The Implicatures of Plasticarian

Speranza

From today's World Wide Words,

World Wide Words © Michael Quinion 2013 http://www.worldwidewords.org.


"When Thomas Smith, a chemistry PhD
student from Manchester, was given a plastic
lid for his takeaway tea by the staff at his university
café, he had a novel comeback. “I can’t take that,”
he said. “I’m a plasticarian.”


Quinion notes about the suffix, -arian:

"it’s rare in asserting opposition
rather than acceptance."

and provides an earlier quote:

"Becoming a plasticarian will affect my life and my diet..."

Quinion compares 'plasticarian' to:

humanitarian
libertarian
vegetarian

and as he notes, it is rare to have '-arian' IMPLICATING opposition (or 
rejection) rather than support. But since now, after T. Smith, everybody
(that's  a hyperbole) seems to be using 'plasticarian', it may do to play with
the three  other items in terms of 'opposition':

"I'm a humanitarian: I avoid humans". (alla "I'm a plasticarian: I avoid 
plastics")
"I'm a libertarian: I avoid liberty" -- cfr. the Statue of Liberty in 
Regent Street, London (Sir Arthur Lasenby Liberty (13 August 1843 – 11 May 
1917)).

"I'm a vegetarian; I avoid vegetals."

THE PEDANTIC Manchester TEA provider:

"When Thomas Smith, a chemistry PhD
student from Manchester, was given  a plastic
lid for his takeaway tea by the staff at his university
café,  he had a novel comeback. “I can’t take that,”
he said. “I’m a  plasticarian.”

THOMAS SMITH: I can't take that [plastic lid]. I'm a plasticarian.

STAFF: You mean an anti-plasticarian. Strictly.

THOMAS SMITH. Hmpf.

Cheers,

Speranza