What's the word for...

May 13, 2009 5:02 AM

Is there a word or term for someone who exaggerates things? Is there a word for someone who craves/needs sympathy?

Hope you can help, I'm stumped on these.

posted by mooreeasyvibe to writing & language (53 comments total)

Someone who exaggerates is hyperbolic.
posted by jbickers at 5:06 AM on May 13

By needing sympathy I mean the 'poor me', 'listen what happened to me' kind of person.

The one who thinks their pain is the worst. No other's pain could be so bad. That kind of person.
posted by mooreeasyvibe at 5:11 AM on May 13

Sycophant.
posted by jbickers at 5:13 AM on May 13

Isn't a sycophant a 'yes man'?
posted by mooreeasyvibe at 5:19 AM on May 13

"Drama queen".
posted by knile at 5:22 AM on May 13

Self-centered?
Dare I tempt the wrath of metafilter, drama queen?
Attention whore?
Histrionic personality disorder? From Wikipedia: They often fail to see their own personal situation realistically, instead tending to dramatize and exaggerate their difficulties
posted by like_neon at 5:24 AM on May 13 [1 favorite has favorites]

Isn't someone who exaggerates just an "exaggerator"?
posted by glider at 5:26 AM on May 13

Self-absorbed, self-centered, narcissistic.
posted by twins named Lugubrious and Salubrious at 5:26 AM on May 13

You're right ... I meant to type solipsist.
posted by jbickers at 5:29 AM on May 13 [1 favorite has favorites]

Histrionic, melodramatic, or just plain needy.
posted by Metroid Baby at 5:29 AM on May 13 [1 favorite has favorites]

hypochondriac
posted by parmanparman at 5:34 AM on May 13

Emotional vampire.
posted by orrnyereg at 5:34 AM on May 13 [2 favorites has favorites]

For the second one, I usually hear the term "drama queen" or "attention whore".
posted by jedrek at 5:39 AM on May 13

For someone who constantly craves sympathy and exaggerates the extent of their suffering, I like to use the word 'martyr'. But in a really sarcastic voice.
posted by marmaduke_yaverland at 5:40 AM on May 13 [1 favorite has favorites]

Baron Munchausen?
posted by magstheaxe at 5:42 AM on May 13

Self-pitying people are self-indulgent.
posted by hciadt at 5:43 AM on May 13

Well, we had a guy we called 'The Ten Shitter'. As in, if you said you'd done one shit, he instantly claimed to have done ten. He was a compulsive liar and a very, very odd chap. He'd continue to lie and exagerrate even when caught out in blatant, bare-faced lies. Very strange.
posted by Happy Dave at 5:44 AM on May 13

TEH EXAGGERATORRRRRR!
Or, narcissist. But it's a lot more fun to say TEH EXAGGERATORRRRR!
posted by herrdoktor at 5:49 AM on May 13 [1 favorite has favorites]

one-upper?
posted by ruwan at 5:52 AM on May 13

Attention whore/gigolo.
posted by fire&wings at 5:53 AM on May 13

Victum, poor me, would rather have sympathy than respect.
posted by misspat at 6:03 AM on May 13

Attention whore: yes. Gigolo: no.
posted by RussHy at 6:11 AM on May 13

Boaster.
posted by mippy at 6:34 AM on May 13

Someone who exaggerates: Liar.

Someone who craves/needs sympathy: Whiner, Mama's Boy, Narcissist, Drama Queen.
posted by alms at 6:40 AM on May 13

Scott Adams' Dilbert features a minor character named Topper.
posted by gregoreo at 6:54 AM on May 13

Histrionic.
posted by availablelight at 7:01 AM on May 13 [1 favorite has favorites]

Penelope.
posted by hermitosis at 7:19 AM on May 13 [1 favorite has favorites]

Sycophant

Nope, that means something completely different. A sycophant is someone who attempts to win favour through flattery.

You're right ... I meant to type solipsist.

Again, not even remotely correct. Solipsism is a philosophical worldview in which knowledge about everything but the self is denied.
posted by turkeyphant at 7:23 AM on May 13 [1 favorite has favorites]

How much exaggeration? A Pathological, Compulsive, Chronic, or Habitual Liar?
posted by X4ster at 7:23 AM on May 13

Combination of histrionic and narcissistic plus self-pitying martyr.
posted by jgirl at 7:31 AM on May 13

exaggerator: teller of "tall tales" (old-time Texas, or maybe I'm just old)
needy person: I've heard "energy vampire."
posted by vincele at 7:31 AM on May 13

If I'm thinking of the same sort of personality as you're describing I think jgirl's got it: it's the sort of person who is narcissistic, not in the Narcissistic Personality Disorder kind of way but just in the general self-fascination way, who then engages in a sort of introspection through histrionic behaviors: they get other people involved as far as possible in their own problems and wishes and concerns and then navel-gaze through watching others react to what's going on in their own mind.
posted by XMLicious at 7:44 AM on May 13

I would call an annoying exaggerator a blowhard.

