scofticism
n.— «Our side’s comebacks have lacked its punch and pizzazz. Neither “fundamentalist materialism” nor “pseudo-skepticism” nor “pathological skepticism” nor sneer-quoted “skepticism” can match it as a Tenacious Taunting Tag. But my term, “scofticism,” fills the bill. It too implies its targets are posers: their posture of Rational Doubt (“Show me the evidence”) masks Die-Hard Denial (“I’ll see it when I believe it”).…My thumbnail definition of “scofticism” is “UNhealthy skepticism.” This is a play on the common phrase, “a healthy (dose of) skepticism.” My coinage (which I’ve used since 8/13/03 on www.Bigfootforums.com) derives of course from “scoffer” and “skeptic,” hence the spelling (please retain!).» —“Scofticism” by Roger Knights American Bigfoot Society Clearinghouse Aug. 21, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
The words tough, through, and dough all end in O-U-G-H. So why don’t they rhyme? A lively new book addresses the many quirks of English by explaining the history of words and phrases. And: have you ever been in a situation where a group makes...