seminormal

English

Etymology

semi- +‎ normal

Adjective

seminormal (not comparable)

1. (algebra, of a ring) Being a commutative reduced ring in which, whenever x, y satisfy $x^{3}=y^{2}$, there is s with $s^{2}=x$ and $s^{3}=y$.
2. (group theory) Of a subgroup A of a group G, having a subgroup B such that AB = G, and for any proper subgroup C of B, AC is a proper subgroup of G.
3. (default logic, of a default) Having all its justifications entailing its conclusion.
4. Partially normal.
   • 1995, Meryl Cohn, “Codependent If You Want Me to Be”, in “Do What I Say”: Ms. Behavior’s Guide to Gay & Lesbian Etiquette, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, part three (Gay & Lesbian Cultural Oddities That Ms. Behavior Finds Particularly Compelling), page 106:

     When it reaches this point, the only choice you have is to try to remember cruel things from your childhood and threaten or ridicule them. Ms. Behavior is aware that this might sound mean, but it is actually benevolent. Otherwise, your formerly seminormal friend will soon be playing with dolls and jacks at work, spending all of his free time at Disney movies, and dragging his teddy bear to social functions.

   • 1997, Sandra Scarry, John Scarry, The Writer’s Workplace: Paragraphs to Essays; Building College Writing Skills, Fort Worth, Tex.: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, →ISBN, page 531:

     Not noticeably belonging to any one group is often upsetting, and these feelings of isolation, of not fitting in, easily carry over into adolescence—a time when everyone, even the fairest-haired among us, must struggle awfully hard just to seem seminormal.

   • 2016, Keith Morris with Jim Ruland, “Last Straw”, in My Damage: The Story of a Punk Rock Survivor, Boston, Mass.: Da Capo Press, →ISBN, page 174:

     There was always art on the wall, but every night, after the shows were over and the bars had closed and there was nowhere else to buy booze, you might find David Lee Roth at the gallery with a bunch of Hollywood lowlifes and scumbags. It was where he went to lose his ego and be a seminormal person who liked to have a good time.

Related terms

• seminormality

Anagrams

• Roman miles, marmelosin