nonce words for the month
Now for something completely different. :)
Paul, one of my best friends, likes to coin nonce words. A nonce word is "a word coined and used apparently to suit one particular occasion sometimes independently by differerent writers or speakers but not adopted into general usage." -- page 1535 of my big ol' Webster's 3rd New International Dictionary (Unabridged, 2004 edition.)
Webster's goes on to cite Coleridge's word mammonolatry, coined in 1820.
Some of my personal favorites are Edward Gorey's fantod, the word he used to define a vague-looking imaginary creature stuffed under glass and Roland Barthes' atopia, which is the internal doctrine of drifting habitation, the homelessness of the intellectual social order.
I don't know if anyone else used fantod in a sentence except for Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter (who uses it instead of "whatchamacallit.") Atopia... well. Maybe somewhere in the bowels of academia there's a thesis with that word in the title.
Nonce words aren't exactly slang because of their intellectually snotty turn of phrase. :)
But I digress.
Nonce words and Paul are made for each other. He has a genuine talent for springing them on me. They come up all the time when we talk on the phone. Here are two of his latest gems...
familial inertia noun. The sensation of not wanting to tell important personal details to a close family member due to long-standing biases on a particular issue, and any mention of the issue will cause riffs, end in an argument, and cause general discomfort to all.
usage
me: Have you told your Mom yet? You should tell your Mom.
Paul: No... this is a sensitive topic for her. I just can't. It's a case of familial inertia.
kitty litter barrier noun. The state of limited intelligence that blocks a person from grasping a concept too foreign or complicated. Pertains to the inability to comprehend the true function of kitty litter and how it can cut the smell of all types of animal waste.
Usage
me: I bought kitty litter for the dog, but no matter how many times I try to explain it to the new cook, she doesn't want to use it because of the picture of the cat on the package.
Paul: Sounds like a lot of people I know. They all have a kitty litter barrier.
Sorry... we're a bunch of lit major snobs. XD
Paul, one of my best friends, likes to coin nonce words. A nonce word is "a word coined and used apparently to suit one particular occasion sometimes independently by differerent writers or speakers but not adopted into general usage." -- page 1535 of my big ol' Webster's 3rd New International Dictionary (Unabridged, 2004 edition.)
Webster's goes on to cite Coleridge's word mammonolatry, coined in 1820.
Some of my personal favorites are Edward Gorey's fantod, the word he used to define a vague-looking imaginary creature stuffed under glass and Roland Barthes' atopia, which is the internal doctrine of drifting habitation, the homelessness of the intellectual social order.
I don't know if anyone else used fantod in a sentence except for Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter (who uses it instead of "whatchamacallit.") Atopia... well. Maybe somewhere in the bowels of academia there's a thesis with that word in the title.
Nonce words aren't exactly slang because of their intellectually snotty turn of phrase. :)
But I digress.
Nonce words and Paul are made for each other. He has a genuine talent for springing them on me. They come up all the time when we talk on the phone. Here are two of his latest gems...
familial inertia noun. The sensation of not wanting to tell important personal details to a close family member due to long-standing biases on a particular issue, and any mention of the issue will cause riffs, end in an argument, and cause general discomfort to all.
usage
me: Have you told your Mom yet? You should tell your Mom.
Paul: No... this is a sensitive topic for her. I just can't. It's a case of familial inertia.
kitty litter barrier noun. The state of limited intelligence that blocks a person from grasping a concept too foreign or complicated. Pertains to the inability to comprehend the true function of kitty litter and how it can cut the smell of all types of animal waste.
Usage
me: I bought kitty litter for the dog, but no matter how many times I try to explain it to the new cook, she doesn't want to use it because of the picture of the cat on the package.
Paul: Sounds like a lot of people I know. They all have a kitty litter barrier.
Sorry... we're a bunch of lit major snobs. XD