punding
English edit
Etymology edit
A gerundial noun from the slang term to pund used by addicts, coined by Swedish forensic psychiatrist G. Rylander, in 1968. Folke Sjöqvist, Malcolm Tottie, editor (1969), “Clinical and Medico-criminological aspects of addiction to Central Stimulating Drugs”, in Abuse of central stimulants: Symposium arranged by the Swedish Committee on International Health Relations, Stockholm, November 25-27, 1968, Almqvist & Wiksell, page 257
Noun edit
punding (uncountable)
- A human activity characterized by compulsive fascination with and performance of repetitive, mechanical tasks, such as assembling and disassembling, collecting, or sorting household objects.
- Punding may consist of activities such as collecting pebbles and lining them up as perfectly as possible, or disassembling doorknobs and putting them back together again.
- 2021 July, AJ Lees, “Never Mind the Neurobollocks”, in The Literary Review:
- What Pollan is describing here is a mild form of ‘punding’, a phenomenon first described by intravenous amphetamine addicts.