There probably is a thread somewhere where we discussed coinages of words or phrases, but I couldn't find it so I am starting a new one.
hyperparenting - I just heard this one today referring to parents who start preparing their pre-school children for Ivy League schools. In the article I read, the parents applied to 15 private senior kindergartens for their daughter and were turned down in all 15 because they had only started their search a year in advance! They finally had to enroll the girl in a public school--at which point the child instructed her parents, "Mom, don't worry. It's only kindergarten!" That girl will make it some day!

We'll go to the library and plug ourselves in... - my daughter is beginning to study for winter exams in law school, and this is how she described her afternoon's plans. I looked rather blank, and she said, "Our computer, MOM!"

Perhaps not so modern, but I heard of this one recently:

Logodaedaly:
Daedalus was the one who built the Labyrinth for King Minos,a notorious ingrate. King Minos then had Daedalus and his son locked up. But Daedalus was so clever that he made wings out of feathers and wax, and was able to fly out of the prison. Since Daedalus was fantastically clever,a "logodaedaly" would be a very clever coinage.

He wasn't that clever because he allowed his son, Icarus, to fly too near to the sun and the heat melted the wax in his wings. Thus Icarus became the first person to die in an aircraft accident!

So I suppose we could say that Daedalus, in spite of his technical brilliance, lacked leadership or parenting skills!

Richard English

I don't know about all that. Daedelus told Icarus NOT to fly too high or too low. As the mother of teenage and pre-teen children I have found that you can tell them not to do something, and all the reasons behind it, and they will still go ahead and do it 50% of the time.

I suppose what he should have done was to tell him not to fly too close to the sea - that would have done the trick!

Richard English

Funny you should mention it. The same person who suggested "logodaedaly" also mentioned "icarism", for a coinage that won't fly far! Hmmm, I don't expect that coinage to fly very far, either!

I have long entertained fantasies of being fabulously wealthy. Who hasn't, right? In one off-shoot of this fantasy, I establish an commercial airline for the sole purpose of naming it "Icarus Air."

Is that a great name or what?! Our primary target customer would be the fatalist with a sense of humor...

[Flight of ideas here...pun intended! ]--Which reminds me of the wonderful "Rain Man" movie where Raymond will only fly to LA via Qantas (why no "u"?) Airlines since it is the only airline without a crash.

Queensland And Northern Territories Air Service

That's why there's no "u," Kalleh



no ukulele .....

~~~ jerry

[This message was edited by jerry thomas on Wed Mar 12th, 2003 at 17:24.]

quote:

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The same person who suggested "logodaedaly" also mentioned "icarism", for a coinage that won't fly far!

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'Icarian' is in the dictionary, meaning "soaring too high for safety".

There was, at one time, a company called Daedelus aviation (or, as we in the trade called it, "Dead Loss").

The acronym for QANTAS is supposed by most to be as has been stated here. However, it is not.

It is actually Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Ltd., which was the name given to the company when Papers formally establishing it were signed in the Gresham Hotel, Brisbane, on 16 November 1920.

It is now the world's oldest "English-speaking" airline and has been known by its acronym QANTAS almost since its beginnings.

And, by the way, it doesn't have 6th freedom carrier rights so it couldn't fly on a US domestic service, even if it wanted to!

Richard English

QANTAS

Thanks, Richard.

Wow! What a memory !!



~~~ jerry

The fact that I spent much of my earlier working life as a travel agent does help when it comes to travel-related items.

Incidentally, although we knew the meaning of the acronym we never referred to it as that. We always referred to the airline as "Queers And Nymphomaniacs Trained As Stewards"

Richard English

Funny, Richard!

The following aren't really coinages, but alternate definitions, sent to me by a friend who should be on this board, but always has some lame excuse!
Coffee (n.), a person who is coughed upon.

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

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

Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.

Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.

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

Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.

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

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

Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.

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

Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified demeanor assumed by a proctologist immediately before he examines you.

Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddish expressions.

Circumvent (n.), the opening in the front of boxer shorts.

Frisbeetarianism (n.), The belief that, when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck there.

Here's some more humorous definitions for you, Kalleh:

BRIDE: A woman with a fine prospect of happiness behind her.

COMPROMISE: An amiable arrangement between husband and wife whereby they agree to let her have her own way.

