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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

healy-feely en · ADJ

Etymology

From heal + -y (from how New Age pseudoscience often promotes a "healing" narrative to sell products) + feely (from the importance of feelings and emotions in such practices).

Meanings

  1. (derogatory, informal) Relating to, or believing in, New Age pseudoscience.
    • As anyone who has been around the healy-feely crowd long enough knows, the second Noble Truth of Buddhism states that the cause of all suffering is attachments. 2018, Paul M. Cole, POW/MIA Accounting: Volume I:
    • […] much more palatable to me than talking of chakras and clearing bad energy. It sounded more magical, less New Age. Once we settled on a not too healy-feely compromise, we sent out email flyers to everyone we knew. 2012, Lone Morch, Seeing Red: A Woman's Quest for Truth, Power, and the Sacred:
    • Not to get all healy-feely on you or anything, but I believe that is what they call a “breakthrough” in the therapy game. For one thing, it shed some light on a behavior I'm now working through […] 2012, Dan Zevin, he Day I Turned Uncool: Confessions of a Reluctant Grown-up:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
more healy-feely Degree=Cmp lexicographic
most healy-feely Degree=Sup lexicographic

Relateds

woo woo