n.
A personality type that regularly seeks out thrilling or dangerous experiences.
Example Citation:
I used to skydive off buildings in south county. I've climbed most of the peaks in the Southern California, like Mount Baldy and Mount Whitney. I like to climb them when they're covered with snow. I need the rush. I need the endorphins. I'm a type T personality: thrill seeker.
— Gary Copeland, "Who's this?," Orange County Register, November 8, 2002
Earliest Citation:
Comedian John Belushi. Gangster John Dillinger. Nobel Biologist Francis Crick. All are classic Type T personalities, and so, fittingly enough, is television's Mr. T.
As Psychologist Frank Farley of the University of Wisconsin tells it, many of the world's daredevils, doers and delinquents share a common personality, Type T (for thrill seeking). Whether scientists or criminals, mountain climbers or hot-dog skiers, says Farley, all are driven by temperament, and perhaps biology, to a life of constant stimulation and risk taking. Both the socially useful and the socially appalling Type Ts, he says, "are rejecting the strictures, the laws, the regulations — they are pursuing the unknown, the uncertain."
— John Leo, "Looking for a Life of Thrills," Time Magazine, April 15, 1985
Notes:
We all know the classic type A personality, which was identified in 1959 by the cardiologists Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman. But there's a whole type taxonomy out there, of which today's type T personality is but one example. Here's a list of all the personality types I was able to identify (note that many of these require your tongue to be planted relatively securely in the cheek of your choice):
Type A — Competitive, driven, stressed, workaholic
Type B — Relaxed, patient, friendly
Type C — Reticent, unassertive, nice to a fault
Type D — Anxious, insecure, gloomy, depressed
Type E — High-achieving, perfectionist, everything to everybody
Type F — Prone to forwarding e-mail messages
Type H — Hostile, hateful
Type I — Egocentric
Type J — Orderly, neat
Type M — Melodramatic
Type O — Prone to making spelling mistakes
Type P — Persistent
Type R — Responsive
Type S — Doesn't get enough sleep
Type T — Thrill-seeking
Type V — Plain, simple (vanilla)
Type W — Wacko
Type X — Domineering, tyrannical
Type Z — Extremely laid back (the "opposite" of a Type A)
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New words. 2013.