Help me, Literate LJ

[drwex]

I'm trying to think of a language- or conversation-related category term and failing to come up with it.

There's a category of speech that I think is best characterized by the slang use of "Bite me!" It's said in an emphatic but not angry way, usually in response to a verbal touche' by another person in the conversation.

What is the term for this kind of speech type/category? Mizarchivist called it "flippant" and that's sort of in the right direction. It's not "sarcasm" nor really "snarking" - in fact it's something that may be a response to someone else snarking at us.

It's a retort, of sorts, but not really. "STFU" is sometimes used these days in online discourse in the same place, I think.

Anyone have any idea what this sort of thing is called?

EDIT: I think 'rejoinder' is probably the closest to the sense of what I was thinking.

Comments

[ianhess.livejournal.com]

A riposte?

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

To my francophonic ear, that sounds like a "rejoinder".

[louiseroho.livejournal.com]

My first thought was "ejaculation."

[keyne.livejournal.com]

Retort.

[marius23.livejournal.com]

I would second "rejoinder".

[edichka2.livejournal.com]

Kinda similar to one particular usage of the Russian Yob tvoyu mat'! ("Fuck your mother!"), in which the common epithet can be tossed off with remarkable casualness. Like,

- "Got anything to drink?"
- "Fuck your mother, whore! I'm all out."

- E

[drwex]

Ah those whacky russians!

[drwex]

I think of that, linguistically, more like a statement made in surprise.

[drwex]

Yes, I think that's probably the sense I was going for.

[quezz.livejournal.com]

I would have gone with "comeback," or "rejoinder," as someone else said.