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hathos love

hathos

Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Enjoyment derived from hatred of a person or thing.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Blend of hate and pathos. According to journalist Alex Heard, this word was coined in 1985 when he was searching for a word to describe the "cringe-y feeling you get when celebs go AWOL" and attended a Super Bowl party where he and another guest, then-Bob Dole press aide Scott Richardson, exchanged ideas until they came up with "hathos." The word's first apparent use in print was in an essay by Heard, published in the The Washington Post on May 17, 1987.

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Examples

  • Douglas LeBlanc was the GetReligionista who was officially in charge of posting "hathos" alerts linked to mainstream media coverage of religion news.

    GetReligion 2010

  • If I'm getting this "hathos" thing (and I'm not clear that I am) wouldn't "Santa Baby" sung by ANYONE from Eartha Kitt to Taylor Swift be an example?

    Blog updates 2009

  • He's still out there, lurking, and he sent us an alert this morning for the first hathos - A pleasurable sense of loathing, or a loathing sense of pleasure, aroused by certain schlocky, schmaltzy or just - plain-bad show-business personalities: "Hearing the audience applaud when Dr. Joyce Brothers told Merv Griffin that, aside from being a brilliant comedienne, Charo is a 'genius on the classical guitar' filled me with hathos."

    GetReligion 2010

  • As for hathos-inducing Christmas carols, they include, but are not limited to, "Grandma got run over by a reindeer",

    Blog updates 2009

  • Compliments of the season, Mr. Covarrubias. hathos, a term for attraction to something one finds repellant.

    Blog updates 2009

  • I'm also indebted to Mr. Covarrubias for a new word, hathos attraction to something one finds repellant.

    Blog updates 2009

  • For any baseball fan, the name of Pete Rose generates an instant reaction, ranging from gut-level hathos, to naked contempt, to misplaced adolation.

    At Longing's End 2009

  • Thomas Kinkade movies, Kirk Cameron (Oh, the hathos!), and hot chicks with d-bags?

    The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan 2008

  • Thomas Kinkade movies, Kirk Cameron (Oh, the hathos!), and hot chicks with d-bags?

    The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan 2008

  • K’dackis’s appeal went beyond mere hathos and anger.

    365 tomorrows » Jared Axelrod : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day 2006

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Comments

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  • whichbe commented on the word hathos

    (fr. WordSpy, n.) Feelings of pleasure derived from hating someone or something.

    May 15, 2008

  • bilby commented on the word hathos

    So where are all the s-word listers for this one?

    August 23, 2008

  • rolig commented on the word hathos

    Is this a portmanteau for hate + pathos (or bathos)?

    December 19, 2008