Wow! Great explanation Alex. I'm going to dig into this word a bit more because it's become terribly popular and I just... want to know more. 🙂 Maybe the difference between uninteresting and unsatisfactory is also something that I need to go over. Thanks so much for taking the time and sharing your knowledge. Best regards, Oscar

‘lame’ is closer to ‘unsatisfactory’ than it is to ‘boring’ but it is still a little different. It suggests a weak effort. You might find thermodynamics boring, but it’ll be important later on. (Not the other words) Your vision isn’t satisfactory for this position. (Not the other words) His marriage proposal was lame but she said ‘Yes’ anyway. I agree that ‘lame’ is informal and it could also be perceived as insensitive by some. But still pretty common.

Hey Oscar! En la zona donde crecí, además de la época (¡jaja!), la palabra "lame" significa algo que no es "cool". Por ejemplo: "Why do you listen to The Rolling Stones? That band is lame!" or "Why did you cancel our plans without talking to me? That was lame, man." Good luck!

Yes, the meaning of a word will vary according to many factors. If a word gains a new meaning from popular use, we have to keep that in mind when we hear it. For example, I often hear the word 'literally', but the speaker's intended word meaning does not match the dictionary. In relation to 'lame' and 'boring', I consider 'lame' to be unsatisfactory, whereas 'boring' is uninteresting. You might assume that something uninteresting (boring) would also be unsatisfactory (lame). However, that won't always be true. Judging whether something is lame or boring is highly subjective. A boring movie might satisfy a viewer who enjoys watching boring movies! So to that viewer, the movie is boring, but isn't lame.

I would avoid the term lame in the UK if you want to be perceived as educated. If want an alternative to boring, you could say uninspiring or tedious.