Table of Contents
Yomi
ぷろおどろきや
Rōmaji
puro odoroki ya
Type
slang
Literal Meaning
a professional surprised man/woman; a freak-out specialist
Meaning
a person who excitedly shares state-of-the-art tools/technologies like ChatGPT on social media with hyperbole and also with hallucination/overstatement at times based on a few cherry-picked examples (usually to become an “influencer”)
Additional Info
This is a brand new slang term that has been gradually getting popular on Twitter since Mar 2023, following the proliferation of those people who excitably share the latest news about ChatGPT/GPT-4. Allegedly, there are several characteristics of “professional surprised men/women” as follows:
- have zero or little experience in research or programming
- as such, often explain things with hallucination/overstatement/overgeneralisation based on a couple of cherry-picked examples/results
- use very strong words such as やばい/すごい (“amazing, unbelievable, awesome”), 最強 (さいきょう, “the best”), and 神 (かみ, “godlike”), which are often combined with …すぎる (“too …”)
- and then make a naïve assumption/overstatement like “blah blah is no longer needed”
- describe several points using an itemised list (like here)
As you see, this word contains a very ironic and scornful tone, and is often used by bona fide researchers, programmers, and/or engineers.
The last kanji character 屋 (や) describes things or people that specialise in certain areas, such as ラーメン屋 (“ramen restaurant”) and 花屋 (“flower shop”), and 物理屋 (“physicist”). It’s also used to describe certain personalities, e.g. 恥ずかしがり屋 (a shy person), 気分屋 (a moody person); learn more at List of 50+ Japanese Words to Describe Personality. Note, however, that 驚き屋 is not an actual word and hasn’t been used in any other expression; given that, I propose “stokedman” or “awestrucker” as alternative translations for it.
Synonym
プロ煽り屋 (“a professional stirrer”), 自称研究者 (“a self-titled researcher”), ミーハー (“a person who blindly follows the trend”), 意識高い系, アフィカス
Antonym
学者 (“scholar/scientist”), 専門家 (“expert”)
Related Words
アホの一つ覚え, 胡散臭い (“dodgy”), 大袈裟 (“overreacting”, “hyperbolic”, “exaggerated”)
Example
プロ驚き屋によると、医者も弁護士もエンジニアも将来いらなくなるらしい。
According to professional surprised men, doctors, lawyers, and engineers will be dispensable in the future.
プロ驚き屋と研究者は水と油のような存在だ。
Professional surprised men and researchers are like oil and water.
Blog Post in Japanese
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