Hello fine folks. I teach English to a unique group of 9th graders and I'm always looking for interesting wordplay activities for them. A million years ago (I am subject to exaggeration) I had a sniglet book that had lots of great made-up words.

An example is: spork (the name for the plastic spoon that had the fork ends given out at restaruants/fast food joints).

If you have any that are original, it would be great if you could share.

Hope you all are having a fabulous weekend!

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spork (the name for the plastic spoon that had the fork ends given out at restaruants/fast food joints).

It seems that spork is actually a legitimate word, with the first known usage dating back to 1909.

Welcome, Emily! I'm going to have to cogitate about some of the snigglets we use in our family.

Isn't that a foon?

This passage in a book was once called to my attention. The characters, held hostage in an isolated house, are escaping through an upstairs window.

Still, the TV was blaring in the kitchen. With luck it was up too loud for anyone to hear the scraping and skittering coming from overhead as they crossed the roof on their bondoons.

I couldn't find a damthing about bondoons, so I e-mailed the author to inquire. This was her reply:

It's actually made up word -- a euphemism for one's bottom that my husband created when our kids were little.

It actually first came to be as "bondoony." Which is a somewhat silly word that made everyone laugh -- especially the two-year-olds who often fell on their bondoonies.

Isn't language grand?

Do they display their bondoons in Brigadoon?

Asa the doonkopf

Bondoons. We have a lot of bondoon action in my house with an accident prone 3 year old AND a 1 year old who is learning to walk! I love it!!

Bondoons...will be filing that one away for future use with my 9th graders...
"Put your bondoons in your seat!" I can't wait for school tomorrow!!!

Em

Hi, y'all. Used bondoons with my students today. They went nuts...and actually in a good way.

OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!!!!
Are you our Emily? OMG!!!!
Yes you are!!!
What are you doing here? I mean, WELCOME!
Wow... small freaking world (internet)...

HEY! This is totally freaking cool!

HEY YOU, TrossL!

I'll type at you with a PM.

WOW. I thought...I thunk...I knew! Wow! COOL!

Um, so, you two know each other?

Yeah, I guess...

We think we might. It's possible. How bizarro is that?

Another delegate for Wordcraft 2008, I hope.

There's an article in Wikipedia on sniglets, that gives a few examples. I particularly liked "sniffleridge" for what is properly known as the philtrum. Under the "Sniglets and society" heading the article mentions that several books suggest that the creation of sniglets be used as a classroom activity.

I suppose our own Richard English's coinage of catapostrophe, to mean the aberrant use of the apostrophe, is a good example of a sniglet.

Thanks for the resource ideas online. I will have to dig further. I love the catapostrophe sniglet. What might we call the atrocious and aberrant use of commas in poorly written English essays?

Hum...I'd love a word to express my frustration with it.

On another note, I stay mortified about the inability of my students to pronounce a simple word like RUIN. Apparently in middle Georgia it is pronounced...RHOOOOOOOON. They tell me I'm wrong because their previous teacher taught them the incorrect pronunciation. YUCK!

Enough ranting.

Thanks Arnie!

Richard, I'll have to see about Wordcraft 2008. All will depend on my school schedule and childcare for my darlings.

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What might we call the atrocious and aberrant use of commas in poorly written English essays?

Commady? Comma sprinkles? Commatumacious? Ernest Hemingway?

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Richard, I'll have to see about Wordcraft 2008. All will depend on my school schedule and childcare for my darlings.

I think that CW is planning to have most of the events over the weekend, so that might help those who have weekday commitments. My own schedule is almost sorted out, subject to the good offices of those I wish to visit during my stay in the USA and Canada.

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What might we call the atrocious and aberrant use of commas in poorly written English essays?

Commalodorous?

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Originally posted by Richard English:
[QUOTE]What might we call the atrocious and aberrant use of commas in poorly written English ...?

The Second Amendment to the US Constitution.

