Verboticisms

Created by: readerwriter

Pronunciation: naw-led-geh

Sentence: At first, Sophia thought it was stupid. Her science teacher at Totally High School had just given the class something he called a Sillybus. On their handouts, a bus was pictured on a kind of map travelling over land and water. The teacher explained the journey the science class would take throughout the school year towards something he called the land of GNAWLEDGE. The teacher promised to show the class that every organism, living or dead, was fed or became food for other organisms in a boat called a HIGHERARKY. For those students who were spiritually-minded, the teacher would present a special section called the Angel Food Cake Walk and prove that after all the little things you couldn't see were eaten by the things you could see, then angels, which you couldn't always see, ate people which you could only see for a while. That day, at morning break, Sophia decided to become anorexic.

Etymology: A play on KNOWLEDGE, the fact or state of knowing + GNAW, to bite or chew persistently

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COMMENTS:

love the story - Jabberwocky, 2009-01-30: 11:16:00

Thanks for the high praise, Jabberwocky! - readerwriter, 2009-01-30: 11:53:00

Memorable story and verbotomy - silveryaspen, 2009-01-30: 15:43:00

no way! if gnawledge's etymology is based on "chew persistently", then doesn't that mean quite the opposite (or at least different) than "to simplify"? To me, this word means chewing on information and slowly making your own judgment, in contrast to passively swallowing "knowledge" that was produced by someone else - elcanyonazo, 2009-02-07: 15:28:00

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Created by: mrskellyscl

Pronunciation: de-fac-toid

Sentence: Due to the success of his book, "K-9 ET" (Extra-terrestrial Doggies), Fred became the defactoid authority on canine aliens. He was a popular guest on the talk show circut and, after appearances on Larry King and The Tonight Show, landed his own cable television show, called "Is Your Dog an Alien?"

Etymology: de:remove from + fact: truth -- defacto: dominant standard or law that exists because of common acceptance rather than authority + factoid: a "fact" that exists to create or manipulate public opinion - often applied to newsmedia accused of publishing untrue or unverified articles for the purpose of sensationalism.

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Created by: galwaywegian

Pronunciation: diz neeeeeez

Sentence: He suffered from a wasting Disnease a condition where the evil, dark, shark-like thingies lock the good cells up in the spleen after a sleepover party for polly platelets first trip around the arteries went horribly wrong.

Etymology: Disease, Disney

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COMMENTS:

excellent - Jabberwocky, 2009-01-30: 11:15:00

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Created by: scrabbelicious

Pronunciation: Dar-wins-ag-en

Sentence: Mr. Cox loved his subject so much he strived to get everyone in his ecolony to marvel at every intricate detail of its fabrication. "Ground breaking", he thought, "almost Darwinsagain".

Etymology: Darwin -: Famous Victorian lover of Tortoises and birds with one wing. Win -: to be victorious. Again -: More than once, recurring.

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Created by: mweinmann

Pronunciation: simpel - sii - man

Sentence: Rufus just published a new book about Brain Surgery. It looks like the simplescieman version with lots of colored pictures, new "easy" words for the anatomy and loads of symbols (arrows, charts and little brains). He is hoping that it will be more understandable and, therefore, appeal to a wider audience. Unfortunately, it is about as educational as a quick game of Operation.

Etymology: Simple Simon + Science >> Simple Simon (a foolish fellow, a simpleton) Science ( the state of knowing : knowledge as distinguished from ignorance or misunderstanding, knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws)

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COMMENTS:

Simplescieman appeals to my "inner child"...I am a passionate practitioner of DIY surgery. - metrohumanx, 2009-01-30: 01:17:00

Perfect! - kateinkorea, 2009-01-30: 07:11:00

wonderful - Jabberwocky, 2009-01-30: 11:18:00

Easy to say and remember, right on the definition, pun fun humorous, with readily apparent meaning! Simplescieman has it all! Super Duper! - silveryaspen, 2009-01-30: 15:48:00

Said Simplescieman to the Pi(π)man, let me taste your wares, Said the Pieman to Simplescieman, my Pi's aren't round, they're squared! Must be a good word if it is stuck in my head now! - Nosila, 2009-01-30: 17:54:00

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Created by: elona

Pronunciation:

Sentence: Sugarcovering the effect probiotics have on the human health will make the people believe they need to consume more yoghurt.

