My husband needed a haircut, and I called his hair "sticky-outie"...it's babyish, I know, but it seemed to describe it so well. There really is no other word that works; it wasn't really "unkempt" or "dishelveled." It was definitely "sticky-outie." [He got a haircut, and it's quite handsome right now. ]

My question...have you made up any words to describe something where there isn't a perfect word for it? If so, what are there?

His hair was sticking out?

The sniglet books are full of such things. My favorite is the one for when it is raining and you drive under a bridge. The rain stops hitting the car momentarily. That is a downpause.

A wordboard is an Internet site at which words are discussed

I thought it had been my invention but a couple of the half-dozen significant Ghits are close in meaning

Richard invented catapostrophe for "apostrophe misuse" some years ago. I quite like it.

quote:

His hair was sticking out?

Unfortunately, yes, zmj.

I forgot about catapostrophe; that is a good one! There are even 325 Google sites for it, though many are redundant (including some from OEDILF and Wordcraft) and others aren't relevant to the apostrophe definition.