What is a Narcissistic 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 has a certain property, I call it a Narcissistic Word™. If it definitively does not have that property, I call it an Echoing Word™.

You can use the examples below to find the property:

Narcissistic™	Echoing™
RUDDY	HEALTHY
CHAOTIC	DEVILISH
COMPOSED	DECOMPOSED
COMPOSITE	VERSATILE
MOSTLY	SURPASSING
VETERAN	BANDIT
UPTIGHT	SHY
NARCISSISTIC	VAIN
ISOLATED	RETILEABLE
EXPLAIN	SCIENTIFIC
REFRESHING	ROTTEN
DISTASTEFUL	VENOMOUS
UNCOPYRIGHTABLE	ANNAGRAMMABLE
VIRIDESCENT	FANTASTICAL

And a CSV version:

RUDDY, HEALTHY
CHAOTIC, DEVILISH
COMPOSED, DECOMPOSED
COMPOSITE, VERSATILE
MOSTLY, SURPASSING
VETERAN, BANDIT
UPTIGHT, SHY
NARCISSISTIC, VAIN
ISOLATED, RETILEABLE
EXPLAIN, SCIENTIFIC
REFRESHING, ROTTEN
DISTASTEFUL, VENOMOUS
UNCOPYRIGHTABLE, ANNAGRAMMABLE
VIRIDESCENT, FANTASTICAL

Oops, yes I did, looks like my notes parsed G as 3, rather than 2. Thanks. — Sconibulus, Sep 26 '16 at 17:25

score 16 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:50

16

All the words which appear in the table in the question

have appeared in the title of one of these Word™ puzzles!

For the left-hand column, a word X is a Narcissistic Word™ if

X is itself an X word, according to the puzzle with that name.

Thanks to @Ankoganit for helping me realise this! See the following list:

- What is a Mostly Ruddy Word™? (Ruddy is a Ruddy Word™)

- What is a Chaotic Word™? (Chaotic is a Chaotic Word™)

- What is an Uptight™ Word? (Composed is a Composed Word™)

- What is a Composite Word™? (Composite is a Composite Word™)

- What is a Mostly Ruddy Word™? (Mostly is a Mostly Word™)

- What is a Veteran Word™? (Veteran is a Veteran Word™)

- What is an Uptight™ Word? (Uptight is an Uptight Word™!)

- What is a Narcissistic Word™? (Narcissistic is a Narcissistic Word™, although putting it in the right-hand column would also work equally well).

- What is an Isolated Word™? (Isolated is an Isolated Word™)

- What Is An Explain Word? (Explain is an Explain Word)

- What is a Refreshing Word™?

- What is a Distasteful Word™?

- What is an Uncopyrightable Word?™

- What is a Viridescent Word™?

For the right-hand column, a word X is an Echoing Word™ if

X is not an X word, according to the puzzle with that title.

See the following list:

- What is a Healthy Word™? (Healthy is not a Healthy Word™)

- What is a Devilish Phrase™/Word™? (Devilish is not a Devilish Word™)

- What is a Decomposed Word™? (Decomposed is not a Decomposed Word™)

- What is a Versatile Word™? (Versatile is not a Versatile Word™)

- What is a Surpassing Phrase™? (Surpassing is not a Surpassing Word™)

- What is a Bandit Word™? (Bandit is not a Bandit Word™)

- What is a Shy Word™? (Shy is not a Shy Word™)

- What is a Vain Word™? (Vain is not a Vain Word™)

- What is a Re-Tileable Word™?

- What is a Scientific Word™

- What is a Rotten Word™?

- What is a Venomous Word™?

- What is an Anagrammable Word™?

- What is a Fantastical Word™?

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:50

Community

1

answered Sep 26 '16 at 15:20

Rand al'Thor

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Healthy has as well. – gtwebb Sep 26 '16 at 15:24
1

Devilish and Vain have indeed been Word™/Phrase™ puzzles. – Engineer Toast Sep 26 '16 at 15:24
1

So has rotten and venomous – Beastly Gerbil Sep 26 '16 at 15:25
Decomposed and devilish are showing in the related listing on the right for me. – Forral Sep 26 '16 at 15:25
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Did all the words come from the other Word™/Phrase™ puzzles? That would be interesting but not good as the rule for this puzzle. – Engineer Toast Sep 26 '16 at 15:27
@gtwebb Doesn't seem to be based on the type of rule used, since e.g. Healthy is on the right but Viridescent is on the left. – Rand al'Thor Sep 26 '16 at 15:39
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This solution makes me realize the puzzle is much better than I first thought. The fun bit is that NARCISSISTIC could have gone either way and still been right. It's the same self-referential paradox that applies to autological words. – Engineer Toast Sep 26 '16 at 16:23
@BeastlyGerbil Solved! :-) – Rand al'Thor Sep 26 '16 at 16:26
@EngineerToast Technically correct, but realistically, there's no way Narcissistic isn't going to include Narcissistic. (although it easily could have if another name was chosen) :) – Sconibulus Sep 26 '16 at 16:30
Tough to classify ECHOING, though. – Gareth McCaughan Sep 26 '16 at 17:22

What is a Narcissistic Word™?

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