DIPLOMAT: A man who can convince his wife she would look fat in a fur coat.

GENTLEMAN: 1) A husband who steadies the stepladder so that his wife will not fall while she paints the ceiling. 2) A man who, when his wife drops her knitting, kicks it over to her so that she can easily pick it up.

HOUSEWORK: What the wife does that nobody notices until she doesn't do it.

HUSBAND: 1) A man who gives up privileges he never realized he had.
2) A person who is the boss of his house and has his wife's permission to say so.

JOINT CHECKING ACCOUNT: A handy little device which permits the wife to beat the husband to the draw.

LOVE: An obsessive delusion that is cured by marriage.

MISS: A title with which we brand unmarried women to indicate that they are in the market.

MISTRESS: Something between a mister and a mattress.

MOTHER-IN-LAW: A woman who destroys her son-in-law's peace of mind by giving him a piece of hers.

MRS.: A job title involving heavy duties, light earnings, and no recognition.

SPOUSE: Someone who will stand by you through all the trouble you wouldn't have had if you'd stayed single in the first place.

WIFE: A mate who is forever complaining about not having anything to wear at the very same time that she complains about not having enough room in the closet.

And, if it's a man looking at the place, not even then!

Richard English

quote:

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GENTLEMAN: 1) A husband who steadies the stepladder so that his wife will not fall while she paints the ceiling. 2) A man who, when his wife drops her knitting, kicks it over to her so that she can easily pick it up.

---

How about the following definition, which I believe comes from Dr. Johnsons's dictionary:

GENTLEMAN: A man who knows how to play the bagpipes and refuses to do so.

I offer this without further comment because a friend of mine makes bagpipes for a living.

quote:

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And, if it's a man looking at the place, not even then!

---

Truer words were never spoken!

But, Morgan, I thought "Kalleh" was the "bride"!

I heard a speaker today talking about knowledge-based governance strategies. He used 2 coinages that I loved:

snoopervision meaning to micromanage
administrivia meaning to focus on only the minutia, not the mega-issues (another term of his).

(the title of this post being oxymoronic, of course)

quote:

---

He tells you when you've got on too much lipstick,
And helps you with your girdle when your hips stick.
- Ogden Nash

---

In the letters section from the NY Times, someone responded to a column that had been written on business jargon, discussing words such as "coopetition" and "thought-leading". I will try to google for that original article. This letter-writer talked about the proliferation of superfluous words, and said that this was especially rampant during the 16th century. At that time the coinages were criticized to be "redundant creations of conceited scholars", and yet many have survived--particularly, "ingenious" (about which we have written), "agile", and "peak".

He says that coinages survive because of everyday English speakers, not because of management consultants or linguistic purists. I suppose he is right, but that means that we'll never be able to bring back "epicaricacy"!

"It goes without saying that "needless to say" is .......not a good bumper sticker.

The original article apparently didn't agree; it's thesis was that the coinages would survive because of the use in business, i.e. the "management consultants", not everyday English speakers. However, the letter writer didn't agree with that.

I was reading a Web site today of a design firm, and I rather liked this coinage: "creatology". Here is their definition, and, yes, they do admit that they have coined it:

Creatology
creativity and technology
Whether you use print, multimedia, or the
Internet — and especially when it’s a combination
of them — Creatology makes your communication
come alive. It engages your audience. It presents
your message to your target audience in the most
effective way possible. It speaks their language.

Is there another word for this?

Years ago, I was driving my younger sister and her friend somewhere. As the driver, I had control of the radio and was not only playing something they loathed? But singing along with it, as loud as I possibly could.

My sister turned to her friend and said, <rolling her eyes>, "Excuse her--she's a lesbohemian."

Now I'm not gay, nor am I bohemian, but I laughed so hard at that I almost wrecked the car. That is the perfect description for women we've all met. I use it every chance I get.

(Can you imagine how jealous I was? One of my dreams is to coin a phrase like "Catch-22" or "Gen X" and my sister did it perfectly at about age 9.)

Oh, WinterBranch, that is definitely a keeper!

I can claim to be the originator of a term that I have now seen used elsewhere - catapostrophe - an example of the misuse of the apostrophe as so commonly seen these days in such expressions as "in it's way" or "driver's wanted" or even, "we sell Mercede's parts"

The FOTA site http://www.write101.com/fota.htm now has a Catapostrophe page.

