What is a Self-Absorbed Word™?

Question

_{This is in the spirit of the What is a Word/Phrase™ series started by JLee with a special brand of Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles.}

If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it an Self-Absorbed Word™.

Use the following examples below to find the rule.

And, if you want to analyze, here is a CSV version:

Self-Absorbed Words™,Not Self-Absorbed Words™
CAVE,DEN
GNU,EMU
JACK,JOHN
LAME,HURT
MINT,LEAF
PINE,OAK
WINE,GLASS
Less Common Examples:,
BIRD,BEAR
CURL,BEND
FIJI,EVEREST
LIVES,SOULS
PIPER,FLUTIST
HEART,LUNG
PIP,NOTCH

Haven't you heard of the new big Google project Glass Looks At Someone Smiling? (just kidding). Then there's John Only Has Nine, and Emu Mimics Unix! — ErikE, Aug 29 '16 at 17:46
@DanWalmsley Because JLee did it and I'm just following in the format they created. — Engineer Toast, Aug 30 '16 at 00:05
@JLee Do you remember why you trademarked the words / phrases? Was it just a hook? — Engineer Toast, Aug 30 '16 at 00:05
@JLee Start an entirely new brand of puzzles. Leave for 7 years. Return. Fantastic. — Engineer Toast, Apr 27 '22 at 15:41
@Engineer Toast I'm going through all of the Word and Phrase puzzles for the past 7 years. It is taking HOURS! Glad to be back. — JLee, Apr 27 '22 at 15:46

score 21 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 29 '16 at 14:52

21

I'm pretty sure these are

Recursive Acronyms

I recognize

Cave Automatic Virtual Environment, Gnu's Not Unix, Curl URL Request Library, and Wine Is Not an Emulator

Although I'm honestly a little surprised that DEN isn't self-absorbed. I thought I heard of something along those lines once.

Yes, all the self-absorbed words

Appear on this wikipedia page

answered Aug 29 '16 at 14:52

Sconibulus

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/is using GIMP while reading this – Mithical Aug 29 '16 at 14:57
Would it have been more of a challenge had I left out the "Lesson Common Examples" header and just mixed them all up? I was worried it would be too esoteric a puzzle without it but I may have pushed it too far the other way. – Engineer Toast Aug 29 '16 at 17:03
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@EngineerToast I don't think that would have made much of a difference? The biggest hint for me was the presence of GNU, which is (to me) by far the most unusual word on the list. – Sconibulus Aug 29 '16 at 17:10
@EngineerToast Yep, as soon as I saw "GNU" I didn't really even need to look at the rest of the list. Take out that word and it would be much more challenging. – Bradley Uffner Aug 29 '16 at 19:06
@Sconibulus To think, here I left it in specifically to make sure it wasn't too challenging. Ah, well. There'll be a new one tomorrow. – Engineer Toast Aug 29 '16 at 20:01
According to Douglas Hofstadter, GOD is one of these, too. It stands for GOD Over Djinn. – Glen O Aug 30 '16 at 02:10

What is a Self-Absorbed Word™?

1 Answers1