Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by TulliusCicero 1117 days ago
> Yeah I am really nonplussed

Well this tells me nothing.

(The two meanings of this word are essentially opposite)

4 comments

I can't tell if serious or sarcastic. Either way, here you go.

nonplussed : adjective

- Bewildered; unsure how to respond or act.

- Unfazed, unaffected, or unimpressed.

- filled with bewilderment

This meets the criteria of Poe's law. It is equally reasonable to assume _you_ are being sarcastic or serious. If they didn't just recently look up the definition themselves, they wouldn't have commented about the conflict in the two definitions.
The wrong meaning is the opposite of the right meaning
Summarizing dictionary.com:

1. Surprised and confused 2. Unperturbed

"Yeah I am really unperturbed" doesn't make sense in context of it's parent.

I'm not sure how you could be nonplussed about this.

>"Yeah I am really unperturbed" doesn't make sense in context of it's parent

It's not just unpertrubed, it's also "not impressed".

In the context of the comment it basically means "I see this speaker announcement as nothing special, what's the big deal?".

The commenter specifically used the word nonplussed in reference to the ranking of this post on the front page. The fact that their surprise and confusion stems from the promotion of unimpressive stories does not change the meaning from surprised and confused to unimpressed.
>Well this tells me nothing.

Well its certainaly not a non negative statement because its talking about being plussed, which is a positive statement, so a nonplussed person is truly chaotic-neutral.