Vote for the best verboticism.

DEFINITION: v. To ask a someone a bizarre question in order to get them to think outside their mental little boxes. (And to see if they are actually listening.) n. A creative provocation designed to pull people out of their daily stupor.

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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.

Stunundrum

Created by: Tigger

Pronunciation: /stun-'un-drum/

Sentence: Trying to 'chat up' the receptionist at the veterinarians office, Stuart idly asked her, "So why do they say you're getting your dog 'fixed' when really it doesn't work anymore afterwords? People ought to say they're taking the dog to get 'broken' instead, shouldn't they?" By the blank, slack-jawed look she gave him, he realized he'd overwhelmed her with a Stunundrum. He just sighed, sat back down and petted Rascal for awhile - at least Rascal seemed to pretend to understand his jokes.

Etymology: Stun (from O.Fr. estoner) - to astonish, overpower or bewilder. + Conundrum (pseudo-Latin) - a riddle in which a fanciful question is answered by a pun.

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COMMENTS:

excellent! - galwaywegian, 2009-03-11: 06:47:00

Perhaps Stu should've had the dog TUTORED instead.... - metrohumanx, 2009-03-11: 21:26:00

Marvelous word - silveryaspen, 2009-03-11: 21:57:00

Really good word! I like the way it sounds :) Good Job! - abrakadeborah, 2009-03-14: 18:58:00

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Rogitate

Created by: danagerl

Pronunciation:

Sentence:

Etymology: From the Latin words meaning "question" (rogare) and "think" (cogitate)

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Homedepose

Created by: Nosila

Pronunciation: home de pose

Sentence: When Kyle asked about a seat for his wheelbarrow, Katie the associate was used to getting homedepose idiotic questions all the time. Her experience had prepared her to think outside the box store and have a ready response.

Etymology: Home Depots (famus US home goods retailer, known for its signature orange color and pretty much in every city in USA & Canada...) & Pose (ask a question)

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Prodvoke

Created by: artr

Pronunciation: prädvōk

Sentence: During his weekly meetings with his staff, Larry loved to prodvoke people to think outside the box. As he was being fired, he was reminded he worked for a packaging company and that people are paid to think INSIDE the box.

Etymology: prod (an act of stimulating or reminding someone to do something) + provoke (stimulate or incite)

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COMMENTS:

carton me, but a good story! - Nosila, 2010-09-22: 18:03:00

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Stunmulate

Created by: Nosila

Pronunciation: stun myu layt

Sentence: When the geek asked Elvira for a seat for his wheelbarrow, she, being the quintessential helpful sales associate quipped quickly to the question designed to stunmulate her out of a boring sales day. He told her it needed a seat and she proceeded to flourish her tape measure and tell him that if he needed to ride in the wheelbarrow, he'd need a safety approved seat belt, a helmet and a made-to-measure bucket seat. They just needed to measure his seat area...all part of the service.

Etymology: Stun (overcome as with astonishment or disbelief) & Stimulate (cause to be alert and energetic;cause to do; cause to act in a specified manner)

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COMMENTS:

I like it `.' - RightOnTheWin, 2010-09-22: 03:02:00

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Yeastinflection

Created by: Mustang

Pronunciation: yeest-in-fleckt-shun

Sentence: Juanita had a very 'bubbly' personality and a bit of an off-the-wall skew on life in general and she often tried to get a 'rise' out of people by putting a bit of a yeastinflection in her approach and would ask seemingly pointless questions in order to goad her companions into making responses to what were sometimes very personal matters.

Etymology: 'yeast' (1.A microscopic fungus) and 'inflection' (1.A change in the form of a word (typically the ending) to express a grammatical function or attribute such as tense, mood, person), and a play on words on 'yeast infection'.

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Evoqunotion

Created by: kateinkorea

Pronunciation: ee VOKE que NO sheun

Sentence: Several times a year Dr. Miller would lay an evoqunotion on us, to get us to think outside the box. He would suddenly ask us a question that seemed very complicated and difficult, or even impossible. Usually the solution was to look for another way of interpreting the question. Of course he always used the classic ‘nine-dot’ creativity puzzle at some point in the semester-the originator of the thinking outside the box concept. Initially the students would stress over these questions for days, but near the end of the semester the students were waiting with bated breath for the next one to come out.

Etymology: EVOKE: prompt, spur QUERY: question NOTION: idea EVOLUTION: change over time

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COMMENTS:

what a foxy outboxy creative sentence. - silveryaspen, 2009-03-11: 21:41:00

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Enlighteningjolt

Created by: mweinmann

Pronunciation: en + lite + ten + ing + jolt

Sentence: Clyde was hit with an enlighteningjolt when Melissa told him that the recent merger between Charmin and Microsoft would contribute greatly to Cloud Computing and that Software would now become much softer.

Etymology: Enlightening + jolt >> Enlightening (tending to increase or impart knowledge) Jolt (sudden jarring impact)

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COMMENTS:

Sentence left me smiling as much for what it did say, as what it implied. You lit a fire with this one, it burns ever so brightly. - silveryaspen, 2009-03-11: 21:33:00

Good word and good sentence. - kateinkorea, 2009-03-12: 22:02:00

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