# We should have a word/term for. . . **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 12, 2017, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-should-have-a-word-term-for/776973 "2017-01-12T17:48:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-should-have-a-word-term-for/776973/1 "2017-01-12T17:48:18Z")
. . . agreeing to attend a future event and having deep regret you have to do it when the event day arrives.\* \*Sure I’ll come to your full-day workshop, planned for three months from now. I’d love to spend a whole Saturday attending an “Empowering the Clitoris Through Post-modern Poetry, with a Three-Hour Sharing Break Out Session at the End of the Day” workshop. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-should-have-a-word-term-for/776973/2 "2017-01-12T17:50:03Z")
And maybe we can avoid dredging up Rich Hall sniglets . . . ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-should-have-a-word-term-for/776973/3 "2017-01-12T17:55:31Z")
Some more figurative variant of buyer’s remorse? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-should-have-a-word-term-for/776973/4 "2017-01-12T19:47:05Z")
That sounds like a pretty good Saturday, actually. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-should-have-a-word-term-for/776973/5 "2017-01-12T23:12:55Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Some more figurative variant of buyer’s remorse? Maybe “retrogret” ? ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-should-have-a-word-term-for/776973/6 "2017-01-12T23:15:33Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > That sounds like a pretty good Saturday, actually. If you enjoy poetesses writing awful stuff about The Mother Spirit and The Womb, this event is gold! ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-should-have-a-word-term-for/776973/7 "2017-01-13T00:11:17Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > Maybe “retrogret” ? I think you’re on to something here! Two weeks before? Sounds great! The night before? Ohgodwhatwasithinking?! ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-should-have-a-word-term-for/776973/8 "2017-01-13T00:15:22Z")
I think it’s analogous to the universal truth about the healing effect of the passage of time against past horrible events. For future horrors, a large amount of time provides a kind of reality-defying insulation. Maybe it could be called “temporal dissonance”. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-should-have-a-word-term-for/776973/9 "2017-01-13T00:15:46Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > I think you’re on to something here! > > Two weeks before? Sounds great! > > The night before? Ohgodwhatwasithinking?! Yeah, I always forget that I hate people 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-should-have-a-word-term-for/776973/10 "2017-01-13T00:17:00Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > I think it’s analogous to the universal truth about the healing effect of the passage of time against past horrible events. For future horrors, a large amount of time provides a kind of reality-defying insulation. Maybe it could > be called “temporal dissonance”. Ha! This is good! ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-should-have-a-word-term-for/776973/11 "2017-01-13T00:37:46Z")
I’m not following your meaning. When you originally agreed, did this actually sound like a good idea? Or was it simply that you are so conflict avoidant that even though the initial idea was horrifying, you couldn’t make your mouth say anything but “Yes”? Or maybe some third thing where you didn’t even stop to think about whether it was a good or bad idea before blurting out “Yes”? Each of these are different problems with different names for the defective thought process that got you here. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-should-have-a-word-term-for/776973/12 "2017-01-13T06:22:24Z")
```php ``` > [@Jennshark](#): > > If you enjoy poetesses writing awful stuff about The Mother Spirit and The Womb, this event is gold! Hummm. No chance of gettin’ laid, then I guess? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-should-have-a-word-term-for/776973/13 "2017-01-13T09:51:01Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > Maybe “retrogret” ? Or “pregret” ? ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-should-have-a-word-term-for/776973/14 "2017-01-13T13:13:33Z")
> [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](#): > > Or “pregret” ? No, that would be when you know you have to accept an invitation so as not to cause irretrievable offence (e.g., your least favourite cousin’s wedding), but you do so with a sinking heart. Is there a word for the surprised relief you might feel when such an event turns out to be actually quite good fun? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-should-have-a-word-term-for/776973/15 "2017-01-13T13:28:18Z")
I hate when I explain that I’m pretty sure I have plans for that day, then I’m told that the actual date wasn’t specified. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-should-have-a-word-term-for/776973/16 "2017-01-13T15:56:29Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Hummm. No chance of gettin’ laid, then I guess? > > 😃 Depends. Are you a woman? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-should-have-a-word-term-for/776973/17 "2017-01-13T16:04:28Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > . . . Maybe it could be called “temporal dissonance”. Or “temporal insulation”. I think there should be a word or quick phrase for mispronouncing a word because you’ve only ever seen it written. Perhaps it could be a word commonly mispronounced in that way. (A sub-tile mispronunciation?) I’m thinking of the way eggcorn became the word for a certain kind of mondegreen. Although the difference between eggcorn and mondegreen may be suttle or absent. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-should-have-a-word-term-for/776973/18 "2017-01-13T16:45:24Z")
How about “whatthehellwasIthinkingitis”? ---
**Author:** ![igor\_frankensteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/839c29/32.png) [@igor\_frankensteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/igor_frankensteen)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-should-have-a-word-term-for/776973/19 "2017-01-14T00:42:27Z")
I like a lot of the thinking on this. I’m looking for a more…existential concept to be built into the word. Because I finally realized some little while back, that the me who is here right this moment, is NOT the same person who inhabited this space last month, or even earlier this morning. And the person of YESTERDAY, should NOT have the right to promise what THIS person is going to do with their time. If that jerk who was claiming to be me in the past, really wanted to attend this insane function, let him get a time machine and do his own follow through. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-should-have-a-word-term-for/776973/20 "2017-01-14T01:47:35Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > ```php > > ``` > > Hummm. No chance of gettin’ laid, then I guess? > > 😃 Perhaps if you were to wear a diaphonous gown, African-print scarf, and Birkenstocks you would stand a chance . . . :D:D [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-should-have-a-word-term-for/776973.md?page=2)