Richard English

Isn't it great, Kalleh? That little skunk!

And Richard, I feel your pain. My pet punctuation peeve is the improper use of quotation marks as emphasis in signs.

Things like
Brownie Mix! "On Sale"

Are you trying to tell me that it isn't really "on sale"?
Fingernails on the chalkboard that is my brain.

I found another coinage today in the editorial of our newspaper:

Homeric thinking - Thinking like Homer Simpson. For example, dullness describes any math study beyond "functional arithmetic." A "kindly" course guarantees an gentleman's C for merely showing up, ensuring a continued draft deferment.

It seems that Richland College in (none other than) Texas offers a course on "The Simpsons."

It seems that I have come across a lot of coinages recently.

The first is absolutely hilarious to me and my colleagues. We received some comments on work we are doing from a group of necessitologists....ah, the new name for nurse. Good grief! Not only is it murder to prounounce, but it sounds a bit arrogant besides.

The second word I didn't find in Onelook, but I did find it all over the Web: fandemonium, which is what we experienced in Chicago, before the demise of the Cubs.

I heard another today:

I will post it as a quiz. Have any of you heard of Ozones? (No fair going to Google!)

My first guess is that Oh! Zones are otherwise known as erogenous zones.

Hoooo, that is a great guess, Jerry...but unfortunately wrong.

By the way, the answer to the above quiz is....the officers of companies, that is CEOs, CFOs, etc. Thanks, Jerry, for being the only one to leap in on this one. Now you now why I don't post quizzes!

Just today the New York Times had an editorial talking about the Wal-Martization of America. The article reports how Wal-Mart, by keeping out the unions and refusing to pay their employees fair wages, is causing havoc across the U.S., but especially in California. Grocery stores there are bracing for the arrival of the first of 40 Wal-Mart grocery supercenters. Because they pay such paltry wages and illegally keep out unions, they are able to price their goods at 14% lower. That will, of course, squeeze out the competition, so the supermarket chains are reacting by demanding a 2-year freeze on current workers' salaries, lower pay for newly hired workers, and asking employees to pay more for health insurance.

This could have a disasterous effect on family income. The article urges the government to not let Wal-Mart get away with using illegal tactics to block union organizing or to exploit undocumented workers.

The "Lucky" magazine, which really is just a book of advertisements, is wildly popular in the U.S. now. An article in the NY Times has a great name for this magazine, the hybrid of a magazine and catalog: a magalog

Let's face it, this is my private thread. Evidently I like coinages more than the rest of you.

Here's one for Thanksgiving:

turducken

Check out the stuffed camel link.

Private thread? We're just going to have to help you along.

I'm sorry but I really don't forsee any dish beginning with those four letters ever making an appearance on my table. And I notice the camel recipe includes the direction "Fry nuts until brown" which I will leave totally uncommented upon.

Well, knock me over with a feather. I'd heard of the turducken, as has anyone watching John Madden announcing a Thanksgiving Day football game, but I'd thought it was a mythical mock-serious creature, akin to the jackalope.

Turns out the turducken is quite a real dish: a chicken stuffed into a duck stuffed into a turkey. It seems it was back in the early 1980's. You can even buy a turducken to be shipped to you, ready for cooking. And in the escalating culinary wars, there is now the "pigturducken".

I read the funniest article today about those of us who are "technologically compromised." For example, a recent letter to a car columnist from a lady indicated that she read and reread the owner's manual for her 2003 Toyota Camry, but still couldn't figure out how to program the door locks. The article described most instructions as, "They seem to have been translated into some archaic form of English by a committee of lawyers. It's like clicking the 'help' icon on the computer. Help? Are you kidding? Most of the time you can't even describe the problem well enough to find the right category."

Anyway, this article described "resistentialism" as a whimsical coinage that maintains that inanimate objects are hostile to humans. Perhaps that's the problem. It must increase in severity as one ages.

This has long been a hobby-horse of mine. It is my firm belief that instruction manuals are written in the wrong way, since they invariably written by experts - and that's all. If they are proofed (and there's often evidence that they are not) then that process is simply to check for grammatical solecisms.

To my mind the process should be as follows:

1. The expert writes the manual.

2. The equipment or other item is then operated by one or more absolute novices who try every feature, guided only be the manual. A careful note is taken of any queries or difficulties.