Etymology: sugar and cover, for sweetening the facts so they are more easily ingested.

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Created by: kateinkorea

Pronunciation: LOW dum DOWN

Sentence: I asked for his understanding of the lowdown on the new cloning technology, and the typical cognitwit that he is, he gave me the lowdumbdown version. He thinks he is so smart that he has to talk down to me. I think we should have him cloned just so we have two of him to send out for coffee from now on.

Etymology: LOWDOWN: the true and most important facts about something to know DUMBDOWN: an over-simplification of something thought to cause a decline in its quality or value

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Created by: Mustang

Pronunciation: de-SCI-ehns-eh-tize

Sentence: Albert was a bit of a dunce where science is concerned but he had a gift for gab so by using a smattering of actual knowledge, sprinkling in an abundance of gibberish and doubletalk he could desciencetize just about any kind of medical or scientific information.

Etymology: A play on the word 'desensitize'

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COMMENTS:

BRAVO! Down with pseudoscience! - metrohumanx, 2009-01-30: 00:33:00

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Created by: metrohumanx

Pronunciation: spin-FLICK-toe-sham (spinflictoshammer, spinflictoshammed)

Sentence: Albert, a sensitive but demented biologist, was taken aback when he flicked on his television and found out that the folks at LYSOL had managed to bio-engineer all household bacteria into frightening, agressive enemies the size of GUMMYBEARS! Regular soap kills 98 % of germs but- in order to promote sales of "antibacterial" products, corporate advertising mavens sought to frighten everyone by portraying innocuous germs as flesh-eating maggots from hell. Albert knew that this approach to increased sales was merely a persuasive bogus SPINFLICTOSHAM...perpetrated to scare caring parental units into purchasing "ECO"products which cost more, but were no more effective than grandma's home-made soap. Albert sent an e-mail in protest, but in the end he washed his hands of the whole affair.

Etymology: SPIN+inFLICT+"O"+SHAM=SPINFLICTOSHAM.......SPIN:to present (as information) with a particular spin,to stretch out or extend (as a story) lengthily; .....INFLICT:to give by or as if by striking ,to cause (something unpleasant) to be endured, especially false knowledge; Latin inflictus, past participle of infligere, from in- + fligere "to strike"....."O"-a 20th century connective trick used to fuse two words together (suds-o-mat).....SHAM: a trick that deludes, a hoax, cheap falseness, especially purporting to be based upon scientific knowledge; perhaps from English dialect sham "shame", alteration of English shame.

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COMMENTS:

BEWARE! Bogus science and magnetic insoles..... Lookee here: http://www.quackwatch.org/ - metrohumanx, 2009-01-30: 01:09:00

I thrive on rejection and encourage feedback. - metrohumanx, 2009-01-30: 01:29:00

Eco products are certainly de rigueur at the moment. I suspect many of them are the identical products but just re-labeled. - Jabberwocky, 2009-01-30: 11:34:00

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Created by: jajsr

Pronunciation: Trip-toe-str-etch

Sentence: After Thanksgiving dinner, Shawn sat down on the couch and started to doze off. When his nephew, John, asked him why he was so sleepy, Shawn said it was because of the tryptophan in the turkey. Little to Shawn's knowledge, John had just finished watching a special about the "tryptophan myth", and realized Shawn just delievered a classic tryptostretch.

Etymology: Combination of "Trypto" from tryptophan - amino acid in turkey that's 'supposed' to make you sleepy; and "stretch" - an exercise of something beyond ordinary or normal limits - exaggeration.

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