Vote for the best verboticism.
DEFINITION: v. To simplify, dramatize and fictionalize scientific knowledge so that it appeals to a general audience. n. A scientific fact, which has been exaggerated and dumbed-down to make it more "interesting".
Verboticisms
Click on each verboticism to read the sentences created by the Verbotomy writers, and to see your voting options...
You have two votes. Click on the words to read the details, then vote your favorite.
Gnawledge
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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Simpliphylum
Created by: cosmonaut
Pronunciation: sim-pluh-fahy-luhm
Sentence: "He's caught Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis!" "Um, is there anyway you could simpliphylum that for us...?"
Etymology: A new and exciting cross-bread between simplify and phylum.
Xcisefiles
Created by: Stevenson0
Pronunciation: X/cise/Files
Sentence: Be sure to watch PBS's latest and greatest scientific adventure yet, in the show all the scientific world is buzzing about 'The XciseFiles' starring David Duchonvy as Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully. In this week's nail biter, with a surprising and shocking ending, the two stars take you on a long, scary and sometimes dangerous journey on how water boils at 100 degrees celcius, turns to steam, then condenses and turns back to rain, or water. Don't miss this week's shocking, suspenseful premier called 'The Water Cycle'.
Etymology: XciseFiles - noun - from EXCISE (to remove, or cut out) + X-FILES (former popular TV show above strange and possible scientific facts and recent movie 'X-Files - I Want to Believe'
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COMMENTS:
terrific sentence - you must be a science teacher - Jabberwocky, 2009-01-30: 11:18:00
I smell an Emmy...good word! - Nosila, 2009-01-30: 17:56:00
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Seinsteinfeld
Created by: GlobalGallery
Pronunciation: sine-stine-feld
Sentence: It's gonna be a hit I tell ya. It's a sitcom, set in New York, and it's all about this wacky bunch of friends who are really into theoretical physics.
Etymology: 1.Seinfeld - A popular TV comedy set in New York City starring Jerry Seinfeld. 2.Einstein - German born Nobel prize winning physicist who formulated the theory of relativity.
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COMMENTS:
fantastic - Jabberwocky, 2009-01-30: 11:16:00
What a combination! Einstein and Seinfeld! - silveryaspen, 2009-01-30: 15:45:00
Great, a show about nothing...0 = MC2, what a Quantum Leap Year! - Nosila, 2009-01-30: 17:49:00
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Scifidumb
Created by: TJayzz
Pronunciation: Sy-fy-dum
Sentence: Whilst trying to explain the details to the general public about the inner workings of quantum physics, the scientists, in order to scifidumb the subject, resorted to employing a nursury school teacher to simplify things and also an author with a good imagination to make things more interesting by adding a few false facts.
Etymology: Sci-fi(Abbreviation of science fiction) + Dumb(as in dumb down) = Scifidumb
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COMMENTS:
it would be fun to hear verbotomists explaining quantum physics - I bet we cold come up with some interesting false facts - Jabberwocky, 2009-01-30: 11:29:00
No doubt there Jabberwocky!! - TJayzz, 2009-01-31: 13:58:00
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Idioticks
Created by: abrakadeborah
Pronunciation: id-ee-ot-icks
Sentence: The idioticks section of the Science test may be found on page 0h-0ne-0h-0ne.
Etymology: Idio- Part of idiotic - Very stupid. Icks- (Made up)and pertaining to ; a person who doesn't have the capacity to retain scientific facts.
Dimmunology
Created by: Nosila
Pronunciation: dim mewn ol o jee
Sentence: Explaining how the body contracts diseases to his pretty but ditzy girlfriend, Dody, was a lesson in dimmunology for Professor Speigel.
Etymology: Dim (slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity) & Immunology (the branch of medical science that studies the body's immune system)
Tryptostretch
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.
Darwnsagain
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.
Comments:
Today's definition was suggested by metrohumanx. Thank you metrohumanx. ~ James
Well put.
...and thank you for letting me "vent".
Thank you for venting! Obviously you are very gnawledgeable. ~ James
Today's definition was suggested by metrohumanx. Thank you metrohumanx. ~ James