3. The manual goes back to the expert for correction.

4. The equipment goes back to other novices who repeat stage 2. Any further errors identified are again dealt with by the expert.

5. This process is repeated until no further errors or omissions are found.

6. The manual is proofed for solecisms.

This whole process is repeated whenever a manual is translated.

I have frequently offered my services to companies, as manual-writing is one of my skills; sadly few seem to think that the price is worthwhile, preferring to suffer the customer ill-will that their faulty instructions generates.

Richard English

"Resistentialism" is not exactly a modern coinage!

Fifty-plus years ago my mother was using that word, which she defined as "the inherent perversity of inanimate matter." I suspect a common source. Though not well-educated,* she read voraciously and was extremely well-informed.

The paradigm was "Bread always falls butter-side down."

*Edit: Let me rephrase that. She had little formal higher education, going to work in the late 1920's after completing high school. She was nevertheless _very_ well-educated.

[This message was edited by haberdasher on Fri Dec 26th, 2003 at 12:06.]

From The Word Spy:

(ri.zis.TEN.shul.iz.um) n. The belief that inanimate objects have a natural antipathy toward human beings, and therefore it is not people who control things, but things which increasingly control people.
—resistentialist n., adj.
—resistential adj.

Resistentialism began its life as a brilliant spoof of existentialism, and it was coined by the British humourist Paul Jennings back in 1963. (Or possibly earlier; I saw conflicting dates, which were probably just resistential computer errors.)

From OED Online:

resistentialism, n.

P. Jennings's mock philosophy which maintains that inanimate objects are hostile to humans.

1948 P. JENNINGS in Spectator 23 Apr. 491/1 Resistentialism is a philosophy of tragic grandeur... Resistentialism derives its name from its central thesis that Things (res) resist (résister) men... Resistentialism is the philosophy of what Things think about us.

Tinman

Sorry not to be able to cite the exact source but I did read something a while back which fits here. To paraphrase:

"I used to long for the day when my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone and finally that day arrived. I bought a new phone last week and, aside from dialing numbers and answering a ring, I'm completely unable to work the damn thing!"

Who knows, maybe it was Hab's mother who coined the word!

I hadn't heard it before and thought that it was a new coinage. Sorry to have mislead!

I found these coinages in today's Chicago Tribune. Now, in all fairness, not only are some of them only known in the U.S., some of them are only known in the Chicago area. Since they didn't give any definitions, some of them I don't know:
Bartman (the verb)- Steve Bartman was the fan who blew the series for the Cubs, so use this word when someone ruins something.
Bennifer - Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez
Bling-bling
Blogosphere - Illinois's governor is named "Blagojevich"
Embedding
Flash Mobs
Flexitarian
Gaydar
Govinator
Metrosexual
Monkeypox - we had an outbreak in the midwest from human contact with diseased pets.
Regime Change
SARS
Shock and Awe
Shoeicide bomber
Spider Hole
Terror Alert
Trans-fat
Wal-Mart Effect (I posted about that!)
Wi-fi

By the way, I realize some of the above are not new coinages (such as monkeypox). They really are better classified as words that have become popular in 2003.

Here is a site that argues for not letting some of the new coinages continue!

Sadly, as the French Academy (I won't use its French title since I still can't work out how to put in accents) has discovered, there is nothing that can be done to prevent a word or expression from becoming popular, no matter how wrong or unecessary it might be. All that is needed to ensure a term's popularity is for that term to become accepted and used. Its currency is then assured.

I notice that even the BBC, once so jealous of its accuracy, now uses without comment the oxymoronic term "quad bike" as an abbreviation for quadricycle, even though the shorter, logical and completely accurate "quad" exists.

In vain I have pointed out that we don't refer to a "bike-bike" or a "trike-bike" to refer to the abbreciations for the two and three-wheel equivalents of a quadricycle...

Richard English

I realize that I probably should have made this a separate post of 2003 Vocabulary Words. Oh well!

Here are 2 more sites, ranting against some recent uses of language:

2003 banished words list

2004 (???) banished words list

While this may be only a coinage we use in the U.S. (and it may not be that modern!), we do see it a lot:

That is so European! It could mean a number of things, from having your salad after the entree to restaurants not giving water with meals.