Talk:gnashy
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The following discussion has been moved from Wiktionary:Requests for verification (permalink).
This discussion is no longer live and is left here as an archive. Please do not modify this conversation, but feel free to discuss its conclusions.
"(informal) Unpleasant; tedious. explain and word all that gnashy science into flowery bower chat." That strange citation isn't sourced, but seems to be from a cyberpunk novel (Rucker's Live Robots?) with creative use of language: almost the same paragraph talks about "dreak gas" causing "telepathic synchroswim vision". So I'd like to see some 'normal' cites for this. Equinox ◑ 23:01, 15 May 2017 (UTC)
- Kiwima just added a couple, but I think they're the wrong sense. Kerouac (1965) calls King Lear a "gnashy old flap": that suggests a mouth moving, talking nonsense; hence sense 1, "typical of gnashing the teeth". Same probably goes for Bowden (2011): "the whole city has turned gnashy", talking about a zombie video game: the risk is that zombies will bite. Equinox ◑ 23:51, 15 May 2017 (UTC)
- Perhaps. Personally, I think the Kerouac quote is calling Lear tedious, but the zombie quote is admittedly pretty iffy. I added two more quotes. What is your opinion of them? Kiwima (talk) 00:08, 16 May 2017 (UTC)
- Re Lear, can't "flap" only refer to moving lips? Or do you think it's saying he is an empty flap/husk of skin or something? Re the other cites: 1994: "gnashy treasure items": I have no idea! This suggests there is some additional sense but it isn't necessarily this one. Would treasure items be tedious and unpleasant? Could it even be a one-off rare error for flashy? etc. Re 2002: "[grille of speaker] has some gnashy areas": sounds like physical damage; going with the teeth, maybe it looks frayed or gnawed (chomp chomp!); but again not clear. Thanks for digging all this stuff up. Equinox ◑ 00:13, 16 May 2017 (UTC)
- Re "gnashy treasure": "decide _wear_ the big, gnashy treasure items of your world are" (emhpasis added) suggests it's a misspelling / thinko for "flashy" or another word. I agree the zombie one is invoking gnashing zombie teeth, like "the whole city has turned bitey". - -sche (discuss) 18:59, 16 May 2017 (UTC)
- Re Lear, can't "flap" only refer to moving lips? Or do you think it's saying he is an empty flap/husk of skin or something? Re the other cites: 1994: "gnashy treasure items": I have no idea! This suggests there is some additional sense but it isn't necessarily this one. Would treasure items be tedious and unpleasant? Could it even be a one-off rare error for flashy? etc. Re 2002: "[grille of speaker] has some gnashy areas": sounds like physical damage; going with the teeth, maybe it looks frayed or gnawed (chomp chomp!); but again not clear. Thanks for digging all this stuff up. Equinox ◑ 00:13, 16 May 2017 (UTC)
- If you read the thread, the "gnashy treasure items" are items with so little value that they are hardly worth the effort. Perhaps tedious and unpleasant is overspecific - but then, for these quotes, so is the reference to gnashing teeth! It seems to be getting at a general "undesirable" sense. Kiwima (talk) 19:00, 16 May 2017 (UTC)
RFV-resolved Kiwima (talk) 01:01, 6 June 2017 (UTC)