What is 'fun'? It seems that whenever people justify some worthless crap they use the word 'fun'. Is it a sort of social contract, that anything boring and mediocre is described as 'fun' in mixed company to keep the peace? When applied to music, I read it as meaning 'I'm under siege, my brain and spirit can't cope with anything taxing and I desperately want to belong to a club of seemingly carefree people'? Is it an excuse to drop all intelligence (and 'sensitivity' as well, if you're that way inclined)? Euphoria, rapture, mindlessness, all fine. It's just the concept of 'fun' I have a problem with. Anyone care to explain it to me?
― dave q, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)
Tangential generalisation - is it tied in with the unwritten laws
that everything in the UK must be on some level amusing while
everything in the US must be high-concept?
― dave q, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)
It's just used so when you prove someone to be talking utter shite
about something they can say "oh you're no fun". Or worse "it's just
a bit of fun". God I might be cynical but I won't be made to feel
like I am for hating fucking budweiser ads or some crap band. Fun is
a nice socially accepted justification for things which are
completely stupid and cannot be justified.
While we're on fun, what's all this crap I've been hearing about
tolerance.
― Ronan, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)
fun (fhttp://cache.dictionary.com/dictionary/graphics/AHD4/GIF/ubreve.g
ifn)
n.
- A source of enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure.
- Enjoyment; amusement: have fun at the beach.
- Playful, often noisy, activity.
intr.v.
Informal funned, fun·ning, funs
- To behave playfully; joke.
adj.
Informal
- Enjoyable; amusing: “You're a real fun guy” (Margaret Truman).
Idiom:
for/in
fun
- As a joke; playfully.
[Possibly from fon, to make a fool of, from Middle
English
fonnen, to fool, possibly from fonne,
fool.]
Usage Note: The use of fun as an
attributive
adjective, as in a fun time, a fun place, probably
originated in a
playful reanalysis of the use of the word in sentences such as
It is fun
to ski, where fun has the syntactic function of
adjectives such as
amusing or enjoyable. The usage became popular in the
1950s and
1960s, though there is some evidence to suggest that it has 19th-
century
antecedents, but it can still raise eyebrows among traditionalists.
The day may
come when this usage is entirely unremarkable, but writers may want
to avoid it
in more formal contexts. |
Pronunciation
Key
Source: The American Heritage®
Dictionary
of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by
Houghton Mifflin
Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights
reserved.
fun \Fun\, n. [Perh. of Celtic
origin; cf.
Ir. & Gael. fonn pleasure.] Sport; merriment; frolicsome
amusement.
``Oddity, frolic, and fun.'' --Goldsmith.
To make fan
of, to
hold up to, or turn into, ridicule.
Source: Webster's Revised
Unabridged
Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
fun adj : providing enjoyment;
pleasantly
entertaining; "an amusing speaker"; "a diverting story"; "a fun thing
to do"
[syn: amusing, amusive, diverting, fun(a)] n 1: activities
that are
enjoyable or amusing; "I do it for the fun of it"; "he is fun to have
around"
[syn: merriment, playfulness] 2: verbal
wit (often
at another's expense but not to be taken seriously); "he became a
figure of fun"
[syn: play, sport] 3: violent and excited
activity;
"she asked for money and then the fun began"; (colloquial) "they
began to fight
like fun" 4: a disposition to find (or make) causes for
amusement; "her
playfulness surprised me"; "he was fun to be with" [syn: playfulness]
Source: WordNet ® 1.6, © 1997
Princeton
University
fun
A typed
lambda-calculus, similar to SOL[2].
"On Understanding Types, Data Abstractions and Polymorphism", L.
Cardelli et al,
ACM Comp Surveys 17(4) (Dec 1985).
Source: The Free On-line
Dictionary of
Computing, © 1993-2001 Denis Howe
― Kodanshi, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)
Fun? I have deep spiritual stirrings when i hear T-Rex. I ache to have
that cork-screw hair and groove like the Master.
― badger, Wednesday, 31 October 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)
eight years pass...