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: 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.

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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: 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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Created by: Nosila

Pronunciation: sy per bo lee

Sentence: Ed Speriment was the Grade 8 Science Teacher. It was not that he loved Science or knew anything about it, it was a choice between this class or teaching Sex Education (something he knew even less about and was not likely to learn). They do say the best way to learn something is to teach it, so Ed hoped that he could learn enough about the subject of Science to fool the little hooligans in his class at Hormone Junior High School. He exaggerated so many concepts and used simple tricks to try and get the curriculum through to unwilling minds. He called it his theory of Sciperbole. For Chemistry, he had success in showing Chemical reactions...which became a real Soap Opera. Who knew Bleach and Ammonia were not on speaking terms and brought the worst out in each other? Butyric Acid, yes it sure does smell like after your pregnant, single sister has had morning sickness. In Biology, he helped them see that old pizza under your bed, dead mice in the air vents or wet socks in your locker could grow whole new worlds of creatures. In Kinetics, he had them experiment at home. The volume of beer given to their Dads at night directly impacted the amount and timespan of inertia they observed of their paters on the couch, snoring in front of late-night paid programming. For Astronomy, he had them chart their horoscopes every day. (Everyone should be a Virgo until they get married, he would joke!) And Physics was easy, because he just showed them old Star Trek and Dr.Who shows to learn the salient words and concepts of time and space travel. (Yes, TARDIS stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space-Question #25 on the final exam!) All the kids got A's and everyone loved Mr. Ed. for making Science fun, even if it wasn't very scientific!

Etymology: Science (a particular branch of scientific knowledge;ability to produce solutions in some problem domain) & Hyperbole (Exaggeration;to enlarge beyond bounds or the truth)

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COMMENTS:

All the kids at MoreScience Highschool owe you a debt of gratitude for your prolific contributions. - metrohumanx, 2009-01-30: 01:14:00

I'd like to thank the members of the Academy...oh no, that's for my Oscar! Cheers & Thanks. - Nosila, 2009-01-30: 01:22:00

great blend - Jabberwocky, 2009-01-30: 11:17:00

Thoroughly enjoyed the class of Ed Speriment. Edceptional verbotomy, too! - silveryaspen, 2009-01-30: 16:06:00

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Created by: artr

Pronunciation: dawrk-yuh-men-tuh-ree

Sentence: By the time the network was done making the scientific study interesting and understandable to their audience, all they succeeded in producing was a dorkumentary.

Etymology: dork (a silly, out-of-touch person who tends to look odd or behave ridiculously around others; a social misfit) + documentary (based on or re-creating an actual event, era, life story, etc., that purports to be factually accurate and contains no fictional elements)

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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: 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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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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