For me, the word “fun” implies the experience you had/have during an actual physical activity.
For instance, as a kid it might have been “fun” to ride your bike down that really big road, really fast!
As an adult, maybe you had “fun” at a party where you laughed a lot, met interesting people and talked about interesting things and maybe tried some great food and drinks.
Some people have “fun” doing other things: rock climbing, hang gliding, playing their guitar, or playing with their kids, or even the more cerebral act of just doing a crossword puzzle quietly on a Sunday morning.
Is having sex fun? When asked, I think most would raise their hands and agree that is “fun”.
Those are all “fun” things you actually do.
But on TV shows, I will hear someone say the fall clothing line has “fun” colors.
Or someone will comment that a living room has “fun” curtains.
Red and green grapes on a salad make it “fun”.
No - those examples might be colorful, or they might be aesthetically pleasing, or they might be unique or clever - but fun?
Maybe I have too narrow of a definition of “fun” (and I can hardly wait until someone says I am no fun for asking this question), but how do you define/use the word “fun”?
Does “fun” refer only to physical activity - having done something, or doing something that feels good and is/was a good experience?
Or is that lime green sweater hanging on the rack in Macy’s “fun” too?
BTW: Bonus points for anyone who comes up with an antonym for “fun”, other than “un-fun”.
I can have fun, someone can be fun (to be around), a video game could be described as fun (to play).
I don’t know that I would ever call curtains, sweaters, furniture, or food as fun.
Although jalapeno jelly beans can be fun, to share, with the unsuspecting.
I would describe some colors as fun, but if pressed to explain why, I’d come up with nothing.
I do have a collection of what I call fun shirts, but because I wear them when I go out to have fun, as opposed to what I wear to work. And one could say that they have fun designs. But the place where I have the most fun is the beach, but I would never wear one of my fun shirts there. That’s what t-shirts are for.
For me, fun has a bit of a different meaning. It is invocative of the child-like experiences. Yes, I can have fun at a party, but it’s from interacting with and getting to meet new people, it’s the excitement, the unusual and stimulating experience, and the joys that go with it.
To give a sort of counter-example, I’m a musician and I love listening to it, playing, composing it, but it’s not necessarily fun. To try to come up with well known examples, someone like Weird Al composes fun music, it specifically gives that sort of child-like sense of wonder and joy and laughter, but someone like Johnny Cash… not so much. Both are enjoyable experiences, but completely different types of experiences.
In the same way, I could see non-activities being fun if they’re intended to envoke that sort of reaction. That is, a sweater can be fun, like those wacky holiday ones with silly designs, lights, and bells are fun, the sort of thing that would make someone smirk or spark their imagination when they see it. But a simple limegreen sweater, by virtue of having bright colors alone, not so much.
Agreed. The opposite of fun may be boring, but the opposite of boring is not necessarily fun. I have many enjoyable experiences which I wouldn’t call fun. Most books aren’t fun, but they are enjoyable nevertheless. I like fun but I wouldn’t want fun activities to dominate my leisure time; they are the dessert to the meal.
They mean that the something is evocative of fun experiences. It’s a metaphor really, don’t take things so literally. A wine might be described as “playful”, that doesn’t mean you can go and shoot some hoops with it.
Fascinating point! I would never have figured it out on my own, but, now that you say it, I agree completely. There is a simplicity, even a naivete, to fun. When our pleasures become sophisticated – most reading, for instance – it is still enjoyable, but it isn’t “fun” in your sense. But, reading “Sonic the Hedgehog” comic books – that’s fun!
Standing in line for two hours is miserable… But ninety seconds on a roller coaster? Pure fun!
