Re: Neologism may get confusing sometimes...

Fior Avant wrote:
>Far from trying to tell what is ´good´ or ´bad´ style; here is my point:
>
>Yesterday, in my sister´s birthday party, she was given a present and
>commented that the present was from a friend´s shop, and whom she liked a
>lot. A new shop, and named ´Stylish´.
>Okay then. Don´t know why I said ´stylish´ had ( or maybe could take ) a
>bad sense... but I did.  I used the word ´derogatory´, unfortunately!!
>After a short discussion my sister left. Shortly, she came back with
>another friend, this time a teacher :-). I kept my former statement, but
>tryed to take back the ´derogatory´ this time. The discussion didn´t last.
>
>The real point is: when we want to say something has a got style, we say it
>has got style/ a lot of style/ is fashionable. To me ( and then I say again
>) ´stylish´, may also be like ´girlish´, ´greenish´ rather than
>´fashionable´; though the first meaning of the word really is ´as having
>style´.
>So ´stylish´ means what the shop owner wanted to pass to the customers. Any
>dictionary can tell that.  Maybe because "stylly" doen´t exist or isn´t
>used because sounds strange.
>But what I want to know is: Was I wrong or ´stylish´ can really take to a
>meaning of something tendentious?
>
>I think that´s why I said that... We say ´greenish´ when something has a
>green ´caracter´ but isn´t totally green. At that moment ´stylish´ hit me
>as something less-than-fashionable.
>
>So my question is: Am I wrong, unformtunate in my saying, and ´stylish´ can
>possibly only mean fashionable? Or may it be used to diminish someting
>involved in trend as well?
I'm an unnative speaker, but it might interest you that I use "stylish" as a
synonyme for "fashionable", primarily in slightly ironic tone.

It's a bit like "nationalism", "patriotism" and "chauvinism" - they all mean
much the same thing, but they signal different attitudes of the speaker
towards the phenomenon. So, for me, "fashionable" is fairly neutral or
slighly appreciating, whereas "stylish" signify ironic distance or a
condescending attitude. Naturally, I use "stylish" rather more often than
"fashionable" ...

It's also a question of register - the more formal I'm being that higher the
chance that I use "fashionable" rather than "stylish".

                                                Andreas

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