Special snowflake question inside February 24, 2015 7:22 AM Subscribe
I'm interested in the etymology of the descriptor 'snowflake', where it refers to a person stating inwardly unique emotions or situations. This has arisen out of finding a strangely amusing definition through a work task, but I can't find the root or origin of 'snowflake' as it is used on MetaFilter.
The earliest post mention of snowflake is in this (NSFW) post from 2001, while the earliest comment - and quite a few of the early uses - is from 2000 and mentions it in the 'tiny bits of ice that love to cuddle Boston in huge numbers' manner.
This MetaTalk from 2012 snowflakes about the perceived overuse of 'snowflake' and has a lot of comments but, unless I missed it (I saw, well, snowflakes after a while) couldn't see an indication of the root of the word in there. This one from 2010 is a similar read. The work reference was discovering that an executive learning platform had been gamified, and the people who used it could be awarded 'snowflake badges' for doing tasks that apparently had no reward.
Basically - where (or why) exactly did MetaFilter start using 'snowflake' - or the sarcastic prefix of 'special' - as a metaphor for 'I'm talking about uniquely me'? Is this a think generated by the MetaFilter community, or was it borrowed from elsewhere?
The earliest post mention of snowflake is in this (NSFW) post from 2001, while the earliest comment - and quite a few of the early uses - is from 2000 and mentions it in the 'tiny bits of ice that love to cuddle Boston in huge numbers' manner.
This MetaTalk from 2012 snowflakes about the perceived overuse of 'snowflake' and has a lot of comments but, unless I missed it (I saw, well, snowflakes after a while) couldn't see an indication of the root of the word in there. This one from 2010 is a similar read. The work reference was discovering that an executive learning platform had been gamified, and the people who used it could be awarded 'snowflake badges' for doing tasks that apparently had no reward.
Basically - where (or why) exactly did MetaFilter start using 'snowflake' - or the sarcastic prefix of 'special' - as a metaphor for 'I'm talking about uniquely me'? Is this a think generated by the MetaFilter community, or was it borrowed from elsewhere?
There's a short scene in the film Fight Club where Brad Pitt delivers a monologue (to his recruited goons / to the audience) about how you are not special, you're not a unique and beautiful snowflake, etc. That sort of seeped into pop culture as a specific and vibrant twist on the prior pop sci trivia of each snowflake being unique. That's the most plausible major impetus for the "i'm a special snowflake" riffs in Ask Metafilter posts, with the asker being referentially self-deprecating about their insistence on having some particulars considered despite the looming cultural presence of Father Durden.
On the bright side, we didn't end up going with "all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world details inside", so.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:27 AM on February 24, 2015 [26 favorites]
On the bright side, we didn't end up going with "all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world details inside", so.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:27 AM on February 24, 2015 [26 favorites]
Ah. Guess who has never watched Fight Club (insert embarrassed emoji here).
posted by Wordshore at 7:28 AM on February 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Wordshore at 7:28 AM on February 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
I always assumed snowflake was because of fight club.
What are some mefi specific words? Is there a list?
beanplate
cruton petter
buttereater
taters
not-[word]ist-ist
posted by phunniemee at 7:30 AM on February 24, 2015 [4 favorites]
What are some mefi specific words? Is there a list?
beanplate
cruton petter
buttereater
taters
not-[word]ist-ist
posted by phunniemee at 7:30 AM on February 24, 2015 [4 favorites]
There's also this poster, which I own in coffee cup form.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 7:32 AM on February 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Huffy Puffy at 7:32 AM on February 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
Cortex, we can dance if we want to.
posted by phearlez at 7:33 AM on February 24, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by phearlez at 7:33 AM on February 24, 2015 [7 favorites]
In tomorrow's idiot MetaTalk post by me, I'll be asking why people keep denying that those are the things they are looking for when they obviously are, in addition to denying that the moon in the sky at night is, obviously, the moon.
posted by Wordshore at 7:38 AM on February 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Wordshore at 7:38 AM on February 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
Cortex, we can dance if we want to.