The sympathy-demander may just be a whiner.
posted by hardcore taters at 7:59 AM on May 13

Actually, the same word applies to both. It's Jamie. You don't want to know him.
posted by philip-random at 8:24 AM on May 13 [1 favorite has favorites]

The term for someone like Baron Munchhausen is "fabulist".
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 8:37 AM on May 13 [2 favorites has favorites]

1. a bullshitter
2. a pathetic sad sack
posted by aquafortis at 8:51 AM on May 13

Martyr complex
posted by randomstriker at 8:55 AM on May 13

jbickers is close, but the word for a person who exaggerates is a hyperbolist.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 9:01 AM on May 13

Braggart.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:19 AM on May 13 [1 favorite has favorites]

Again, not even remotely correct. Solipsism is a philosophical worldview in which knowledge about everything but the self is denied.

True if you're talking about the philosophy, but "solipsist" can be used casually to describe someone who feels they are the center of the universe - much like "pagan" can be used to describe someone not of the currently-being-discussed faith, and not necessarily mean that they are practitioner of a folk religion.
posted by jbickers at 10:10 AM on May 13

"solipsist" can be used casually to describe someone who feels they are the center of the universe

Care to provide a citation? No dictionary I've checked mentions this meaning. There's a significant difference between histrionic self-centredness and doubting other minds.
posted by turkeyphant at 10:17 AM on May 13 [1 favorite has favorites]

For my former friend, everything was an immense tragedy, usually relating to parents' divorce many years earlier, whatever dude had just dumped her crazy ass, or her latest academic, work, or health crisis. My roommates avoided her like the plague when she came over to the house. They called her Debbie Downer.
posted by futureisunwritten at 10:19 AM on May 13

By the way...

Solipsism - n. the view that the self is all that can be known to exist. Origin from Latin solus 'alone' + ipse 'self'.

Source: Oxford Dictionary of Current English that's sitting on my desk. Look Ma, I just learneded a new word!
posted by futureisunwritten at 10:25 AM on May 13

I knew a girl we called "the bleeder" because she was always talking about her health problems, on and on. I assume there was some basis in fact for these problems, but the extent to which she used them to form her identity and solicit a certain response from people was unusual. So, now, I've taken to calling these types of people "bleeders."

Recently, I have learned there is an actual condition called factitious disorder in which a person manufactures symptoms in order to produce a certain result, often sympathy.
posted by letahl at 10:26 AM on May 13

Care to provide a citation?

Merriam-Webster: a theory holding that the self can know nothing but its own modifications and that the self is the only existent thing ; also : extreme egocentrism

Random House, via dictionary.com: 2. extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of one's feelings, desires, etc.; egoistic self-absorption.
posted by jbickers at 10:29 AM on May 13

Braggart and Whiner
posted by kch at 10:44 AM on May 13

jbickers is close, but the word for a person who exaggerates is a hyperbolist.

This.

Also Solipsist [even colloquially meaning egocentric person], doesn't apply here since the one being described is keenly invested in other people's actions and sympathies.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:44 AM on May 13 [1 favorite has favorites]

I would hardly cite Merriam-Webster for accuracy and I wasn't even aware Random House published a dictionary. I doubt it is held in particularly high esteem. Frankly, that "meaning" was almost certainly derived from misuse. I would avoid it. The obvious difference pointed out by Potomac Avenue merely highlights how egocentrism cannot be related to solipsism.
posted by turkeyphant at 11:08 AM on May 13

I am familiar with both meanings of "solipsism". I don't think it would be accurate to call the more colloquial meaning a misuse, because it conveys the same concept, just not in a technical philosophical or metaphysical sense. It's simply figurative.

Whether Random House is a worthy or unworthy dictionary, the definition cited is the way I've seen it used so "solipsism" used in that sense would be a good answer to this question I think.
posted by XMLicious at 11:30 AM on May 13

I always think of a drama queen as someone who over-dramatizes everything. Their reasons why -- wants sympathy? wants attention? wants to "stir things up?" who knows...? -- are not necessary to the definition.

I keep thinking of specific behaviors that people who crave or need sympathy may engage in, such as whining, but not all of them do that. Some may even "suffer in silence," except for the unfortunate friend who always has to hear the tales of woe.
posted by Robert Angelo at 12:44 PM on May 13

"Histrionic", but that term is gendered feminine and the person I knew who most closely resembled this description was a dude. So does that make it "his-trionic"? There's also some overlap with "bloviator", and more generously "teller of tall tales".
posted by ladypants at 12:52 PM on May 13

In Australia they would be known almost universally as a 'bullshit artist'.
posted by tim_in_oz at 3:01 PM on May 13

Happy Dave's "Ten Shitter" comment immediately reminded me of an SNL skit and, as I was slowly scrolling and trying to remember the SNL character's name, hermitosis's Penelope link showed up. It was perfect, I tell ya'.

If "Penelope" isn't already used for the exaggerating bloviating fabulist hyperbolic type person, it should be. You know, sort of the way "Pollyanna" is used for someone who is unrealistically and tiresomely optimistic about everything.
posted by bz at 5:18 PM on May 13