Asa,

HYSTERICAL. I laughed so hard I snorted. Thanks for the chuckle!

The Second Amendment, as passed by the House and Senate, reads:

“ A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed. ”
The hand-written copy of the Bill of Rights which hangs in the National Archives had slightly different capitalization and punctuation inserted by William Lambert, the scribe who prepared it. This copy reads:

“ A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. ”
Both versions are commonly used in official US Government publications.

No wonder the supporters of firearms tend to quote only the last clause, "...the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed..."

The whole sentence (I am assuming the whole sentence is quoted here) is grammatically awful.

Now, now, let's not be too dismissive of the colonials' efforts; after all, they didn't have the benefits of a proper education.

I can't make any sense of the version with all the commas but there doesn't seem to be anything especially wrong with the other version. It's rather old fashioned in construction but then it was written quite some time ago.

Yes, it was the commalodorous one I was referring to. The other one is ponderous but clear enough.

Back to sniglets. I'm particularly fond of one I remember: igoranus: an ignorant azz-hole.

Porcupain: The feeling one gets after overeating.

We used to have a black dog named Sam. His mother was a springer and his father was a poodle. We called him a "sproodle." And he looked silly enough to be a sproodle. Was that a sniglet? Or was that the reality, because he was a mistake of nature?

WM

The Labradoodle is becoming quite a common cross-breed here.

Let's not forget the cockapoo. Sounds a bit messy to me!

Well there is always "cerebroplegia"--paralysis of the thinkbox, though it seems to be obtaining an official medical definition having to do with inducing a coma-like state.

Another that I have coined/used is "remaint" and "remaintly", which are combinations of the adjectives remote and faint. Also memories which are faintly recalled due to the passage of time are called "remaints".

Another portmanteau word that I recently came across in Neil Gaiman's short story collection, fragile things, is "upsettling" which occupies "the territory between upsetting and unsettling."

I wrote to the author who had created bondoons, telling her of our comments on it. Her reply:

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Here's a verb for you -- to farley.

This is when you meet someone famous that you really admire and you end up barely saying anything intelligible, while making way too much noise and taking up too much time. (From Chris Farley's SLN skit in which he plays an interviewer who says little more than, "Dude! Remember when you played that guitar solo in The Wall? It was AWESOME!")

As used in a sentence: For two weeks before I had dinner with Joss Whedon at Comic-Con I practiced introducing myself because I was terrified that I'd farley and his eyes would glaze over.

***************
Another early childhood word: situation
Meaning: euphemism for bowel movement
Origin: Frantic dad (holding diapered child): "Help! We have a situation!"
Used in a sentence (by a child): Look, mommy, that doggie is doing a situation!
(Note how the child prefers a more active verb -- doing vs. have. <ggg>

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This one's more mature. Well, no, not really. It's pretty immature: Agenda
Meaning: euphemism for male genitalia
Origin: Some laughter-filled discussion a few decades ago.
Particularly amusing in a business situation when someone self-important announces: "I'd like to take a few moments to pass around copies of my agenda..."

Agenda--similar to Steve Martin's "special purpose" from The Jerk.

My husband took his daughter and our two out for breakfast the other morning and sent a text message introducing me to the word...

siskateers

I'm trying to determine its sniglet worthiness, but I thought it was worth a mention.

I keep lauging over some of the words on the list from the bondoon lady.

chillax

A word presented by Jostens (the yearbook, senior graduation invitiation, junior class ring company) to the students of my fine educational establishment.

Slang or sniglet?

I'd never heard this expression before.

I wouldn't normally cite The Urban Dictionary as it's notoriously unreliable. However, most of the 67 "definitions" people give say it's a blend of "chill" and relax". Since the slang term "chill" means "relax" I'm inclined to agree with a few who maintain that "chillax" is redundant.

Unless "chill" is too redolent of '60s hippy-speak for the younger generation so they need a new word?