Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

You asked

Letter writers push the columnist into Einstein territory

Dear Hipster,

There IS a word for being into something before it was cool. It’s precoolcious. I know because I am.

Sponsored
Sponsored

— Cherry, La Mesa

The word Stephen in Hillcrest is looking for to describe something that is now cool is “datdun” as in: “Hipsters are cool but datdun.” In creole-speak it means, “That’s already been acknowledged, so what else you got?”

— Patrick

You asked...there is. It’s called a predipref. It describes predictive preferences.

— Lee’s iPhone

All good suggestions from readers responding to the quest for a single word that describes “being into something before it was cool.”

With a name like “Cherry,” I’m inclined to agree with our precoolcious responder, because I’m pretty sure she’s rocking a wolf shirt and some deck Ray-Bans in her Instagram profile selfie. Charles emailed me to suggest “pretrending,” which is pretty good and in the vein of “preliking.” Problem is, Urban Dictionary already has “pretrending” to mean “pretending to like something just because it’s trendy,” which is what n00b hipsters do before they earn advanced degrees in liking things before they are cool and being over current trends. Steven K. suggests “forepredilectitation,” which sounds like how a magician disappears a rabbit. He writes, “‘Predilection’ means to have a partiality or preference for something. So to make this word a verb meaning ‘to manifest a partiality or preference for something’ would be to drop the ‘on’ at the end of the word, and tack on ‘tate’; thus: predilectitate. Then show that we are manifesting this partiality before some point in time, add the prefix ‘fore’; thus the verb ‘forepredilectitate.’ Finally, to arrive at the noun, add the suffix ‘tion.’”

The phrase “predictive preference” could have erupted from some sociology grad student’s thesis. I can see the following innocently pitched into the text somewhere: “modern hipsters showed a predictive preference for depicting their latte art via social media websites such as the Instagram well before the Selfie Craze of 2012.” It may well be an accurate term, but it’s decidedly unpoetic.

Patrick’s “datdun” intrigues me, mostly because I can’t find it anywhere on the internet and I love obscure anything, obvi. To my ears, it sounds more appropriate as a one-word synonym for “I’m over it,” which I didn’t ask for but nonetheless appreciate receiving. Being over things is hipster occupation #2, right after liking those same things before they were cool. Scientists ought to study the instantaneous transition from preliking to datdun in hipster consciousness. It just might solve that pesky “time problem” the physicists are always grouching over.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Raging Cider & Mead celebrates nine years

Company wants to bring America back to its apple-tree roots
Next Article

Live Five: Sitting On Stacy, Matte Blvck, Think X, Hendrix Celebration, Coriander

Alt-ska, dark electro-pop, tributes, and coastal rock in Solana Beach, Little Italy, Pacific Beach

Dear Hipster,

There IS a word for being into something before it was cool. It’s precoolcious. I know because I am.

Sponsored
Sponsored

— Cherry, La Mesa

The word Stephen in Hillcrest is looking for to describe something that is now cool is “datdun” as in: “Hipsters are cool but datdun.” In creole-speak it means, “That’s already been acknowledged, so what else you got?”

— Patrick

You asked...there is. It’s called a predipref. It describes predictive preferences.

— Lee’s iPhone

All good suggestions from readers responding to the quest for a single word that describes “being into something before it was cool.”

With a name like “Cherry,” I’m inclined to agree with our precoolcious responder, because I’m pretty sure she’s rocking a wolf shirt and some deck Ray-Bans in her Instagram profile selfie. Charles emailed me to suggest “pretrending,” which is pretty good and in the vein of “preliking.” Problem is, Urban Dictionary already has “pretrending” to mean “pretending to like something just because it’s trendy,” which is what n00b hipsters do before they earn advanced degrees in liking things before they are cool and being over current trends. Steven K. suggests “forepredilectitation,” which sounds like how a magician disappears a rabbit. He writes, “‘Predilection’ means to have a partiality or preference for something. So to make this word a verb meaning ‘to manifest a partiality or preference for something’ would be to drop the ‘on’ at the end of the word, and tack on ‘tate’; thus: predilectitate. Then show that we are manifesting this partiality before some point in time, add the prefix ‘fore’; thus the verb ‘forepredilectitate.’ Finally, to arrive at the noun, add the suffix ‘tion.’”

The phrase “predictive preference” could have erupted from some sociology grad student’s thesis. I can see the following innocently pitched into the text somewhere: “modern hipsters showed a predictive preference for depicting their latte art via social media websites such as the Instagram well before the Selfie Craze of 2012.” It may well be an accurate term, but it’s decidedly unpoetic.

Patrick’s “datdun” intrigues me, mostly because I can’t find it anywhere on the internet and I love obscure anything, obvi. To my ears, it sounds more appropriate as a one-word synonym for “I’m over it,” which I didn’t ask for but nonetheless appreciate receiving. Being over things is hipster occupation #2, right after liking those same things before they were cool. Scientists ought to study the instantaneous transition from preliking to datdun in hipster consciousness. It just might solve that pesky “time problem” the physicists are always grouching over.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Poway’s schools, faced with money squeeze, fined for voter mailing

$105 million bond required payback of nearly 10 times that amount
Next Article

Gonzo Report: Downtown thrift shop offers three bands in one show

Come nightfall, Humble Heart hosts The Beat
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader