Verboticisms

Created by: Nosila

Pronunciation: ree ty ro sar

Sentence: When Mary reached 65, she knew it was time to stop working. She had become a retirosaur. She no longer spoke the language of her younger boss and co-workers. She could remember working the teletype, a comptometer and her ancient Underwood typewriter had served her well. She had used a dictionary, a thesaurus, knew how to spell; remember people's names; compose grammatically correct sentences and do complex mathematical computations in her head. The staff loved her, but found her to be a quaint walking, talking museum on legs. Yes, Mary had worked for 45 years at the same place and the reason she had been kept on this long was because she knew how to do each job well and she knew where all the bodies were buried!

Etymology: Retire (Withdraw from circulation or participation; cease to work) & Dinosaur (any of numerous extinct terrestrial reptiles of the Mesozoic era)

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COMMENTS:

"Retirosaur!" Just like the Little Red Hen, let Mary say "Not I!" It's sad we can't make the good things that are in the past, more a part of the good things in the present ... glean the best of the both! - silveryaspen, 2009-01-07: 15:48:00

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Created by: Nosila

Pronunciation: pas say im pur fect

Sentence: Young Billy adored his grandfather and loved it when the old geezer told him stories about the passéimperfect. He knew his grandpa made this stuff up, but he loved to hear about the good old days anyway and in particular about the ancient tools they used. He regaled Billy with yarns about how his phone had numbers that went round and round when he stuck his finger in the holes for each set of numbers. Grandpa also told him about watching tv shows on the one channel in black & white and for some reason you needed a rabbit's ears to see the tiny picture better. (As if!) He also told him of cooking without using a microwave (yeah, right!) and buying big blocks of ice to keep everything in the fridge cold (you've got to be kidding!). That crazy Grandpa, he told Billy that a log on was something you put on a bonfire and that a link was something you put on your sleeves to keep the cuffs closed. He said a password was something you spoke into a grill on a door to get into a speak-easy (must be some kind of spellcheck for voice actioned computers?) Billy loved the really old things that Grandpa gave him. Like most boys his age, he loved dinosaurs. He was so excited today, because Grandpa was coming over and bringing him a thesaurus...he couldn't wait to play with it!

Etymology: passé (out of fashion) & past imperfect (grammar: tense imperfect refers to an action that is uncompleted or abandoned)

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COMMENTS:

Rrrawr! Oh no, here comes the fierce Thesaurus Rex!... That's hilarious. - Tigger, 2008-03-14: 03:09:00

All that was makes me curious about what is to come! Great etymology ... conveys the way passages from the old ... lead to the knew ... growing, evolving, better and better ... perfecting! A Perfectly wonderful sentence and word! - silveryaspen, 2008-03-14: 17:08:00

Thanks, Tigger & silveryaspen. I always thought the best name for the Toronto NBA Team was TorontoSaurus Wrecks...but no one would listen... - Nosila, 2008-03-14: 23:16:00

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Created by: Jabberwocky

Pronunciation: vie/nil/yu/siv

Sentence: The kids found some old vinyl records and after trying to use them as frisbees and monster wheels they found their intended use disturbingly vinylusive.

Etymology: vinyl + illusive

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COMMENTS:

Too true! Do you still play your recrods? I sometimes do! Must admit, the sound is better on latter sound media. Now days a 45 is not a record ... but a gun! - silveryaspen, 2009-01-07: 14:41:00

Your reference to 'monster wheel' set off the old Credence Clearwater chorus of: Big wheel keep on turning, Proud Mary keep on burning, Rolling, rolling, rolling on the river. - silveryaspen, 2009-01-07: 16:01:00

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Created by: diyan627

Pronunciation: tek-no-sil

Sentence: Diyan wants to update her various technossil dated between 1995 and 2007. Only recently did she upgrade to a digital camera as it was bittersweet parting with her SLR Nikon N60. At least there is still an element of art in the use of SLR, but that's way more than can be said for her gigantic desktop computer and the cob-web of wires that pour out from behind it.

Etymology: technology + fossil

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COMMENTS:

Great word! Seems so obvious to me. - arrrteest, 2008-03-14: 14:36:00

Applies not only to the byte-gone devices but to the operators of them! I'm a technossil among all my stored technossils! Outstanding won! - silveryaspen, 2008-03-14: 18:36:00

Great word. - Mustang, 2008-03-14: 19:38:00

Thanks Arrrteest, Silveryaspen and Mustang! - diyan627, 2008-03-15: 11:17:00

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Created by: jajsr

Pronunciation: Hi-row-me-D-a

Sentence: Josh's grandfather knew Josh needed something to research projects for school. Instead of buying him a lap-top computer, he brought him a complete volume of hieromedia - in this case encyclopedias.

Etymology: Combination of "Hiero" from hieroglyphic - the picture script of the ancient Egyptians; and "Media"

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Created by: Mustang

Pronunciation: ret - ro - surf

Sentence: Having only their granddad's discarded computer to rely on Delbert and Javier had no choice but to resort to retrosurfing method of finding information.

Etymology: Retro + surf

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COMMENTS:

What a lot of retrosurfing has been done here today! Great angle! Great word! - silveryaspen, 2008-03-14: 18:41:00

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Created by: DragonRider428

Pronunciation: imm-yoos

Sentence: I found an immuse the other day - a record player!

Etymology: prefix "im" meaning "not" and "use"

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Created by: purpleartichokes

Pronunciation: mim-ee-oh-gaff

Sentence: Humphrey inserted the floppy disk and cranked the handle, but to know avail. He sighed in disappointment, realizing that he may never know what a graph of a mimeo looked like. His mimeograph was nothing more than a mimeogaffe.

Etymology: mimeograph, gaffe

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COMMENTS:

how sad but how true - A young guest tried to use an old rotary dial phone at our house and just kept pushing their fingers into the holes to no avail - Jabberwocky, 2008-03-14: 14:06:00

Another walk down byte-gone ways! Great word play! Very nicely done! - silveryaspen, 2008-03-14: 18:34:00

Sadly, I used a mimeograph and no one knows what I'm talking about (as usual). - Nosila, 2008-03-14: 23:02:00

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Created by: Fester361

Pronunciation: rel ee cas ett

Sentence: After several ours wasted, playing on their Nintendo Wii, Mike's kids were bored and decided to explore the attic. Rummaging through old boxes, they came across some mysterious plastic slabs, that appeared to have reels of tape inside. "Dad, how do we get the tape out?" they shouted. "You need to use the relicassette player," he replied. Mike went up into the attic and retrieved a giant metal machine with a huge A4 sized flap on the top. At the press of a button, the flap shot open and all manner of insects flew out. When switched on, the lights in the house went dim and the circuit breaker tripped. "I guess I should have copied these to DVD!" Mike said.

Etymology: Relic; an antiquity that has survived from the distant past. Cassette; A rigid or flexible light-tight container for holding radiographic recording media.

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COMMENTS:

Please be gentle, it's my first (of many, I hope) attempt. - Fester361, 2008-03-16: 04:44:00

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Created by: Stevenson0

Pronunciation: tik/stingkt

Sentence: The inability of any of today's computers to read the written data on the old large floppy disks have made them textinct.

Etymology: TEXTINCT - noun - from TEXT + EXTINCT - T+EXTINCT = TEXTINCT

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