single word requests - Term for Only "Unbelieved Warner"

I'm looking for a word, phrase, or idiom to describe a person or fictional device. In stories, especially horror and fantasy, there can be a character who is dismissed when they try to tell others what (they think) is happening.

I would like for this term to make no judgments on such characters, their messages, or deliveries. For example, some of the related terms I find assume predisposition. If the message is foreboding, a related term might be doomsayer:

one given to forebodings and predictions of impending calamity

Other terms question the character's reliability, like Chicken Little:

one who warns of or predicts calamity especially without justification

or this definition of alarmist, which challenges the sensibility of the warning:

a person who tends to raise alarms, especially without sufficient reason, as by exaggerating dangers or prophesying calamities.

Another phrase, cry wolf, carries the stigma that the warning is untrue:

to cry or complain about something when nothing is really wrong. (From the story wherein a child sounds the alarm frequently about a wolf when there is no wolf, only to be ignored when there actually is a wolf.)

These are labels other characters might apply to our subject. But suppose our subject:

Speaks truth (that is, what he says is truly happening), or at least earnestly believes his claim

Presents his issue sensibly

Has not engaged in lying, joking, or other practices that would give others reason not to believe him

Then I don't believe any of these terms do justice in describing him, even if his claim is ridiculous.

In a sense, I'm looking for a hypernym to all the above terms. The words are all about people who warn and are not believed, but they have negative connotations appended to them: reasons to be skeptical (if not dismissive) of such a person's warnings.

Is there a term that means only "someone who warns others, who do not believe him"? If not, is there one to describe "an honest person who warns others sensibly and yet is not believed"?

Answer

Because I know my Greek mythology, metaphoric Cassandra is perfectly accessible to me. But it's a bit "literary", and I wouldn't normally use it in conversation because many people wouldn't know what I meant. In my opinion you're much more likely to be understood if you say someone is...

a [lone] voice [crying] in the wilderness
An individual advocating a course of action or proclaiming a message, who is unheeded; an individual whose opinion is proved to be right despite being ignored or contradicted by others

It's from John the Baptist in the Bible saying "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness" when proclaiming the imminent coming of Christ, but even people who don't know that will normally be familiar with the more general use.

By way of illustrating the difference in prevalence beyond the dreaming spires of academia, check out Google results for "farage" "voice in the wilderness" and "farage" "cassandra" (Nigel Farage is a politician who's long advocated Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, but heretofore has been largely dismissed/ignored by the political establishment). Obviously there's a "gender clash" in calling Farage a Cassandra, but I'd say the main reason newspapers etc., aren't likely to do this is simply because they know many of their readers won't get the reference.

etymology - Origin of the greeting "Sweet dreams".

Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

What are the similarities between the relationships of the characters in The Outsiders and Romeo and Juliet?

At first glance, it might appear as if the characters in The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton and Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare do not have much in common; however, when one isolates the core of the conflicts, it becomes clear that the relationships in both stories are rooted in rivalry and secrecy. In both The Outsiders and Romeo and Juliet , an overarching theme is rivalry. While socioeconomic status separates the greasers from the Socs in The Outsiders , last names separates the Montagues from the Capulets, who appear to be relatively equal in terms of socioeconomic status. Due to these rivalries, there are instances of deadly interactions in both stories. In The Outsiders , Johnny kills Bob (whether his actions were justified or not is debatable). In Romeo and Juliet , Romeo kills Tybalt and Paris, and Tybalt kills Mercutio. These deaths have profound effects on the main characters. In Ponyboy's case, the Johnny's death and other events in the novel inspire h...

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