Words to Use in Future Posts!

[Guest fountainhall]

Once again, The Washington Post has published the winning submission to its yearly neologism contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternative meanings for common words.

 

And here are some of the winners -

 

2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.

3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

5. Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.

6. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown.

8. Gargoyle (n), olive-flavoured mouthwash.

9. Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.

10. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.

11. Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.

12. Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.

13. Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist.

14. Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

15. Frisbeetarianism (n.), (back by popular demand): The belief that, when you die, your soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

16. Circumvent (n.), an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

 

The Washington Post's 'Style Invitational' also asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

 

And more of this year's winners are -

 

2. Foreploy (v): Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

3. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

5. Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

6. Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

8. Osteopornosis (n): A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

9. Karmageddon (n): it’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

11. Glibido (v): All talk and no action.

12. Dopeler effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

13. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

14. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

16. Ignoranus (n): A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

 

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/archive/index.php/t-21266.html

[Rogie]

It's interesting that bodily functions, especially genital and anal are so popular.

I count 8 out of 13 in the first list and 5 out of 11 in the second.

 

I'm not familiar with No.15 Frisbeetarianism - I know what a frisbee is obviously but that word just looks stupid to me! The spell-checker doesn't like it either, giving me suggestions of Unitarianism, Valetudinarianism, Millenarianism, and Libertarianism.

 

Maybe I can be accused of SOHF (sense of humour failure) or perhaps the sarchasm just got too much for me, hardly surprising considering I'm a bumbling ignoranus

[Guest fountainhall]

I had no idea either! But one site gives this -

 

Frisbeetarianism

The belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck.

 

http://www.encyclo.co.uk/define/Frisbeetarianism

 

However, one blog suggests the Washington Post did not do its homework on this one -

 

It appears that the Washington Post did not do their research on the word Frisbeetarianism. Frisbeetarianism, as it is listed in the contest, is not a common word and the meaning was not conceived by a reader. While the word may have been supplied by a reader, it was coined and defined by the late comedian George Carlin as, "the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck." Thus the meaning listed in the contest is not an alternate meaning, it is the original meaning.

http://walkinthewords.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html

 

To quote from a column in much older editions of the Bangkok Post: "I don't give a hoot!"

[Rogie]

"I don't give a hoot!"

Maybe not, but good of you to sort that one out. It was driving me potty!

 

Number 12 in the second list is very apt in this case:

 

12. Dopeler effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

 

so when you see a list like that of course it is supposed to be stupid ideas, I guess i just picked up on frisbee-whatever-it-was because although the definition given is very funny I couldn't imagine for the life of me what that word meant 'in real life'.

 

Now we know, thanks to our super-sleuth, Fountainhall.

[Rogie]

"Arab Spring" and "mumpreneur" are among the new words and phrases that have entered the latest edition of a major dictionary.

 

About 70 new terms from the fields of politics, technology, fashion and contemporary culture are included in the 11th edition of the Collins English Dictionary.

 

Here are a few more ideas for peppering your future posts:

 

cuddle class: when two airline passengers buy an additional seat so that they can recline together.

 

mamil: a middle-aged man in Lycra,

 

fash pack influential people in the fashion industry.

 

frape: which mixes the words Facebook and rape to refer to the altering of information on a person's profile on the social networking site without their permission.

 

clicktivism: combines the words click and activism to mean using the internet to take direct and often militant action to achieve political or social aims.

 

casino banking: for bankers who risk losing investors' money to gain maximum profits.

 

emberrorist: meaning an organisation or person who seeks to reveal potentially embarrassing information, often as a political weapon.

 

foodoir: a book or blog which combines a personal memoir with a series of recipes.

 

mumpreneur: a woman who combines running a business with looking after her children.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/oct/05/clicktivism-unfollow-new-words-dictionary

[Guest thaiworthy]

I posted this on another board some while ago, but it is relevant to the thread. As little kids, we make up own words, even into adolescence. One word that comes to mind, and has stuck is Ginormus, which is a combination of gigantic and enormous. Children who can't pronounce spaghetti, say pasghetti, which sparked the beginning of a restaurant chain with the same name. Here is my own experience in getting mixed up on a certain word:

 

When I was learning to read, I noted with great interest two signs on a winding road near our home. One said "Deer Crossing," and the other said "Watch For Pedestrians." I understood what "Deer Crossing" meant, that drivers should be aware of wildlife in the area, wandering across the road. It was the other sign that had me confused. What in the world is a pedestrian? Having never heard it spoken, or remembering how it was spoken, I was pronouncing it wrong too. I said, pedesTRAnian, having even added an extra syllable as well. What could it be, I wondered. Well, I reasoned that since the other sign was about an animal, mebbe a pedesTRAnian was an animal as well. I passed by that sign every day walking home from school, not realizing I was the pedesTRAnian. Finally, I looked around and saw lots of birds. So, I reasoned a pedesTRAnian was a small, rare kind of bird, perhaps even an endangered species. Although the little birds I saw were able to quickly fly away before cars ran them over. So these were very smart rare pedesTRAnian birds as well. No wonder they were on the endangered species list.

 

It was a good while later when my father finally explained to me what a pedesTRAnian actually was and how it was properly pronounced. To this day, when I see this sign, I still think of that little bird. And the sign, "Watch for Pedestrians" was not a likely scene for the local birdwatchers society.