We can leave your friends behind.
posted by zamboni at 7:39 AM on February 24, 2015 [23 favorites]
We can leave your friends behind.
posted by zamboni at 7:39 AM on February 24, 2015 [23 favorites]
MetaFilter: The looming cultural presence of Father Durden.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 7:39 AM on February 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 7:39 AM on February 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
I'ma let you finish*, but "cruton petter" is best Mefi madeup term of all time. OF ALL TIME.
* Oh, were you already finished? Could you start again and then let me let you finish? Because I was a little slow getting in here?
posted by taz (staff) at 7:40 AM on February 24, 2015 [37 favorites]
* Oh, were you already finished? Could you start again and then let me let you finish? Because I was a little slow getting in here?
posted by taz (staff) at 7:40 AM on February 24, 2015 [37 favorites]
What are some mefi specific words? Is there a list?
Mefi Wiki: In Jokes
posted by zamboni at 7:41 AM on February 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
Mefi Wiki: In Jokes
posted by zamboni at 7:41 AM on February 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
The one that I'm kinda sad never really took off is {|} / HAMBURGER to denote sarcasm, except usually used in places where the sarcasm is already obvious so you're being extra snarky.
posted by Phire at 7:52 AM on February 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Phire at 7:52 AM on February 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
thank God that didn't catch on; it's incredibly annoying
posted by thelonius at 7:53 AM on February 24, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 7:53 AM on February 24, 2015 [5 favorites]
And if they don't dance they are no friends of mine.
Thanks for the earworm.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 8:10 AM on February 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
Thanks for the earworm.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 8:10 AM on February 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
Wait ... what tagline?
/logout
Huh, this is what I get for staying logged in and keeping professional old style up. (sorry, I just can't read the new look site)
posted by Buttons Bellbottom at 8:14 AM on February 24, 2015
/logout
Huh, this is what I get for staying logged in and keeping professional old style up. (sorry, I just can't read the new look site)
posted by Buttons Bellbottom at 8:14 AM on February 24, 2015
Did /HAMBURGER not catch on? I just kind of assumed it had, to the extent that I use it in IRL conversation.
posted by daisyk at 8:23 AM on February 24, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by daisyk at 8:23 AM on February 24, 2015 [7 favorites]
{|}
- Todd Lokken
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 8:35 AM on February 24, 2015 [8 favorites]
- Todd Lokken
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 8:35 AM on February 24, 2015 [8 favorites]
HURF DURF BUTTER EATER
posted by zarq at 9:01 AM on February 24, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by zarq at 9:01 AM on February 24, 2015 [8 favorites]
I really don't think anything beats that 'taters' post, it really had people puzzled so to what part of the anatomy/act it referred to (pros*tate*??).
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:10 AM on February 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:10 AM on February 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
Plo chops.
posted by zarq at 9:16 AM on February 24, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by zarq at 9:16 AM on February 24, 2015 [5 favorites]
Also, taters were porn. It's a sore spot for the original OP, and she'd appreciate it if we could let it drop.
posted by zarq at 9:18 AM on February 24, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by zarq at 9:18 AM on February 24, 2015 [8 favorites]
Ah. Guess who has never watched Fight Club (insert embarrassed emoji here).
I've never actually watched Fight Club, either. Everything I know about it I know from hearing people talk about Fight Club
posted by octobersurprise at 9:20 AM on February 24, 2015 [4 favorites]
I've never actually watched Fight Club, either. Everything I know about it I know from hearing people talk about Fight Club
posted by octobersurprise at 9:20 AM on February 24, 2015 [4 favorites]
They broke the first rule!
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 9:23 AM on February 24, 2015 [17 favorites]
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 9:23 AM on February 24, 2015 [17 favorites]
Always wanted to make Flight Cub, tho. About an adorable little bear cub who flies around delivering faux-profundities in a sententious manner.
posted by octobersurprise at 9:27 AM on February 24, 2015 [9 favorites]
posted by octobersurprise at 9:27 AM on February 24, 2015 [9 favorites]
Wow - thanks for that, zarq - somehow I missed that (although the mystery was part of the fun).
