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I'm used to "pseudo" in academic contexts, where the word/prefix has no connotation at all. It essentially means "not genuine":

I was about to use the word in normal conversation, but I wondered about its connotation outside of academia. I'm glad I withheld, because it seems to be quite negative upon first glance! A quick google for "pseudo" gives plenty of synonyms:

bogus, sham, phony, artificial, mock, ersatz, quasi-, fake, false, spurious, deceptive, misleading, assumed, contrived, affected, insincere;

Those vary from neutral to negative in connotation. Oxford's definition and examples are neutral to negative as well:

pseu·do

adjective
1. Not genuine; sham
2. informal Pretentious or insincere

But that "definition" is one of many I found that is little more than a list of synonyms, and synonyms don't necessary imply connotation. Does colloquial use of "pseudo" inherently carry negative connotation? Or is it context-dependent like in academia?

Colloquially, when used with certain nouns, a negative connotation is obvious. For instance, calling someone "pseudo intellectual," accuses them of only pretending to be intelligent, which implies that they are not actually intelligent.

A positive connotation seems possible, but if the answer to my question is affirmative, then I'm just misusing the word. Say I have a friend who's claiming laziness despite actual hard work and success. I could say to him, "you're only being pseudo incompetent, quit downplaying your achievements!" That sounds strictly positive, but I might just be misusing the word.

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    Just my opinion, but I don't think questions about connotation should get knee-jerk close votes for being "primarily opinion-based." Sure, the help center discourages questions like “I would like to participate in a discussion about ______”, but it also specifically mentions that "constructive subjective questions" are allowed. On a language forum, I think that "connotation" questions fall under that category – particularly well-researched questions like this one.
    – J.R.
    Dec 14, 2015 at 21:54
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    @FumbleFingers, that's exactly the source of my surprise! I thought it was neutral for the reasons I mentioned. After looking it up, I needed a deeper explanation than a couple of dictionary entries.
    – kdbanman
    Dec 14, 2015 at 22:04
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    While pseudo is derived from a negative origin and is often used in that sense, it can be used with a neutral sense. As noted, there's nothing negative to the term "pseudorandom", for instance -- it's a highly valuable concept in mathematics and computer science. And "pseudo-realism" is considered to be a perfectly valid & (reasonably) respected technique in dramatic arts.
    – Hot Licks
    Dec 14, 2015 at 22:18
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    @Hot Licks: Even in the maths context, pseudorandom can have negative connotations (encryption techniques based on pseudorandom number generation are invariably looked down on as being easier to break). Dec 14, 2015 at 22:20
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    @FumbleFingers, that doesn't change what I said. In the context of crypto, there are effective and ineffective pseudorandom generators. Crypto schemes that use the latter are "looked down upon", but the pseudo part of pseudorandomness is not.
    – kdbanman
    Dec 14, 2015 at 22:43

2 Answers 2

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Not always, although it often carries a negative connotation.

For example when giving programming advice (eg on Stack Overflow), I'll often provide "pseudo-code". This is code that isn't necessarily written in a particular language, and instead shows the basical structures/logic in a simplified manner. It looks pretty much the same as code, it uses the same words, but it's not actually code.

In this case "pseudo" is "not genuine" in that the code is not written in a particular language, the person I'm talking to couldn't just take what I write verbatim and use it directly.

It's much less common than the "pseudo-science" type of negative connotation, but is still used as you note for pseudo-atoll, pseudo-random etc and is, as you say, context dependent. Typically the context is "It's close enough not to matter for the way I'm using it, but we still need to differentiate it from the 'true' version". It's kind of a "just be aware that this may not be quite what you were expecting, even though it's close" warning.

In general, however, you're right that it usually carries a negative connotation, where it is used to deride something as not being genuine. "Pseudo-science" is the most common I hear, regarding an article which is pretending to be scientific but is really opinion with some statistics tagged on.

One thing to note is that even these neutral variants usually are technically negative in some way: my code still isn't code (so is worse than true code), pseudo-random could technically be potentially predicted.... it's just that in the way they're being used, the fact they aren't genuine isn't significant to the discussion at hand.

The real question, I guess, comes down to "is a lack of authenticity/being genuine always a bad thing" - to which the answer is "no, but it's usually a bad thing"

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  • +1 for pseudocode, which definitely doesn't have any inherently negative connotations. In fact, in contexts where you might want to use it, presenting an algorithm pseudocode is almost always "better" than using an actual language, because it allows us to focus on the generic principles without the distraction of potentially unfamiliar syntax/vocabulary, or the possibility that the algorithm isn't "easily" supported by the particular language chosen. Dec 15, 2015 at 17:20
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I think that the term pseudo is used mainly with a negative connotation, as its origin suggests, or neutral in combined term as pseudonym for instance:

Pseudo:,

  • Pseudo means not authentic, false, pretend.Pseudo may also mean having a close resemblance to. The word pseudo is often used with another word, hyphenated, to refer to something that is inauthentic, such as pseudo-science or pseudo-intellectual. Pseudo- is also a prefix used in words such as pseudonym.

  • Pseudo comes to us in the late fourteenth century to mean something false or spurious, from the Greek word pseudes meaning false and the Greek word pseudein meaning to lie.

  • Popularity of the word pseudo and the prefix pseudo- has steadily risen over the last two centuries, according to Ngram, its use nearly doubling between 1900 and 1960.

The Grammarist

Pseudo:

  • a combining form meaning “false,” “pretended,” “unreal,” used in the formation of compound words ( pseudoclassic; pseudointellectual):
  • in scientific use, denoting close or deceptive resemblance to the following element (pseudobulb; pseudocarp), and used sometimes in chemical names of isomers (pseudoephedrine).

(dictionary.reference.com)

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  • Thanks for the response! Your citation is actually a great example of my problem: synonyms and definitions vary from negative to neutral, but usages are almost always negative. "False", "pretend", "not authentic", "spurious" are neutral. "Lie" is (usually) negative. "Pseudo-science" and "pseudo-intellectual" are both negative. If only usage and some synonyms are negative, does that mean the word inherently carries negativity? I'm not so sure!
    – kdbanman
    Dec 14, 2015 at 22:14
  • The term "pseudo" has an etymological negative connotation and its usages just reflect that.
    – user66974
    Dec 14, 2015 at 22:24
  • Interesting, @Josh61. I think that historical context matters a lot to the underlying answer.
    – kdbanman
    Dec 14, 2015 at 22:33
  • Did you copy-paste the entire post? I'm on mobile right now and can't check. At least you gave a summary statement at the top of this one. I can review all your answers if you would find it helpful.
    – Kit Z. Fox
    Dec 15, 2015 at 1:25
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    I once had a Pseudo-Dragon. Nothing negative there. Thought it was cool. Pseudonyms can be nice. Mark Twain was one. Better that Samuel Clemens. Sometimes the "fake" is better than the real thing. Dec 15, 2015 at 8:28

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