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Michaelp Posted 15 years ago
Vocabulary

Looking for a word to describe person

I'm not native english speaker and it always amazes me how english vocabulary manages to provide terms to describe almost every pattern of modern life (hello UD). Now I'm looking for a term to describe another common characteristic: a person who is not experienced enough at some subject to know his own needs (meaning tools that will allow him to do something he never thought is possible, or finds too complicated). As an expample, during the debate on choice of web browser this person usually responds with something like "Internet Explorer perfectly suits my needs, I don't need plugins support, so why should I install Firefox when I already have browser on my computer?" (on a side note, I honestly believe IE has it's auditory who have no reason to change their behaviour, but it's sad to hear something like this from a web developer).
The closest term that comes to my mind is "ignorant" but I want to get confirmation on this because I usually see this word used to describe uneducated person.
  

Top answer

Hello, Michael - and welcome to English Forums. 'Ignorant' is a rather rude term for someone who doesn't know anything,and I don't think you want to use that. The person is a neophyte or a greenhorn.

  • Hello, Michael - and welcome to English Forums.
  • 'Ignorant' is a rather rude term for someone who doesn't know anything,and I don't think you want to use that.
  • The person is a neophyte or a greenhorn.
  • He is naive about the possibilities; he is inexperienced, that is all.
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2 Answers
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Hello, Michael - and welcome to English Forums.

'Ignorant' is a rather rude term for someone who doesn't know anything,and I don't think you want to use that. The person is a neophyte or a greenhorn. He is naive about the possibilities; he is inexperienced, that is all.
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Thanks for a welcome. Of course, I don't like being rude and hope I will not find myself in sutuation when it will be required. These two are new words into my vocabulary. Although I've been looking for a word which will also make notice of the situation that we're facing. But even if it exists but is not common then there is no sense of using it. Thank you for your help.

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