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:34 AM on February 24, 2015
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:34 AM on February 24, 2015
You're welcome! The mystery of not knowing was the best part!
posted by zarq at 9:38 AM on February 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by zarq at 9:38 AM on February 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
My favorite Metafilter accidental neologism is BHUTAN for "blowjob," thanks to a very enthusiastic but not very well executed autocorrect back in the early days of same.
posted by KathrynT at 9:41 AM on February 24, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by KathrynT at 9:41 AM on February 24, 2015 [8 favorites]
<img src="giantmushroom.gif" alt="Portabello" height="400" width="200">
posted by Sonny Jim at 9:42 AM on February 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Sonny Jim at 9:42 AM on February 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
This snowflake, it vibrates?
posted by Strange Interlude at 9:44 AM on February 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Strange Interlude at 9:44 AM on February 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
Is this something that I'd need a Metafilter to understand?
posted by sockermom at 9:55 AM on February 24, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by sockermom at 9:55 AM on February 24, 2015 [4 favorites]
Sometimes, I get a salad to eat just so I can get a crouton and pet it.
posted by spinifex23 at 9:59 AM on February 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by spinifex23 at 9:59 AM on February 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
Wordshore: "Ah. Guess who has never watched Fight Club (insert embarrassed emoji here)."
Charles V? Ivan the Terrible? Betsy Ross?
posted by Chrysostom at 10:06 AM on February 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
Charles V? Ivan the Terrible? Betsy Ross?
posted by Chrysostom at 10:06 AM on February 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
No, no, Chyrsostom, Vlad the Inhaler. Never chewed his food. Dead by artichoke.
posted by Buttons Bellbottom at 10:31 AM on February 24, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by Buttons Bellbottom at 10:31 AM on February 24, 2015 [6 favorites]
My wife, who is black, knows "snowflake" from her social circles as a word indicating white people who have a preference or habit of dating/hanging out primarily with black people. She's not an internetty person at all, so no clue what MeFi is. Now imagine her amusement turned confusion turned back to amusement when I showed up in my MeFi "Special Snowflake" tshirt for the first time and said I got it "from a website I like".
posted by donnagirl at 10:33 AM on February 24, 2015 [38 favorites]
posted by donnagirl at 10:33 AM on February 24, 2015 [38 favorites]
Well, that is almost certainly the best story I will hear today.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 10:46 AM on February 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by MCMikeNamara at 10:46 AM on February 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
Metafilter: {|} / HAMBURGER Not [beanplate]-ist DTMFA IANAL FTFY cats MRA hivemind hurf durf grar D'oh! Aye Carumba! Hmmm. *suck suck* Hidely-ho! HA HA! BRAAAP! Eeexcellent . . .
If anyone wants me, I'll be in my room.
posted by Herodios at 11:39 AM on February 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
If anyone wants me, I'll be in my room.
posted by Herodios at 11:39 AM on February 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
"Special snowflake" is certainly not exclusive to MetaFilter.
But interesting that according to Google Trends it only really takes off in 2009, ten years after the release of Fight Club.
posted by Kabanos at 11:47 AM on February 24, 2015
But interesting that according to Google Trends it only really takes off in 2009, ten years after the release of Fight Club.
posted by Kabanos at 11:47 AM on February 24, 2015
“You are not special. You're not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else. We're all part of the same compost heap. We're all singing, all dancing crap of the world.”via.
Soundtrack.
Strangely I can't find the scene on youtube.
posted by cjorgensen at 11:53 AM on February 24, 2015
Conversely, (and I can't believe I'm bringing this back into the light) I unintentionally invented a phrase on Metafilter that caught on elsewhere...
(NSFW?)
posted by chococat at 11:58 AM on February 24, 2015 [5 favorites]
(NSFW?)
posted by chococat at 11:58 AM on February 24, 2015 [5 favorites]
Conversely (I can't believe what some people find repeatedly brag worthy), if is more than two words and five syllables long, it hasn't really caught on anywhere. Unless one is a hexagonal atmopheric ice crystal formed around a dust more or bacterium which is of an unusually rare quality, that is.
posted by y2karl at 12:40 PM on February 24, 2015
posted by y2karl at 12:40 PM on February 24, 2015
Google's ngram viewer shows snowflake inexplicably surging in popularity about 1970. It doesn't see special snowflake at all, though, as Kabanos points out, a regular Google search demonstrates that it's ubiquitous and it surely didn't originate on MetaFilter. But the ngram viewer does show unique snowflake in the Google Books corpus, though very rare, appearing in about 1961 and rising in frequency from then onward. (I don't understand what the notice "search for 'unique snowflake' yielded only one result" means in this context.) Know Your Meme claims the origin of special snowflake as Fight Club and other than a reference directly to Fight Club, points to a generalized usage in a 2006 LiveJournal post by invisibob.
