loof(A good alternative term seemed like Ploser, since I don't see it registering much in search engines, except that with an umlaut it is a name.)
A loof is a cross between a loser and a doof.
Example: I definitely don't want to be a loof.
Some people are so pathetic that when they are hostile, or attempt to be cruel, or say terribly stupid or callous things, all I feel is pity for them.
I used to call them poofs, as in terminally lightweight. Unfortunately, the word has a more common meaning (which I learned in my forties -- I should have watched more Monty Python), so I've been looking for a replacement. I was going to steal the word snoof, but I discovered it had some well established meanings as well.
But loof, which I ran across while looking at the other words, "a cross between a loser and a doof" pretty much catches it.
When your child has just died and someone comes up to you and says "It seems bad to you, but while I have a seven figure income, my second wife just left me, my life is much worse and you should spend some time being sorry for me rather than wasting your sorrow on your loss" (which really happened to me), instead of getting angry or upset or taking it to heart, you should think to yourself, "What a loof, he is right, if he is that shallow and self-centered his life is much worse than mine."
Some people can find that by realizing that most people are "children of God" -- not rational, responsible adults -- and by thinking of them as just having made a mess in their diapers whenever they do something terribly insensitive, it just doesn't bother you any where near as much. "Don't take him seriously" I said of one such guy, "He's just a poof."
Now that I know about the other meaning of the word, and have a good replacement, when someone comes to me in anguish, I can say instead "Don't take him seriously, he's just a loof." With a full diaper.
BTW, loof has a secondary meaning, it is the Israeli equivalent of spam, canned mystery meat, but Kosher. I don't think the secondary meaning hurts it at all.
