fauxnetic smile
- noun
- Neologism
:
sonrisa falsa
- She greeted her guests with a fauxnetic smile, masking her nervousness.
Examples
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His fauxnetic smile fooled most of his colleagues during the tense meeting.
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It's easy to spot a fauxnetic smile if you pay close attention to the eyes.
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She greeted him with a fauxnetic smile.
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His fauxnetic smile fooled everyone at the party.
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His fauxnetic smile fooled most of his colleagues during the tense meeting.
-
It's easy to spot a fauxnetic smile if you pay close attention to the eyes.
-
She greeted her guests with a fauxnetic smile, masking her nervousness.
Synonyms
A smile that is not real and hides anger or sadness
A fake smile that shows no real feeling
How Sincere
4
1.0
- Neologism
Surface Forms
Morphology
fauxnetic + smile
The first constituent 'fauxnetic' is a non‑standard, unattested/neologistic form (not found in the dictionary) so a B1 learner who only knows the listed constituent words cannot reliably infer its meaning. Even if a learner recognizes 'faux' as meaning 'fake', the coined suffix/shape '-netic' (apparently evoking 'authentic' or similar) is not a regular, productive morpheme, so the overall sense ('a fake but seemingly sincere smile') is not predictably derivable from the parts.
Etymology
Fauxnetic smile comes from joining faux, meaning 'fake', and authentic, meaning 'real'. Imagine a smile where the mouth moves but the eyes do not, so it looks sincere even though it is not, and that's why the phrase means a fake smile that seems genuine.