I'm looking for a word that describes a light, playful shove (usually at the shoulder; usually recurrent) functioning as a goad. It's important that the aspect of physical contact is expressed in the word. Example:
"I don't want to go to the circus." Defiant.
"Come on... come on..." His brother's shoulder now capped by his younger hand, goading.

Hospitalization

So witty

Perhapss someone of a more serious bent will bealong to help you shortly. I'm unable to think of an adequate term other than the previous.

Cuff?
Buffet?

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Buffet?

Hit him with furniture?

Something more along the lines of 'prod,' please.

Something along the lines of hortatory...

How's about exhortative humeral jostling?

how about a single word? come on, doesn't anyone know?

There isn't a single word in English for every conceivable happening, although German tends to get close to it sometimes.

Unless you happen to have had a word in mind along along? In which case do share it with the rest of us.

how about a single word?

I wonder what the obsession with finding single words for every conceivable definition is called. The number of possible definitions is infinite, but the lexical inventory of a language is finite (if poorly counted). One would need an infinite vocabulary to come up with words for every conceivable definition.

The obsession? CLARITY. PRECISION. LINGUISTIC MASTERY.

Liguistic mastery I might go along with - but clarity and precision needs the proper use of language - which is not necessarily a reduction of every concept to single words.

Your exemplar sentence, "..."Come on... come on..." His brother's shoulder now capped by his younger hand, goading...." conveys its meaning pretty well without the necessity for single word to explain the concept of that light shove.

Edited for typo.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Richard English,

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One would need an infinite vocabulary to come up with words for every conceivable definition.

Linguistic mastery indeed!

CLARITY. PRECISION. LINGUISTIC MASTERY

Give me brevity and an absence of inkhorn terms. The mathematician and logician, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, addressed linguistic mastery in one of his lighter books (link). It little helps communication if your vocabulary needs copious footnotes to explain in plainer language what you're on about. But to each her own. Pray continue in your search.

I'd like to introduce your friend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson to my friend Thomas Pynchon.

I'm afraid Dodgson died in 1898.

All the more reason to follow his advice! Apropos constantly evolving phenomena, the more anachronistic the advice, the better!

I'd like to introduce your friend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson to my friend Thomas Pynchon.

They're both friends of mine. Good ones. And, Kevin-Bacon-istically they've both been in Simpsons episodes (Dodgson and Pynchon).

Kevin-Bacon-istically? Not bad; almost creative as far as hyphenated neologisms go: try and think more out-of-the-box-istically though.

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out-of-the-box

Rather a tired cliché nowadays, I'd say.

I agree. Got another word to express out-of-the-box?

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I agree. Got another word to express out-of-the-box?

"Lateral thinking". (Edward DeBono's phrase, not mine)