Heard this one? Even when I look up the definition, it doesn't seem to fit the usage.

(from yesterday's local paper, interviewing an author ready to depart for her family's summer beach-house)

Most luxurious feature in your home: Probably our refrigerator, sadly. How futilitarian. I do like it though. It is spacious and has a see-through door.

If the definitions are accurate then the word's use here is inaccurate.

I suspect that the writer saw the word and guessed its meaning as being that of a utility object with certain pointless features. Not a bad guess, but wrong.

It reminds me of an article in our local paper where the author was writing about a new car and used the phrase, "...as with all Mercedes vehicles, this model eschews (sic) quality..." - clearly the opposite to what he actually meant.

What word he was seeking I can only guess: "issues" might work in a slightly changed construction, but that's the only similar-sounding word I can think of.

Richard,

At a guess, I'd say the word he was looking for is "exudes".

quote:

At a guess, I'd say the word he was looking for is "exudes".

I didn't think of that. And I suppose it's just possible that, had he written something like "exchewds", a spell-checker might have suggested "eschews".

If the author is futilitarian, not the 'fridge, it would make sense to me. An effort to go where one may find the "simple life" ends up focusing on an electric appliance. Doesn't that fit the definition?

I don't feel that there's enough here to understand the context. The word seems a no-brainer to me; we all know what "futile" means, and it's the noun form.

Your interpretation works, Asa, though I am not sure what he means by "how" then.