From a communication standpoint, "nothingburger" is such a juvenile and silly term

[RadiationTherapy]

that, to me, it screams overcompensation. It's as if the speaker is protesting the concern too much. It's like a dismissal. I don't recommend the term if one wants to make a point.

[leftstreet]

1. I had to look it up

nothingburger

something lame, dead-end, a dud, insignificant; especially something with high expectations that turns out to be average, pathetic, or overhyped.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nothingburger

[RadiationTherapy]

4. I guess I knew what it meant from context, and I certainly can see how it is useful language,

I just see its use here - now and with Clinton's email server investigation - it seems an underserious term. Not up to the task in some way. Just my opinion as a comm. scholar type.

[muriel_volestrangler]

27. OK, that's quite a different criticism from "overcompensation"

If a speaker is overcompensating, they are going too far. If they're underserious, they're not trying hard enough.

I now really don't know what your problem with the word is.

[RadiationTherapy]

28. Sorry I was unclear. It is an overcompensation of casualness and dismissal. It seems an underserious

reaction to the scale of the issue it is intended to rationalize. It is the opposite of hyperbole.

I hope that helps explain my reaction to the word and its use in this context.

[muriel_volestrangler]

30. "an overcompensation of casualness and dismissal"? No, that doesn't help.

It's very unclear.

Definition of overcompensation
: excessive compensation; specifically : excessive reaction to a feeling of inferiority, guilt, or inadequacy leading to an exaggerated attempt to overcome the feeling

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/overcompensation

So, that's pretty much the opposite of "an underserious reaction".

"It seems an underserious reaction to the scale of the issue it is intended to rationalize."

That sounds as if your complaint is that the issue (eg Hillary's email server) is really important, and that you'd also object to them saying "much ado about nothing" or "mountain out of a molehill" - that it's not that they used a newish phrase (or cliche, if you prefer) rather than an old one, but that they should be accepting that the points the right wingers are raising are all important.

In which case, I profoundly disagree. The Republicans were talking bollocks, to use a British phrase of dismissal.

[RadiationTherapy]

32. I'm comfortable with my (admittedly) poetically contradictory description.

I don't think I will try to rephrase it further.

[FSogol]

2. I know you are, but what am I?

[RadiationTherapy]

5. Exactly! There's an "i'm rubber-yer-glue" feel to it.

[Rex]

3. Besides that, nothingburgers are not very tasty and leave one just as hungry as before.

[emulatorloo]

6. "much ado about nothing" is better, Shakespearian and has the same meaning.

Maybe you think that is too arcane and academic. Def rolls of the tongue better. Mountain out of a molehill works for me, but probably too obscure for anyone under 60.

[RadiationTherapy]

9. I was intentionally trying to avoid and allude to it at the same time.

No wonder it turned to mush. Sometimes the bard can't be dodged, I guess.

[emulatorloo]

13. Horrible mix of comm scholar type and English Major here

You and I are equally cursed.

[Scuba]

7. Well, when I used it this morning I was overcompensating for my tiny penis.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028046563

[RadiationTherapy]

11. I thought it was a critique of the term when you used it.

[Scuba]

12. My post wasn't about etymology, but you're essentially correct.

[cherokeeprogressive]

23. Guns. Guns are the only thing that compensate for my diminutive little general.

[cwydro]

8. If you hang around DU long enough,

you'll see many such juvenile and silly terms.

Bastardizations of names are number 1, but there are countless other examples such as the "nothingburger", which is a term I've never heard other than here.

[emulatorloo]

10. Google 'nothingburger', the term is everywhere not just DU

[closeupready]

17. No, it's not everywhere - it's here and probably one or two other message boards.

[emulatorloo]

18. You must have a different Google than I have

On edit, sorry correction ... Using DuckDuckGo here. So I do indeed have a different 'google' than you do, lol.

