled their relationship in a number of ways, breaking up the Ichabbie dynamic for marital spats.

2020, Karen J. Tuthill-Jones, "Brains, Brawn, and Beguilement: Major Female Characters on FOX's Sleepy Hollow, in Cinematic Women, From Objecthood to Heroism: Essays on Female Gender (ed. Lisa V. Mazey), page 99

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Ichabod Crane and Abbie Mills from the television series Sleepy Hollow.


H/G

Maybe its just my H/G shipping ;) but I think it'll be Ginny and Harry at the end of the series.

2001 July 12, David, “Re: The Order Of The Phoenix”, in alt.fan.harry-potter (Usenet):

I still, however, *despise* the H/G pairing.

2002 April 28, Lady_Nyx, “Re: Ron and hermoine”, in alt.fan.harry-potter (Usenet):

So many H/G and R/Hr shippers were high-fiving each other last Saturday, it was quite fun.

2005 July 21, Frank Secada, “Viking Ginny? (spoilers)”, in alt.fan.harry-potter (Usenet):


Rumbelle

Many Rumbelle stories take place after Belle and Rumple have already undergone a terrible loss, using the hurt/comfort trope to show how they cope afterwards.

2014, Christa M. Baxter, "The Challenge of Happily Ever After: How Once Upon a Time Fanfic Fairy Tales Model Strategies for Ordinary Life Challenges", thesis submitted to Brigham Young University, page 19

We'd obviously be bummed to lose Giles Matthey as Rumbelle's adorably evil baby boy, but at least there's still some hope that the couple can get their baby back instead of missing out on his entire life.

2017, Lindsay Macdonald, "'Once Upon A Time': All Hope Is Not Lost For Gideon", TV Weekly (Magic Valley Times-News), 29 January - 4 February 2017, page 12

Fan websites indicate that the "Rumbelle" couple has become a fan-favorite specifically because viewers of the show relate to Rumple as an imperfect man and can identify with his rocky love relationship.

2019, Claudia Schwabe, Craving Supernatural Creatures: German Fairy-Tale Figures in American Pop Culture, unnumbered page:

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Rumpelstiltskin and Belle from the television series Once Upon a Time.


Olitz

In the latest episode, "Like Father, Like Daughter," Olitz reunites after months apart while she was in hiding with Jake.

2014 October 24, Chloe Gilke, “The trouble with Olivia and Fitz”, in The Michigan Daily, University of Michigan, page 5:

What has also been a long-standing narrative from the point of view of fans is how Scandal has been profoundly silent on the issue of race, particularly in the portrayal of Olitz.

2019, Kavyta Kay, “#Olitz”, in Simone Adams, Kimberly R. Moffitt, Ronald L. Jackson, editors, Gladiators in Suits: Race, Gender, and the Politics of Representation in Scandal, page 187:

Olitz subverts 'post-race', liberal society's expectation of mono-racial intimacy based on an understanding of reproductive heterosexuality (Zack, 1993).

2019, Shirley Anne Tate, Decolonising Sambo: Transculturation, Fungibility and Black and People of Colour Futurity, page 135:

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Olivia Pope and Fitzgerald "Fitz" Grant from the television series Scandal.


multishipper

From multi- + shipper or multiship + -er.

He describes himself as a multishipper and proudly reblogged a post calling him the Captain of the Ichabbie ship.

2014, Angela Fazekas, "Queer And Unusual Space: White Supremacy In Slash Fanfiction", thesis submitted to Queen's University, page 120

In between confessionals, the JunexNick fandom operates as most multishipper (fans who ship a variety of couples all at once) fan pages do on Tumblr; […]

2018 March, Kristen J. Warner, “JunexNick: The Quietest Ship in the Handmaid Fandom”, in Communication Culture & Critique, volume 11, number 1, pages 199–200:

Ruby advises any new fans to find the multishipper spaces within the fandom. “There you can ship whoever you want. You don’t have to be in shipper wars or anything like that.”

2019, Lauren Rouse, "The fan fiction reading guide: the use of multimedia and comments as close reading tools", thesis submitted to DePaul University, page 48

(fandom slang) A person who ships multiple pairings within the same fandom, especially ones featuring the same character.


R/Hr

Initialism from the names Ron and Hermione.

For what it's worth, the vast majority of the fandom picks up on R/Hr over H/Hr.

2003 September 30, Tim Behrendsen, “Re: My input on Ha/Hr”, in alt.fan.harry-potter (Usenet):

And what would Lavender have done to deserve this, aside from be an obstacle to R/Hr 'shippers?

2005 September 17, Louis Epstein, “Re: HBP Chapter 22 re-read”, in alt.fan.harry-potter (Usenet):

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger of the Harry Potter series.


H/H

Initialism from the names Harry and Hermione.

My daughter was finishing GOF & she was like, "Look! Here is the foreshadowing of the H/H relationship!"

2001 December 28, CrimsonRiver, “From GOF, a H/H relationship set up”, in alt.fan.harry-potter (Usenet):

Also I DON'T think like some H/H shippers that kiss on the cheek was a 'sign'.

2002 September 7, Tom, “Re: Poll: Ron with Hermione or Harry with Hermione?”, in alt.fan.harry-potter (Usenet):

IMO H/H have been built as being compatible over the series while R/Hr are shown as volatile.

2003 March 24, Meliss9900, “Re: Re: Hermione”, in alt.fan.harry-potter (Usenet):

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Harry Potter and Hermione Granger of the Harry Potter series.


