exhibitionist

American  

[ek-suh-bish-uh-nist] / ˌɛk səˈbɪʃ ə nɪst /

noun

1. a person who behaves in ways intended to attract attention or display their powers, personality, etc.

2. Psychiatry. a person with the compulsions of exhibitionism.

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Usage

What does exhibitionist mean? In psychiatry, an exhibitionist is someone who has a compulsion to exhibit, or display, their genitals in public. Exhibitionist can also be used in nonclinical, everyday speech to refer to a show-off or a person who overshares. A popular slang term for exhibitionist is flasher, but keep in mind that a person diagnosed as an exhibitionist has a clinical disorder. Example: She called him an exhibitionist for his tendency to share too much personal information at parties.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• exhibitionistic
  adjective
• nonexhibitionistic
  adjective
• exhibitionistically
  adverb
• semiexhibitionist
  noun

Etymology

Origin of exhibitionist

First recorded in 1815–25; exhibition + -ist

Explanation

An exhibitionist is a person who thrives on getting a lot of attention. If your best friend is an exhibitionist, you're probably used to him suddenly bursting loudly into song in public places. Exhibitionist is a fancy word for "show-off." If you're an exhibitionist, you crave the kind of reaction you get from being the center of attention. In some cases, an exhibitionist gets that attention by taking his or her clothes off in public — a streaker or flasher is also an exhibitionist. The word comes from the Old French exibicion, "show or display," from the Latin exhibere, "to show or present."

Example Sentences

I use a little mascara — currently I’m using Cover Girl Exhibitionist Mascara in Black Brown.

From New York Times • Feb. 2, 2021

Where Geis' The King and The Exhibitionist were at least spicy, A Moment in Camelot is colorless and odor less and practically endless.

From Time Magazine Archive

His latest product is a novel, The Exhibitionist, by Henry Sutton.

From Time Magazine Archive

Random House Chairman Bennett Cerf who hitherto had distributed most of the Geis list, read The Exhibitionist and sent it back, declaring that "I wouldn't touch it with a 40-ft. pole."

From Time Magazine Archive

Something of the Exhibitionist After a $50-per-week job as editorial assistant to Editor Diana Vreeland at Harper's Bazaar, Ali signed on as a photographer's helper and began to carom around New York.

From Time Magazine Archive