Occasionally people think that a common internet usage originated on MetaFilter, but to my knowledge that's never been the case. We do have some very familiar culture-specific usages that have basically never made it beyond our borders that maybe people assume must just be out there and are not particular to MeFi, such as scarabic's eponysterical, which has long seemed close to truly escaping into the wild but really hasn't.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 12:48 PM on February 24, 2015 [5 favorites]
Occasionally people think that a common internet usage originated on MetaFilter, but to my knowledge that's never been the case. We do have some very familiar culture-specific usages that have basically never made it beyond our borders that maybe people assume must just be out there and are not particular to MeFi, such as scarabic's eponysterical, which has long seemed close to truly escaping into the wild but really hasn't.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 12:48 PM on February 24, 2015 [5 favorites]
Metatalk: that's where I'm a Viking!
posted by double block and bleed at 12:51 PM on February 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by double block and bleed at 12:51 PM on February 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
Did /HAMBURGER not catch on? I just kind of assumed it had, to the extent that I use it in IRL conversation.
It totally did! So much so, in fact, that it got really super annoying and totally stopped being any fun at all after a few months. (Quite possibly exactly five years and twenty-two days ago, as it happens.)
I do sometimes see people dropping a HAMBURGER from time to time, though. It's nice in moderation.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:52 PM on February 24, 2015
It totally did! So much so, in fact, that it got really super annoying and totally stopped being any fun at all after a few months. (Quite possibly exactly five years and twenty-two days ago, as it happens.)
I do sometimes see people dropping a HAMBURGER from time to time, though. It's nice in moderation.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:52 PM on February 24, 2015
I haven't read most of this post, but here's where I learned of this usage of snowflake -- Calvin & Hobbes.
posted by mr. digits at 12:53 PM on February 24, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by mr. digits at 12:53 PM on February 24, 2015 [6 favorites]
If you ngram the phrase "no two snowflakes" you'll find that the analogy of snowflake-uniqueness to human-uniqueness is definitely more than a century old.
posted by yoink at 2:04 PM on February 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by yoink at 2:04 PM on February 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
Another combative meeting at school about my son's dysgraphia and how he is going to flunk because he won't pass the state tests because he can't write about what he reads. I said "Look, I do not think he is some special snowflake. He just needs some help." Everyone laughed. They had never heard that before. Things went well after that.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 2:14 PM on February 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Mr. Yuck at 2:14 PM on February 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
I always thought the snowflake thing came from Fight Club, based on other people saying so. I'm another that has never seen it and everything I know about Fight Club comes from the Internet.
We do have some very familiar culture-specific usages that have basically never made it beyond our borders that maybe people assume must just be out there and are not particular to MeFi, such as scarabic's eponysterical, which has long seemed close to truly escaping into the wild but really hasn't.
Which, of course, originated outside MeFi but in a conversation about MeFi.
Speaking of:
We do have some very familiar culture-specific usages that have basically never made it beyond our borders that maybe people assume must just be out there and are not particular to MeFi, such as scarabic's eponysterical, which has long seemed close to truly escaping into the wild but really hasn't.
Which, of course, originated outside MeFi but in a conversation about MeFi.
Speaking of:
I'm interested in the etymology of the descriptor 'snowflake'...posted by dg at 2:19 PM on February 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Wordshore
In the movie Glory Trip (an escaped slave ) calls Searles ( born free and educated) snowflake. I took it to mean a civil war era version of Oreo.
posted by brujita at 2:51 PM on February 24, 2015
posted by brujita at 2:51 PM on February 24, 2015
It comes from the movie Snowflake, where Dyler Turden refers to most of his acquaintances as "Fight Clubs" because he liked to disagree with them constantly.
posted by So You're Saying These Are Pants? at 3:26 PM on February 24, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by So You're Saying These Are Pants? at 3:26 PM on February 24, 2015 [4 favorites]
Wordshore: "Ah. Guess who has never watched Fight Club (insert embarrassed emoji here)."
Charles V? Ivan the Terrible? Betsy Ross?
