unstandable

Question

Hello! Nice site. This is my first post. Hope I'm in the right forum.

I often hear this about children: they're freaky unstandable. Does it mean they're oddly restless? Is it slang?

Thanks a lot for helping.

Marius Hancu · Accepted Answer

I would take freaky here as just an intensifier.

Couldn't find unstandable in dictionaries.
It seems to mean
unbearable, intolerable

Thus
very/quite intolerable, difficult to stand.

Nef · Answer

Geniseta
Hello! Nice site. This is my first post. Hope I'm in the right forum.

I often hear this about children: they're freaky unstandable. Does it mean they're oddly restless? Is it slang?

Thanks a lot for helping.

Hi, Geniseta

Welcome to the forum.

I agree with Marius. My dictionary doesn't show "unstandable" as a word. But people

often say that they "can't stand something", when they mean that they can't tolerate

it, strongly dislike it, or hate it. I'm guessing that this is the general idea in the case you

mention. "Can't stand something" is slang.

Sometimes people say that someone "can't stand still", and this would be much closer to

the idea that the person being described is very restless.

Geniseta · Answer

I couldn't find this word in any dictionary either. But it's alright for me now, your explanations are so clear.

Very many thanks to both!

Aperisic · Answer

Geniseta
I couldn't find this word in any dictionary either. But it's alright for me now, your explanations are so clear.

Very many thanks to both!

If we strictly follow how words are constructed in English a new one unstandable means something that cannot stand on its own

stand - to be in the upright position

- to be able to, have ability

un+ - not, negation

unstandable = not being able to keep the upright position

But, of course, in your question unstandable, to stand is taken from I cannot stand it = I cannot tolerate it

It is not that common when you build a new word from the existing one to pass all its possible meanings. Only a few essential ones are kept in the new one.

If you want a normal word that is the perfect replacement here and really a colloquial one it is unbearable

Geniseta · Answer

Yes, with unbearable, the French translation I have in mind makes sense and sounds quite funny with freaky.

Which just shows… we’ll always have to deal with new words. Really interesting the way they’re built.

BarbaraPA · Answer

Geniseta, did you say you commonly hear this said? I have NEVER heard this said.

Aside from the invented word unstandable, the other thing that is odd about the construction is that "freaky" is an adjective, which should describe a noun. Freakily, I guess, is the adverb form. They are freakily unbearable... Even people who don't like children very much wouldn't seem likly to say that - if they don't expect to like them, they don't expect to like them - and their dislike of being around children should hardly be considered "freakish."

Is it possible that "unstandable" was a typo or misprint? Unstable? Some other word?

Geniseta · Answer

Hi Grammar Geek,

Yes, I did hear this said some times, and I saw it written after a while. I wouldn't care so much about it otherwise. It's why I searched for its meaning, finding it very odd a word. No way, could find nothing and then asked for help here.

Well, I don't think it's a typing mistake or hadn't been pronounced properly. The explanations given above by native English speakers fit with the context I was in when I heard this word.

As for freaky, you're right, it is incorrect here. Maybe they meant (or even said) freakly unstandable, which remains somehow "tender" about children when translated into French: "drôlement insupportables".

PS: To the moderators: If ever any kind of translation isn't allowed, just delete the one I've given, please.

BarbaraPA · Answer

Ah, well, Geniseta, I acknowledge that I have firmly crossed over to adulthood and find many things "the kids" are saying nowadays to be incomprehensible. I'm not on the cutting edge of slang anymore. If I ever was.

Does your translation mean, more or less, "ridiculously unbearable"?

Geniseta · Answer

No, actually, my translation means "funny how unbearable they are". At least, this is how I got it (or prefer getting it.

).

For other things, I'd simply say : curiously, strangely...

Aperisic · Answer

Geniseta
No, actually, my translation means "funny how unbearable they are". At least, this is how I got it (or prefer getting it. ).

For other things, I'd simply say : curiously, strangely...

On second thought, they're freaky unstandable could easily mean they are jumping around not being able to stand in one place in a freaky manner. That is a very direct and quite possible "translation".

But I think you seek forunbearable

unstandable

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