Sunday, June 24, 2007

Pariah

  • outcast: a person who is rejected (from society or home).

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Pavlovian

  • Based on the theories of Ivan Pavlov who experimented with stimulating automatic responses in dogs.
  • A well-defined experimental paradigm to study simple associations between two stimuli. Such 'associative learning' is thought to be an elemental building block of more complex, experience-dependent behaviours.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

technosexual

  • A person, male or female, who is so deeply enthralled with technology they discuss it with a level of passion that most people reserve for sex. Not always a geek or a nerd, but generally someone who has the latest and greatest everything.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

sycophantic

  • bootlicking: attempting to win favor from influential people by flattery

smarmy

  • unpleasantly and insincerely flattering, friendly, or groveling
  • buttery: unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech; "buttery praise"; "gave him a fulsome introduction"; "an oily sycophantic press agent"; "oleaginous hypocrisy"; "smarmy self-importance"; "the unctuous Uriah Heep"; "soapy compliments"