Stupid adjectives anyway

[mrissa]

I'm not winsome, am I? I got called winsome today, and Mark assured me I'm not, but timprov thinks I might be. You know who's winsome, is people in Louisa May Alcott books. Not even the good ones, either; the ones like Rose and for heaven's sake Amy.

But Timprov says I must be, because people sometimes like me right off the bat.

Then again, the person who applied this adjective to me used one of those complimentary-but-not-really adjectives on porphyrin, or at least on her butt, so maybe I just shouldn't worry about it.

Comments

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

Amy's not "winsome," IMNSHO - winning, as she becomes older and more polished, but she's never frail enough for me to classify her as winsome. Her daughter, on the other hand. . .

(And no, I don't see you as winsome either. Winsome is bunnies and Snow White and tykes who sing endearingly not-quite-on-key.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The person in question did not seem to find me off-key-tyke-like, thankfully. Or perhaps not thankfully.

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

From the Old English wynn, meaning joy. I always took it to mean a joy to look at/be around. Though there's some connotation of tavern wenches in there that doesn't quite apply to you. And yet the current denotation suggests naivete. You seem too thoughtful and incisive to be considered naive.

Bah, yes, a bad word all the way around, but perhaps this person is thinking of comparisons (though comparisons are odious), and comparing you to, say, other women who can probably do math. (I assume you can, because of the physics thing. My dear friend Stephanie has had to contend with a certain amount of winsome-accusation, though maybe not that precise word, because she's a woman who does math, perhaps the only woman in her subfield, though I'd have to double-check. She credits it all to the daily bathing which many of the men in her subfield (and her field in general) ignore.)

I agree with Peg. Amy was way too self-centered to be winsome. However, Anne of Green Gables might have been winsome. If not her, then Diana Barry. Depending on which connotation you're going with.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Snrk. I actually do have a wench suit for Ren Fest, so that's probably the part I'd discount least.

I can, in fact, do math. And bathe. Sometimes simultaneously.

Diana, for heaven's sake. Oh dear oh dear oh dear dear dear.

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

Well, I said Anne first, remember. :) Diana's mental acuity aside, she was a pleasant person to be around. And no one said you were winsome and that was it. Or, if they did, we'll come pound on him/her.

Winsome

[toolittletime.livejournal.com]

I don't know you well enough (as in only from your journals) to be certain, but I think it could apply. The M-W online dictionary ( http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=winsome ) definition #1 would seem to apply favorably: "1 : generally pleasing and engaging often because of a childlike charm and innocence" Or maybe the person who made the comment is nearly as fossilized as I.

Re: Winsome

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The person who said it is not enough older than me to get to pull that "childlike" stuff, I guarantee.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I don't think of it as a "current" term; so I wouldn't apply it to *anybody* myself.

But it's not, in my head, a blatantly ridiculous term to apply to you, if one *is* going to apply it to somebody today. It fits your physical appearance moderately well, but not your personality, for me. But the word, as I understand it in my head, is more about physical appearances than what people are actually like.

I haven't looked up what various dictionaries say the term means; it will be interesting to see if the meanings in my head have anything to do with the official meanings!

[pameladean]

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I agree with David. I was going to say, you are not winsome in yourself -- very very far from it, it's much too light for the bore of the matter -- but you are very capable of looking that way if you like, and possibly if you don't like.

Pamela

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I am going to the closet immediately to remove anything that might be described as a flowered frock.

[(Anonymous)]

If it makes you feel any better M'ris, I don't think of you as winsome and I don't think it describes you well. About the only time that I've seen anything from you that could realistically be described as winsome is the picture on your webpage, so if that is the only place someone has seen you, maybe. Your body language definitely says otherwise. :)

Come to think of it, though, if a person is not a ScanAm, as you like to call them, they could misinterpret your body language and see you as winsome. Personality-wise, definitely not. Speaking of which, did we ever figure out which one in the group of three with you, me, and Jen you would be? :) Definitely not the winsome one.

Heathah

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Jen was The Sweet One, so if anybody has to be winsome, it's her.