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: stache

Pronunciation: pā'lē-ō-dāt'ə

Sentence: Jose threw the remaining 3.5" floppies in the drawer with his cassette, VHS, 8-track and reel-to-reel tapes, 5" floppies and other miscellaneous paleodata.

Etymology: paleo-, a combining form meaning “old” or “ancient;” data, information

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COMMENTS:

I must say, this is nearly as good as my verb! Well done! I will probably use this word, a lot. - picabomama, 2008-03-14: 08:16:00

The throwback all the way to the dinosaur age ... Terrific word! - silveryaspen, 2008-03-14: 18:00:00

Great word! - OZZIEBOB, 2008-03-16: 17:04:00

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Created by: artr

Pronunciation: hīteknēks

Sentence: Rotary phones, transistor radios, 8-tracks, cassette players, VCRs, dial-up modems... Once the pinnacle of scientific genius, these marvels are now considered hitechniques, ancient relics of technology that has moved on. Some of them still function with a patchwork of adaptations. Most are only good for cannibalizing to keep others of their kind semi-functional.

Etymology: hitech (employing, requiring, or involved in high technology) + antiques (a collectible object such as a piece of furniture or work of art that has a high value because of its considerable age)

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Created by: Lazberg

Pronunciation: Cal ook el

Sentence: Individ 1: "Hey, let's go to the library and rent some good old-fashion calookles!" Individ 2: "Ah yes, i totally agree, i haven't read a calookle in a while, better get reading."

Etymology:

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Created by: Nosila

Pronunciation: gram pa fone

Sentence: The boys loved going to visit Grampa, because he had so many neat old-fashioned gizmos that they had never seen before. One of their favourites was the grampaphone. It was a gramophone that played very old songs on 78 rpm records. It needed wound up all the time. Their parents were amazed that the boys knew the words to very old vaudeville, burlesque and music hall songs. They knew all the songs recorded by Al Jolson, Gracie Fields, George Formby, Edith Piaf, Rudy Vallee and Fats Waller among others. Their folks knew they spent too much time on the grampaphone, when they said goodbye to their teacher, Mrs. Jones. They would croon to her, "Toot-Toot-Tootsie goodbye, Toot-Toot-Tootsie, don't cry..."

Etymology: Gramophone (an antique record player; the sound of the vibrating needle is amplified acoustically) & Grampa (your father or mother's father; the affectionate term for a grandfather)

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COMMENTS:

A Grampaphone could also be that odd black plastic device that plugs into the wall and works like a cell with an anchor. - artr, 2010-05-24: 07:54:00

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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: silveryaspen

Pronunciation: gadg jettison

Sentence: Gadgets evolve so quickly, that those of today, are outdated tomorrow, and become gadjettisons.

Etymology: GADGETS, JETTISON. GADGETS - machines, objects, things. JETTISON - throw out, get rid of, abandon, discard, ditch, chuck, dump, chuck out

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COMMENTS:

Egad! another top word! - galwaywegian, 2009-01-07: 12:05:00

great combo - Jabberwocky, 2009-01-07: 14:23:00

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Created by: silveryaspen

Pronunciation: de - fund - shun - als

Sentence: Humans have been inventing ways to store funds of knowledge from before the stone age to the present. Stone carvings, paper, books, pictures, vinyl records, tapes, disks, computer memory banks, data servers, ipods, blackberries, etc. We keep them all, though we seldom use the archaic ones. Was the first cosmic fund of knowledge written in the stars? Will the last fund of cosmic knowedge be written in the stars? Perhaps all these others in-between, are, were, and always have been, mere defundtionals.

Etymology: Fund, Defunctional. Fund: sources of things stored or saved. Defunctional: no longer used, operative, or functional.

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COMMENTS:

philosophical one - bigveg, 2008-03-14: 03:04:00

So, what you are saying is that every idea ever related by mankind are somehow stored in the universe. The last words spoken by Amelia Earhart may be recorded in the sand of an isolated atoll somewhere, the waves of her voice rearranging the particles of sand that lay beneath her contorted face as she met her end. The lost works of Chaucer could be reclaimed from the atomic impressions remaining on a rotting desk from the 14th century. The library at Alexandria could be reconstructed from a million fragments of ashen scrolls with the ability to distinguish ink from charcoal, and vast arrays of computers to reassemble the fragments into complete manuscripts. Every electromagnetic conveyance of media ever produced can be reclaimed from the stars if we can overcome the speed of light in order to catch up to it, as it travels through the vast emptiness of space. The only idea that can never be successfully reclaimed is the idea that is never communicated, so long as we can use our intellect in pursuit of the technology to recover that information. The possibility of mankind is limitl...whoops, gotta go, American Idol is on! - Banky, 2008-03-14: 10:23:00

Nice word :) - Banky, 2008-03-14: 10:24:00

Maybe planned obsolescence is in our DNA? - arrrteest, 2008-03-14: 13:21:00

I think there may be a book in this one - Jabberwocky, 2008-03-14: 14:03:00

Wow! Never expected so many comments on my two QUEST-tionings! It was asked in a much lighter vein than it was received! Banky, you read so much more into those two little questions!!! But here's another question for what ever you all want to see in it. Do our subconscious minds tap into an ethereal storage bank of all knowledge in the universe, then come up with bits of knowledge and solutions our conscious minds couldn't find ... and then place that in our conscious minds? I'll leave the book writing up to Banky and Nosila. I just have questions ... for me, life is but a quest for more about all things. I'm just grateful for how much easier it is to access all information in all the various media! But at the rate it is growing ... there is no such thing as all-knowing among us mere mortals. You're right Jabberwocky ... a book ... maybe many books!!! (wink/big smile). - silveryaspen, 2008-03-14: 16:58:00

Nice word;thought provoking sentence! - OZZIEBOB, 2008-03-16: 17:03:00

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Created by: karenanne

Pronunciation: tek STINCT

Sentence: Why is it that the VHS video format is considered boring and old-fashioned, while both the Beta tapes and the Beta machines required to play them, which are even older, are now considered "retro" and "cute?" I guess the closer something gets to becoming techstinct, the cooler it becomes for collectors due to its rarity.

Etymology: tech + extinct

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Created by: Jabberwocky

Pronunciation: mith/i/ca/lig/ra/fee

Sentence: Since no one under the age of twenty uses cursive writing anymore, handwritten essays have become mythicaligraphy.

Etymology: mythical + caligraphy

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COMMENTS:

What's in a hand? Applause for this word! Outstanding! - silveryaspen, 2008-03-14: 17:10:00

marvelous word! love it!~ - diyan627, 2008-03-15: 11:15:00

Another top word. - OZZIEBOB, 2008-03-16: 17:06:00

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