antonym/Faddish

Question

Faddish
(A)heretical
(B)understated
(C)expensive
(D)insipid
(E)classic

(Choose a lettered word that is most nearly opposite in meaning to the word in the capital letters.)

Isn't the answer D? (It's E in my transcript.)

Thank you.

Vorpar · Accepted Answer

A fad is a modern popular-culture movement. The opposite of modern (contemporary) is classic.

CalifJim · Answer

Faddish things quickly come into style and go out of style.
The classics persist for centuries.

CJ

Jeff_999 · Answer

Thank you. <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/> So it's about "temporal and lasting". I know classical doesn't mean outmoded, obsolete, right, CJ?

Wwwdotcom · Answer

I don't like any of those answers, but C is probably the closest to reality. Books will say "classic" is the best answer.

Three relative words are fad, trend, and custom. People can wear or do something at one point in time, but that doesn't mean it is current or classic. Classic means more "original", the first of something.

Many fads are short lived, but that is an extreme comparison. For example, you can have fad diets which never die out. So, I would use popularity more as a basis to judge something as being a fad, trend, or custom.

MrPedantic · Answer

WwwdotcomI don't like any of those answers, but C is probably the closest to reality. Books will say "classic" is the best answer.

Three relative words are fad, trend, and custom. People can wear or do something at one point in time, but that doesn't mean it is current or classic. Classic means more "original", the first of something.

Many fads are short lived, but that is an extreme comparison. For example, you can have fad diets which never die out. So, I would use popularity more as a basis to judge something as being a fad, trend, or custom.

You're saying "expensive" is the antonym of "faddish"?

Wwwdotcom · Answer

If we have to find something that is the opposite, then we have to look at circumstances in which "fad" wouldn't mean one of the answers in order to choose it. I'll focus on just classic and expensive in this reply.

If you are to say a fad is short lived, then its demand goes down or else it would continue to hold the same price. Right now, mp3 players, electronic games, and I am sure certain clothes now are a fad among certain groups today. Are they necessarily all expensive, are some of them within ones budget? Obviously, this depends on how rich you are or how you view a standard price of some item.

"Expensive" can be used to indicate something which costs a lot of money but may also not be affordable, depending on how you use it. Perhaps you want to eat out, but you don't want to eat at an expensive restaurant. Are we to say then that eating out at a restaurant is a fad? Does it die out? Has there been a significant decrease in the number of people going to expensive restaurants to coincide with the notion of a "fad" as being short lived? I don't find this the case.

Perhaps, you have something from long ago in your storeroom/garage. This could have been a fad way back. I think of the Atari 2600, and though I don't have it anymore I think of it as a classic. To me, it was the original game center next to the arcade. I didn't have to go to the arcade, I could just pop in Donkey Kong (another classic), etc....

Perhaps, also Donkey Kong could be seen as a fad amongst a group back in the 80's, and maybe today with flash programmers bringing back these classics are also of interest. Is there any connection to the word expensive? I don't find any, but I do see a connection with fad and classic.

As a matter of ruling out the possible answers given, I don't think classic is a clear opposite to fad. I can find reasons to go with expensive. I prefer addressing popularity as a basis, but that wasn't one of the answers.

Davkett · Answer

Trying to maneuver through your logic, wwwdot, I conclude that the problem you have with classic is the idea that things thought of as faddish at one time can evolve into what later can be thought of as classic. (We see this over and over again in modern America.) Still, the two words have opposite meanings. The faddish thing was not considered classic at the same time when it was considered faddish.

Wwwdotcom · Answer

davkett,

"Still, the two words have opposite meanings."

They have different meanings, that doesn't mean opposite. You would have to bring in that notion like the word transport in another post. You are choosing to impose meaning when there is no direct meaning.

"The faddish thing was not considered classic at the same time when it was considered faddish."

How would one know? If it was a fad back in the 1800's how we would we know? If we took part in something then we could assume it is a fad, it is the current thing, but maybe back in the 1800's somewhere it was also the current thing then. Just because we don't have records of something occurring in the past doesn't mean there wasn't an original occurrence. That's like saying Columbus discovered America when there were Indians on the land well before that. The original settlers were not a result of Columbus.

Just because something is a fad now, doesn't mean it wasn't a fad before.

MrPedantic · Answer

So...um...does that make Columbus a fad or a classic, 3W?

Or simply expensive?

MrP

Davkett · Answer

You know, wwwdot, this is one of the easier antonym questions. I simply cannot follow your 'logic'. Faddish has nothing at all to do with expensiveness. You might as well have picked (A) heretical, and defended the choice with some elaborate argument based on the fact that a heretical belief goes against the standard (popular)belief.

....hmmm, maybe that is the correct answer.

antonym/Faddish

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