[cwydro]

20. I've not seen it anywhere but here, as I said.

I have no doubt it exists, but it's not something I've seen or heard.

Sounds like a stupid internet thing to me.

[emulatorloo]

21. Ok thanks for the clarification!

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. Yes, as used by the obviously juvenile and silly Charles Pierce

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a41665/hillary-email-scandal-again/

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a43713/hillary-email-nothingburger/

Or Bob Cesca:

http://www.bobcesca.com/the-benghazi-nothingburger-is-finally-here/

Or Senator Boxer:

http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/senator-boxer-clinton-email-audit-such-a-nothingburger-692899395873

Or in the Oxford English Dictionary, quoting the Historical Dictionary of American Slang from 1994:

"-burger, comb. form

Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: burger n.
Etymology: < burger n., after its use as the second element in compounds denoting types of hamburger.
Formations are found from the early 1980s (apparently earliest in mouseburger n.); J. E. Lighter Hist. Dict. Amer. Slang (1994–) gives a number of other formations, including cheerfulburger, nothingburger, and psychoburger."

God forbid a Democrat might use a word to ask "where's the beef?"

[Initech]

14. Is a nothingburger topped with awesomesauce?

[NightWatcher]

15. The term makes sense to me. It's clear and concise

Young people are often on the forefront of change. In this day and age of social media, the terms the kids use often end up in the vernacular.

What I meant to say is that the term nothing burger is totes amaze balls to me.

[RadiationTherapy]

19. I was never confused by the term and I am familiar with some of the ways language changes.

I am not even implying it oughtn't be used; I am of the opinion the word in this context carries more implications than it dismisses.

[closeupready]

16. Yup. Like "woo" or "mansplain", the vocabulary of internet message board junkies

is really stupid. Nobody in real life uses these words - ever wonder why?

[muriel_volestrangler]

25. Real life has been using it for 20 years. See #24 (nt)

[LanternWaste]

35. I too pretend to know common, nation-wide vernacular in an attempt to look more clever.

I too pretend to know common, nation-wide vernacular in an attempt to look more clever.

[panader0]

22. At the end of the day----I like a good nothingbuger

[Blue_Tires]

26. From a "communication standpoint", what term should be used?

[RadiationTherapy]

29. Well, I am not really into "should use," but I would recommend more than a single word of slang.

Demeaning a person or group's concerns through hyperbolic overreaction or by extreme diminishment are known and common rhetorical devices, so if one does not wish to be demeaning, one might be more cautious and caring.

If I was advising, I might use a formula like "I realize you think and feel __________, but at the core of this issue is _________"

Or something along those lines.

[closeupready]

33. That takes effort, and facts. When you are lazy and/or don't have facts on your side,

post things like "nothingburger!" "Fail!" "Call the waaaaaaahmublance!" "Mansplain much?!" "wash, rinse, repeat"... Post gifs of cats doing weird things, eagles smoking cigars. Post threads about mentally ill people doing embarrassing things, so that we can all do constructive things for them - like crack jokes.

Yeah, I have stopped taking anything here seriously.

[CanSocDem]

34. Not to mention...

...an emoticon for every point of view, and at least a dozen specifically for Laughing In Your Face.

The dumbing down of a generation.



.

[closeupready]

37. "dumbing down of a generation" - wow, you "win the internet today", lol.

That was a needed, succinct and razor-sharp truth. Thanks.

[muriel_volestrangler]

38. "an emoticon for every point of view, and at least a dozen specifically for Laughing In Your Face"

You, of course, have dismissed people, in this thread, with

"Common? Nationwide? Where ... in MomsBasementStan?

and used , and . So, if I were you, I'd think again about who the accusation of using emoticons and 'dumbing down' actually applies to.

[closeupready]

39. If this here all mattered, maybe I would reconsider - as I said above, however,

I take none of this seriously.

So, unless I'm mistaken, we're done here ... right? I am, at any rate - enjoy yourself!