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: galwaywegian

Pronunciation: ark ay oll og on

Sentence: the bit Dr Frank missed most about the old format, was the fifteen minutes he could spend cackling while running around the laborotory, before the screen would "come to life" as it were.

Etymology: archaelogy, log on

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COMMENTS:

Great word. Took a stroll down memory lane with it. Remember the first tv sets that had to warm up and then had a test pattern for hours? Can't quit laughing over how fascinated we were by that test pattern! Oh! How the times have changed! Thank goodness! - silveryaspen, 2009-01-07: 14:36:00

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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: arrrteest

Pronunciation: hayh-per-rel-i-cayt

Sentence: With blu-ray technology coming on, Devon pondered if he would have to move his massive CD collection to join his boxes of cassettes, LP's and 45's, and 8-track tapes. Feeling a bit nostalgic, he went to go look for the list of titles that he had packed away in the early 90's. To his dismay, he realized he wouldn't be able to find it because it was saved on a hyperrelicate: a floppy disk.

Etymology: hyper- over,beyond + relic- an object of the past + -ate, a Latin suffix occurring in nouns

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COMMENTS:

Like you, I have all those old relics and the devices for playing them them. If I took them out of storage I could fill an entertainment center with the museum pieces and charge the young ones to come play with it! Are we just a bit relicated? Superword! - silveryaspen, 2008-03-14: 18:07:00

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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: 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: Nosila

Pronunciation: bay ta blok

Sentence: When Sammy tried to put his dvd in Grandpa's old video machine, he found it was in betablock mode. No wonder Grandpa had heart trouble. Sammy was confused and felt like someone travelling back in a time machine...Grandpa's videos were on Beta, his music on 8 Track, his movies were on 8 mm, his tv was in black & white and his telephone had a rotary dial. No wonder Grandpa was so old...it took him ages to get in contact with the outside world!

Etymology: Beta (old video format, before VHS) & Beta Blocker (any of various drugs used in treating hypertension or arrhythmia; decreases force and rate of heart contractions by blocking beta-adrenergic receptors of the autonomic nervous system)

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Created by: c2flores

Pronunciation:

Sentence:

Etymology:

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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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