English Language & Usage Asked on May 13, 2021
I think the title says it all but just wondering if there is a word that means attracted to talent or attracted to displays of talent.
Examples would be being attracted to seeing someone be a good doctor, dentist, architect, give a good presentation, teacher, engineer, manager, baker. I don’t know how specific to make it. Not just knowing they are talented at something being seeing them display that talent. Heck, it could be talent at being a dad or a mom but the moment they seem like they really know what they’re doing.
I suspect there is no word (yet?) but I know at least for myself there is the phenomenon that when I see someone show their talent it’s a turn on and it’s the same turn on for the most part regardless of talent. All of those examples in the question fit. Seeing someone excel at their skills pushes a button beyond just admiration. It’s not just they are talented, it’s seeing that talent in action. It could be tax accountant of the opposite sex (or whatever sex you’re attracted to) but if they are really into the groove and clearly know their stuff it sticks out and is a turn on.
To give personal examples: an x-girlfriend who of course I liked her else she wouldn’t have been my girlfriend, she was a professor and one day she invited me to hang out in her class so we could more easily go somewhere after the class. Seeing her be in charge of the class and clearly an expert of the topic matter was a huge turn on.
Another lady friend was organized an event and gave a talk. Before the event she was just an attractive friend but during the event when she was skillfully running everything and given a well researched talk it was a huge turn on.
I saw a mother and daughter the other day at a festival. The daughter, about 10yrs old, was not having a good time for some reason. Within a few minutes the mom had managed to bring her daughter out of the mopes and they were dancing together to the music and the daughter looked like she was having the time of her life. That made the mom show her talent as a mom and was a huge turn on.
In other words, it’s not just attracted to people you know are talented, it’s attracted to displays of that talent.
Sapiosexual seems to be a relatively recent addition to the language and is used often now in online dating profiles as a shortcut to saying “attracted to intellect”. Demisexual as well is now in fairly common usage used in dating profiles as a shortcut to “need to have a strong emotional attachment to be sexualy attracted” . So I’m wondering if there is a word for “turned on when I see someone display their talents”, new or old that can similarly be used in an online dating profile.
Sapiosexual is not a well-formed word but a coinage from ignorance (you might as well say brainosexual); it would have had to be sapientisexual. Anyway, it is better to use -phile. Someone ''loving'' the skilled would be dinophile. This has the same dino- as dinosaur, since δεινός means both terrible and (terribly) skilled.
If you really want a pseudo-Latinism ending in -sexual (what does sex have to do with it?) you can use dextrosexual. Unfortunately, this word is also interpretable as denoting sexual preference for one's own right hand.
Answered by Toothrot on May 13, 2021
To be "talented" implies the attractiveness or positivity of the talent. Who, I ask rhetorically, is attracted to talentlessness, clumsiness, or incompetence, as a general trait?
If you are attracted to the performance of a particular talent, for example film acting, you might say you're a "film buff". You give the examples of doctoring, teaching, managing, amongst others.
As others have said, a general suffix forming words meaning "a lover of" is -phile. So for example, a bibliophile is a book-lover.
But given the range of things that can be liked or loved for all sorts of reasons, boiling every expression of it down precisely to a single word in every case is probably not within the current language.
I also wonder whether "admiring" is what you're describing, as a personality trait. That is, you're an admiring or "wondrous" sort of person - a person who easily gains pleasure from witnessing impressive performances of a variety of skills.
Answered by Steve on May 13, 2021
There is groupie
groupie NOUN
informal
1A young woman who regularly follows a pop group or other celebrity, especially in the hope of having a sexual relationship with them.
Oxford Dictionaries
Answered by GEdgar on May 13, 2021
I suggest perhaps “peritiosexual” or “peritiophile”. “Perite” meaning “skilled” or “expert”.
Answered by Concurrer on May 13, 2021
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