Man, these new emoji are going to be awesome!
posted by Celsius1414 at 3:48 PM on February 24, 2015
Charles V? Ivan the Terrible? Betsy Ross?
Man, these new emoji are going to be awesome!
posted by Celsius1414 at 3:48 PM on February 24, 2015
•€>
To much caffeine playing lunar lander or cyclops Ivan The Terrible.
posted by clavdivs at 6:11 PM on February 24, 2015
To much caffeine playing lunar lander or cyclops Ivan The Terrible.
posted by clavdivs at 6:11 PM on February 24, 2015
This thread needs more emoji
🍔
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:59 AM on February 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
🍔
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:59 AM on February 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
Not precisely "special snowflake", but related: The idea that snowflakes are each unique, that no two are alike, stemmed from the research of Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley (who was awesome).
posted by jammy at 10:31 AM on February 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by jammy at 10:31 AM on February 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
"What are some mefi specific words? Is there a list?"
There's the In Jokes wiki page, linked to up thread. I also made a MeTa post a few years back asking this very question.
posted by iamkimiam at 11:18 AM on February 25, 2015
There's the In Jokes wiki page, linked to up thread. I also made a MeTa post a few years back asking this very question.
posted by iamkimiam at 11:18 AM on February 25, 2015
...the research of Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley (who was awesome).
That's an interesting find, and another claim to fame for Vermont (calling Jessamyn).
posted by Wordshore at 5:52 AM on February 26, 2015
That's an interesting find, and another claim to fame for Vermont (calling Jessamyn).
posted by Wordshore at 5:52 AM on February 26, 2015
I don't know about y'all, but we used it on a different forum I hung out at for crazy people... Could have been from Fight Club, but I've never watched it. I just remember using the term. We were all "special" there. ^_^
posted by patheral at 11:30 AM on February 26, 2015
posted by patheral at 11:30 AM on February 26, 2015
It's nice in moderation.
No, actually 'hamburger' was always dumb.
What gets me is those who use the name of a terrorist organization from the 1970s for Plate of Shrimp. How is it possible you've never seen "Repo Man"?
Yes, my umbrage is definitely related to the 'A' paper I wrote about Baader-Mainhof for my German History class.
posted by Rash at 3:31 PM on February 26, 2015
No, actually 'hamburger' was always dumb.
What gets me is those who use the name of a terrorist organization from the 1970s for Plate of Shrimp. How is it possible you've never seen "Repo Man"?
Yes, my umbrage is definitely related to the 'A' paper I wrote about Baader-Mainhof for my German History class.
posted by Rash at 3:31 PM on February 26, 2015
Hi there! \o/
posted by a humble nudibranch at 9:54 PM on February 26, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by a humble nudibranch at 9:54 PM on February 26, 2015 [1 favorite]
...that white cat from down the street. Her human calls to her every evening at dusk....snoooowflaaaaake....snooowflaake....here kitty kitty kitty kitty.... and then, ...there you are. Yes. There you are my precious...there you are...
I always worry that, one day, Snowflake won't return. I don't think I could bear it.
posted by mule98J at 9:12 AM on March 1, 2015
I always worry that, one day, Snowflake won't return. I don't think I could bear it.
posted by mule98J at 9:12 AM on March 1, 2015
The first use of 'snowflake' to mean 'distinct individual' I know of is "No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible," from Stanisław Jerzy Lec. A bit off Googling says that's from "More Unkempt Thoughts," 1964.
posted by dws at 8:55 PM on March 2, 2015
posted by dws at 8:55 PM on March 2, 2015
Yoink: If you ngram the phrase "no two snowflakes" you'll find that the analogy of snowflake-uniqueness to human-uniqueness is definitely more than a century old.
I think yoink is closest to the right answer in here- the usage in Fight Club is a sarcastic reference to the abovementioned pop-sci knowledge.
posted by stinkfoot at 3:05 PM on March 5, 2015
I think yoink is closest to the right answer in here- the usage in Fight Club is a sarcastic reference to the abovementioned pop-sci knowledge.
posted by stinkfoot at 3:05 PM on March 5, 2015
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"You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake."
posted by Huffy Puffy at 7:26 AM on February 24, 2015 [24 favorites]