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Spaz vs Skaz - What's the difference?

spaz | skaz |

As nouns the difference between spaz and skaz

is that spaz is (slang|pejorative|offensive) a stupid person while skaz is a literary technique wherein characters are mainly identified by the linguistic specificities of their speech.

As a verb spaz

is (slang|pejorative|offensive) to have a tantrum or fit.

spaz

English

Alternative forms

* spazz

Noun

(spazzes)
  • (slang, pejorative, offensive) A stupid person.
  • (slang, pejorative, offensive) A hyperactive person.
  • (slang, pejorative, offensive) An incompetent person.
  • * (Tiger Woods), 2006
    • “I was so in control from tee to green, the best I’ve played for years… But as soon as I got on the green I was a spaz .”
  • (slang, pejorative, offensive) A tantrum, a fit.

    • Usage notes

    (Spastic) In addition to being insulting to the target, the term itself is offensive to some due to associations with disability (especially cerebral palsy in the UK); compare (retard), (tard). Offensiveness differs between the UK and the US: it is quite offensive in the UK, while completely inoffensive in the US, acting as a synonym for silly/hyper. It is most widely used as a playground term of abuse, both of people with disabilities and children generally. Among adults, particularly in the United States, it can be seen as gentle ribbing or self-deprecation, as in the Tiger Woods quote, but can cause offense, and is recommended against in public. The s-word, by Damon Rose, BBC News, 12 April 2006

    Related terms

    * spack * spastic

    See also

    * (l) * (l)

    Verb

  • (slang, pejorative, offensive) To have a tantrum or fit.
  • (slang, offensive) To malfunction, go on the fritz.

    • Usage notes

    The sense “to malfunction” is the only sense that is not insulting to the object, and is cognate to (spasm) (compare (seize up)), but still may cause offense due to connections with (spastic).

    References

    Anagrams

    *

    skaz

    English

    Noun

    (-)
  • A literary technique wherein characters are mainly identified by the linguistic specificities of their speech.
  • * 1993 , Monika Fludernik, The fictions of language and the languages of fiction
    • ...however, Banfield goes on to posit that first person narrative comes in two shapes, one of which is speakerless while the other corresponds with skaz ...
  • * 2000 , Jeremy Hicks, Mikhail Zoshchenko and the poetics of skaz
    • She argues that the chief means of indicating the distance between the two levels in grotesque-ironic skaz is 'linguistic discrediting'...