pseudo

pseudo
    adj 1: (often used in combination) not genuine but having the
           appearance of; "a pseudo esthete"; "pseudoclassic"
    n 1: a person who makes deceitful pretenses [syn: {imposter},
         {impostor}, {pretender}, {fake}, {faker}, {fraud}, {sham},
         {shammer}, {pseudo}, {pseud}, {role player}]
    

Pseudo- \Pseu"do-\ [Gr. pseydh`s lying, false, akin to psey`dein
   to belie; cf. psydro`s lying, psy`qos a lie.]
   A combining form or prefix signifying false, counterfeit,
   pretended, spurious; as, pseudo-apostle, a false apostle;
   pseudo-clergy, false or spurious clergy; pseudo-episcopacy,
   pseudo-form, pseudo-martyr, pseudo-philosopher. Also used
   adjectively.
   [1913 Webster]
    

pseudo
 /soo'doh/, n.

   [Usenet: truncation of `pseudonym']

   1. An electronic-mail or {Usenet} persona adopted by a human for
   amusement value or as a means of avoiding negative repercussions of
   one's net.behavior; a `nom de Usenet', often associated with forged
   postings designed to conceal message origins. Perhaps the best-known
   and funniest hoax of this type is {B1FF}. See also {tentacle}.

   2. Notionally, a {flamage}-generating AI program simulating a Usenet
   user. Many flamers have been accused of actually being such entities,
   despite the fact that no AI program of the required sophistication yet
   exists. However, in 1989 there was a famous series of forged postings
   that used a phrase-frequency-based travesty generator to simulate the
   styles of several well-known flamers; it was based on large samples of
   their back postings (compare {Dissociated Press}). A significant
   number of people were fooled by the forgeries, and the debate over
   their authenticity was settled only when the perpetrator came forward
   to publicly admit the hoax.
    

pseudo

   <jargon> /soo'doh/ ({Usenet}) Pseudonym.

   1. An {electronic-mail} or {Usenet} persona adopted by a human
   for amusement value or as a means of avoiding negative
   repercussions of one's net.behaviour; a "nom de {Usenet}",
   often associated with forged postings designed to conceal
   message origins.  Perhaps the best-known and funniest hoax of
   this type is {BIFF}.

   2. Notionally, a {flamage}-generating {AI} program simulating
   a {Usenet} user.  Many flamers have been accused of actually
   being such entities, despite the fact that no AI program of
   the required sophistication yet exists.  However, in 1989
   there was a famous series of forged postings that used a
   phrase-frequency-based travesty generator to simulate the
   styles of several well-known flamers; it was based on large
   samples of their back postings (compare {Dissociated Press}).
   A significant number of people were fooled by the forgeries,
   and the debate over their authenticity was settled only when
   the perpetrator came forward to publicly admit the hoax.

   [{Jargon File}]

   (1995-03-13)
    

62 Moby Thesaurus words for "pseudo":
      affected, apocryphal, artificial, assumed, bastard, bogus,
      brummagem, colorable, colored, counterfeit, counterfeited,
      distorted, dressed up, dummy, embellished, embroidered, ersatz,
      factitious, fake, faked, false, falsified, feigned, fictitious,
      fictive, forged, garbled, hokey, illegitimate, imitation, junky,
      make-believe, man-made, mock, perverted, phony, pinchbeck,
      plagiarized, pretended, put-on, quasi, queer, self-styled, sham,
      shoddy, simulated, snide, so-called, soi-disant, spurious,
      supposititious, synthetic, tin, tinsel, titivated, twisted,
      unauthentic, ungenuine, unnatural, unreal, warped, wrong