Stendahl’s Syndrome & Wordschmerz

“Stendahl’s Syndrome” refers to the symptoms of dizziness, racing heart, and rapture brought about by an encounter with great art. Isn’t that a cool term?

While looking at various definitions of Stendahl’s Syndrome, I came upon this list of popular new words, most of which filled me with a sense of rage and grief that I will call “wordschmerz.” (I’m too lazy to find out the German word for “word.”)

I am particularly sickened by fauxhawk, lifestreaming, and defictionalization. I do like post-gay, however. But not as much as post post-gay.

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4 Responses to Stendahl’s Syndrome & Wordschmerz

  1. Suebob says:

    At work, “drill down” (as in get to finer levels of data) led to the inevitable “drill up.” And then if we break programs into groups, they are “carved out.” So (are you with me here) programs that are left in their natural groupings are “carved IN.”

    Shoot me now.

  2. Sister Wolf says:

    We over here call that “fucked up.” You need to be incentivized to make up some horrible buzz word and see if you can get the co-workers to adopt it. Try it!

  3. Honeypants says:

    I am so thrilled to discover there’s a term for that feeling! Sometimes I’ll feel that way about art, but nothing causes it so profoundly as certain music. It’s almost paralyzing. Seriously. It is that very feeling that has put me in so much debt charging spontaneous trips to LA or Austin or Athens over the years to see certain bands. Now that we know there’s a term, who can I sue? And then I’ll be able to afford those Special Docs, which definitely cause me to suffer an outbreak of Stendahl’s Syndrome!!!

  4. Alina says:

    the german word for word is “wort”, best regards from germany, your blog makes my time at work run a lot faster every day;)

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