# I need a word! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 26, 2003, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-word/151013 "2003-01-26T07:35:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-word/151013/1 "2003-01-26T07:35:30Z")
For my story. I’m at the point where the guy and the girl (both 14) are at the school dance, and I need to complete this sentence. “As they stepped onto the floor, Alexandra recognized the opening notes of a song she’d always scorned as…” Now, of course, it’s the most romantic song she’s ever heard, because she’s dancing to it with this guy and “oh dear lord, he’s touching my hair…” Anyway, the missing word will be a short, sharp put-down of the song; I’m thinking “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys (that is them, right?): a very superficially romantic song. But I can’t come up with a suitable term. I know what I say about stuff I don’t like, but I don’t know what a 14-year-old girl would say. (Yes, there are 14-year-old girls who don’t like BSB, or anything in that genre. This particular girl prefers music in the Lilith Fair mode, and Phish (until she met this guy, she wanted to have Trey Anastasio’s children) and, as she’ll later confess to the SO, opera.) ---
**Author:** ![Baraqiyal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@Baraqiyal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baraqiyal)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-word/151013/2 "2003-01-26T07:43:59Z")
Banal ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-word/151013/3 "2003-01-26T07:57:42Z")
stupid? silly? fantasy? bubblegum? (haha…I almost posted this inadvertently to the Defenders of RUSH thread) ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-word/151013/4 "2003-01-26T08:06:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Corbomite \* > (haha…I almost posted this inadvertently to the Defenders of RUSH thread) \*\* {…while considering posting to either Rush thread…} _pretentious_ ---
**Author:** ![Achren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/898d66/32.png) [@Achren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achren)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-word/151013/5 "2003-01-26T08:10:42Z")
trivial ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-word/151013/6 "2003-01-26T08:14:05Z")
No, I need a more colloquial term. Like “sludge”. Sorry, I should have said. I’ll give an example. My mom was a teenager in the 1940s. She liked swing and jazz, and scorned the crooners of that era\*, who, according to her, had no more depth than the boy bands of today. At the time, she called that kind of music “soup”. So I want a similar put-down of the whole boy-band genre, updated for the 2Ks. \*Except for Sinatra and Crosby. But they were both a cut above. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-word/151013/7 "2003-01-26T08:37:05Z")
You want a colloquial word that, a circa-today 14 year old girl would have scorned circa-today boy-band music with? Golly, “sludge” is such a, you know, square word. downer repulsive geeky nerdish faggy eminem virtuous hammy repulsive phony nauseating wack … cat’s pajama’s… ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-word/151013/8 "2003-01-26T08:41:22Z")
The word you’re looking for, dear Rilchiam, is “tripe”. ---
**Author:** ![BraheSilver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@BraheSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BraheSilver)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-word/151013/9 "2003-01-26T08:41:58Z")
“Corny” seems to be the word I’d use. But I’m neither 14 nor female, so perhaps the terminology has changed. Then again, “scorned as corny” sounds a little odd. “Sacharinne”? ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-word/151013/10 "2003-01-26T08:51:33Z")
“Tripe” sounds good. **Corbomite** : “Sludge” is just the word **I** would use, not my character. [sub]I actually did think of having her call the genre “gay”, but that’s a can of worms I’m not about to open. Also let it be known that I don’t use that word as an insult.[/sub] I do, however, like the term “soup”, as in soupy lyrics. I remember the first time I heard my mom say it. We were in the car, and my dad found an AM station that played swoon-and-croon music. Shrieked my mom, “Turn that soup off! I didn’t even like it when it was ‘in’!” ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-word/151013/11 "2003-01-26T08:58:25Z")
**Rilchiam** - That line was my attempt at using as many slang/colloquial words in one sentence. I learned the word “Golly” from the cartoon strip “Dondi”. I’ve never heard soup or sludge used as adjectives. I reckon the word you decide on might find it’s way into the title of your story (and the word be used in earlier chapters). But like, you know, wotever.😉 ---
**Author:** ![Lilly\_Putt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Lilly\_Putt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lilly_Putt)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-word/151013/12 "2003-01-26T09:26:08Z")
Fluff. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-word/151013/13 "2003-01-26T10:30:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Corbomite \* > \*\ ***Rilchiam** - That line was my attempt at using as many slang/colloquial words in one sentence. I learned the word “Golly” from the cartoon strip “Dondi”. I’ve never heard soup or sludge used as adjectives. > > I reckon the word you decide on might find it’s way into the title of your story (and the word be used in earlier chapters). > > But like, you know, wotever.😉 \*\* Marvy. Fab. Far out. :::gives peace sign::: ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-word/151013/14 "2003-01-26T10:32:01Z")
Oh, and “soup” and “sludge” are descriptive nouns. Not the same usage, but there was a Peanuts strip where Lucy dropped her chocolate cookie into Linus’ milk, causing his hair to stand on end and him to shriek, “I can’t drink this…IT’S SLUDGE!” ---
**Author:** ![raygirvan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@raygirvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raygirvan)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-word/151013/15 "2003-01-26T12:04:19Z")
Schlock? ---
**Author:** ![BuckleberryFerry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5f9b8f/32.png) [@BuckleberryFerry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BuckleberryFerry)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-word/151013/16 "2003-01-26T12:59:15Z")
I’d stick with fluff, maybe try bubblegum pop, as has been mentioned. When I was a fourteen yr old girl who hated the BSB, I basically just screamed until someone changed it, but it soon formed words and became fluff… ~Ferry ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-word/151013/17 "2003-01-26T13:08:33Z")
saccharine ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-word/151013/18 "2003-01-26T13:10:04Z")
Vapid. Insipid. Jejune. Podkayne. Heinlen. ---
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-word/151013/19 "2003-01-26T16:22:17Z")
sappy ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-word/151013/20 "2003-01-26T16:42:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Desmostylus \* > \*\*Vapid. Insipid. Jejune. Podkayne. Heinlen. \*\* Do I hear someone putting down two of my favorite SF writers? :eek: Introduce your oral cavity to saponified fat, my friend!! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-word/151013.md?page=2)