R/H

Note that Sugarquill's philosophy is basically that Ron and Hermione belong together (although not all the stories are R/H), so if you happen to be a Harry/Hermione 'shipper' it won't quite fit your requirements.

2002 February 22, Pen, “Re: FanFics you liked”, in alt.fan.harry-potter (Usenet):

Jedi Boadicea is an R/H person, but that aspect doesn't take centre stage in her stories; she keeps in mind that the characters are still school-kids, so what little romance there is is^([sic]) always age-appropriate.

2002 November 13, Lisa Hicks, “Re: atmosphere or clue?”, in alt.fan.harry-potter (Usenet):

My only criteria is I'm an R/H shipper so any story that doesn't have that pairing doesn't interest me.

2005 April 20, mis...@mi.com, “Fanfiction Recommendatios”, in alt.fan.harry-potter (Usenet):


Snily

A classic example is Jily (James/Lily) vs. Snily (Snape/Lily), which even had its own debate at LeakyCon.

2013 October, “Why Victoria (@timelinenargles) Keeps Calm And Ships Jily”, in Fandoms Assemble, page 18:

"If Snily had been a thing, there would have been no Harry Potter."

2014, Alice Oseman, Solitaire, unnumbered page:

The acronym OTP (One True Pairing) is used by many fans to emphasize their favourite ships ('I ship Snarry, but Snily is my OTP').

2015, Amanda K. Allen, “Social Networking, Participatory Culture and the Fandom World of Harry Potter”, in Gail Ashton, editor, Medieval Afterlives in Contemporary Culture, page 279:

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Severus Snape and Lily Potter of the Harry Potter series.


Jily

For example, Rattlesnakeroot writes "I, for one, am glad to see "Lames" or "Jily" fall from grace and crash to pieces like the plaster saints they are. I'm so sick of the romantic picture of them that keeps permeating the various sites. *gag*" [11].

2014, Zoe Alderton, “'Snapewives' and 'Snapeism': A Fiction-Based Religion within the Harry Potter Fandom”, in Religions, volume 5, number 1, page 224:

Be prepared for some adorable Jily fluff towards the end haha.

2017, Meg, "Fanfic Recommendation", HPReadathon, October 2017, page 9

(fandom slang) The ship of characters James Potter and Lily Potter of the Harry Potter series.


a-spec

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From a- (from asexual and aromantic) + spec, a clipping of spectrum.

“Aspecs [those on the asexual spectrum]^([sic]) can have relationships with anyone. We’re not limited to being exclusively with other aspecs…. There always needs to be communication and establishing boundaries regardless of the relationship. […]” – M

2022 April 15, Timaree Schmit, “Reader question: Asexual dating”, in Philadelphia Weekly:

This is why events like the Indigenous Aces panel and articles by a-specs from marginalised backgrounds are so important within the larger conversation around a-spec issues.

2023, Eris Young, Ace Voices: What it Means to Be Asexual, Aromantic, Demi or Grey-Ace, London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, →ISBN, page 29:

A person on the asexual spectrum and/or aromantic spectrum.


Malfoycest

Unlike Weasleycest, which has spread across the fandom like kudzu, Malfoycest has always been more difficult to find, and its writers a bit more secretive.

2007, Catherine Tosenberger, "Potterotics: Harry Potter Fanfiction On The Internet", dissertation submitted to the University of Florida, page 151

The most popular pairing within Malfoycest is Lucius/Draco.

2010, Sigrid Sindhuber, "Slashing Harry Potter: The phenomenon of border-transgression in fan fiction", thesis submitted to the University of Vienna, page 93

Further, it is striking that with the exception of Malfoycest (Draco/Lucius, Draco/Narcissa, Draco/Scorpius) and the Pottercest pairings involving Harry and his future children (23 out of 62), the majority of incest stories take place between siblings (875 out of 1,065—82 percent).

2014, Vera Cuntz-Leng, “Twinship, incest, and twincest in the Harry Potter universe”, in Transformative Works and Cultures, volume 17:

(fandom slang) Any ship involving members of the Malfoy family from the Harry Potter series in an incestuous relationship.


Grindeldore

The day after the release of Deathly Hallows, the community Grindeldore appeared on Livejournal.com. Dedicated to "[f]anworks and discussion on Grindelwald/Dumbledore," the community became a locus for fanfiction, fan art, and fan essays ("meta") on the relationship.

2008, Catherine Tosenberger, "'Oh my God, the Fanfiction!': Dumbledore's Outing and the Online Harry Potter Fandom", Children's Literature Association Quarterly, Volume 33, Number 2, Summer 2008, page 201:

After all, it was immediately after the seventh book release at Prophecy, a fan convention in Toronto, that I first encountered the idea of a "Grindeldore" pairing.

2010, Joel Meredith, “Our Business: Why I'm Glad J. K. Rowling Outed Albus Dumbledore”, in Sharon K. Goetz, editor, Terminus: Collected Papers on Harry Potter, 7-11 August 2008, page 137:

The circle on the front poster of the calendar binds Grindeldore together.

2018 September, S. P. Sipal, “Did Dumbledore And Grindelwald Make An Unbreakable Vow As Teens?”, in The Rowling Library Magazine, number 21, page 24:

(fandom slang) The ship of characters Gellert Grindelwald and Albus Dumbledore of the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts franchises.