Pseudo

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Pseudo- \Pseu"do-\ [Gr. pseydh`s lying, false, akin to psey`dein
     to belie; cf. psydro`s lying, psy`qos a lie.]
     A combining form or prefix signifying false, counterfeit,
     pretended, spurious; as, pseudo-apostle, a false apostle;
     pseudo-clergy, false or spurious clergy; pseudo-episcopacy,
     pseudo-form, pseudo-martyr, pseudo-philosopher. Also used


     adjectively.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  pseudo
       adj : (often used in combination) not genuine but having the
             appearance of; "a pseudo esthete"; "pseudoclassic"
       n : a person who makes deceitful pretenses [syn: {imposter}, {impostor},
            {pretender}, {fake}, {faker}, {fraud}, {sham}, {shammer},
            {pseud}, {role player}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  62 Moby Thesaurus words for "pseudo":
     affected, apocryphal, artificial, assumed, bastard, bogus,
     brummagem, colorable, colored, counterfeit, counterfeited,
     distorted, dressed up, dummy, embellished, embroidered, ersatz,
     factitious, fake, faked, false, falsified, feigned, fictitious,
     fictive, forged, garbled, hokey, illegitimate, imitation, junky,
     make-believe, man-made, mock, perverted, phony, pinchbeck,
     plagiarized, pretended, put-on, quasi, queer, self-styled, sham,
     shoddy, simulated, snide, so-called, soi-disant, spurious,
     supposititious, synthetic, tin, tinsel, titivated, twisted,
     unauthentic, ungenuine, unnatural, unreal, warped, wrong
  
  

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  pseudo /soo'doh/ n. [Usenet: truncation of `pseudonym'] 1. An
     electronic-mail or {Usenet} persona adopted by a human for amusement
     value or as a means of avoiding negative repercussions of one's
     net.behavior; a `nom de Usenet', often associated with forged postings
     designed to conceal message origins. Perhaps the best-known and funniest
     hoax of this type is {B1FF}. See also {tentacle}. 2. Notionally, a
     {flamage}-generating AI program simulating a Usenet user. Many flamers
     have been accused of actually being such entities, despite the fact that
     no AI program of the required sophistication yet exists. However, in
     1989 there was a famous series of forged postings that used a
     phrase-frequency-based travesty generator to simulate the styles of
     several well-known flamers; it was based on large samples of their back
     postings (compare {Dissociated Press}). A significant number of people
     were fooled by the forgeries, and the debate over their authenticity was
     settled only when the perpetrator came forward to publicly admit the
     hoax.
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  pseudo
       
           /soo'doh/ ({Usenet}) Pseudonym.
       
          1. An {electronic-mail} or {Usenet} persona adopted by a human
          for amusement value or as a means of avoiding negative
          repercussions of one's net.behaviour; a "nom de {Usenet}",
          often associated with forged postings designed to conceal
          message origins.  Perhaps the best-known and funniest hoax of
          this type is {BIFF}.
       
          2. Notionally, a {flamage}-generating {AI} program simulating
          a {Usenet} user.  Many flamers have been accused of actually
          being such entities, despite the fact that no AI program of
          the required sophistication yet exists.  However, in 1989
          there was a famous series of forged postings that used a
          phrase-frequency-based travesty generator to simulate the
          styles of several well-known flamers; it was based on large
          samples of their back postings (compare {Dissociated Press}).
          A significant number of people were fooled by the forgeries,
          and the debate over their authenticity was settled only when
          the perpetrator came forward to publicly admit the hoax.
       
          [{Jargon File}]
       
          (1995-03-13)