Timeline for What's a negative word for "subtle"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
14 events
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| Jul 24, 2015 at 11:38 | comment | added | Richiban |
I'm not sure I would recommend insidious, at least not in the same context the OP mentioned. While insidious does mean "subtle and harmful" it also implies that these effects build up gradually, over time. To me it's a creepy word, both the word itself and its effect.
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| Jul 23, 2015 at 11:16 | comment | added | Matt Allwood | Insidious is quite emotive and would need to be in the right context, treacherous even more so. For software I wouldn't want to put this in client release notes for example. (Software dev and native English speaker) | |
| Jul 22, 2015 at 15:16 | comment | added | Avon | @AlexW I agree that it would be unusual and not appropriate in all cases. However, if there was a bug that was causing data to gradually become corrupted (for example, every time a record is edited it would reset some values to defaults) then insidious could be a very apt description. | |
| Jul 22, 2015 at 15:05 | comment | added | Alex W | I think gradual seems strange, when discussing software bugs in an objective context. It only makes sense if there is some kind of version control and the bugs are making the software progressively worse. | |
| Jul 22, 2015 at 9:39 | comment | added | Avon | @MarchHo I agree unless the use was to describe the software as a whole ("These insidious bugs have made the software treacherous") in which case the second definition would apply. | |
| Jul 22, 2015 at 1:13 | comment | added | March Ho | Pretty sure you only want to use "treacherous" in cases of actual sabotage. | |
| Jul 21, 2015 at 22:32 | comment | added | Ely | Excellent. I just learned the usage of the word of the movie title. (y) | |
| Jul 21, 2015 at 21:06 | comment | added | Matt | As a software developer, I use the word insidious for this exact situation. | |
| Jul 21, 2015 at 18:52 | history | edited | Avon | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Added definitions
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| Jul 21, 2015 at 18:49 | vote | accept | Lawrence Wagerfield | ||
| Jul 21, 2015 at 18:32 | comment | added | WithScience | from Google: insidious: proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with harmful effects. | |
| Jul 21, 2015 at 15:44 | comment | added | Kristina Lopez | It would probably be helpful for you to include a definition for those words as well as citing the source. | |
| Jul 21, 2015 at 15:01 | review | First posts | |||
| Jul 21, 2015 at 16:55 | |||||
| Jul 21, 2015 at 15:00 | history | answered | DocOccupant | CC BY-SA 3.0 |