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'Omigod! What happened to your nose?'

DEFINITION: v. To make something worse while attempting to make it better. n. A bad improvement.

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Verboticisms

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Incorrectify

Created by: stache

Pronunciation: ĭn'kə-rěk'tə-fī'

Sentence: "You can't polish a turd," Garvin said when David showed him how he had used accessories to incorrectify his '79 Ford Pinto.

Etymology: incur, to bring upon oneself, as in, to incur the ridicule of the public; rectify, verb form of rectum, part of the human anatomy often euphemized as a term of disparagement.

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COMMENTS:

nice - Jabberwocky, 2008-05-15: 11:45:00

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Shedit

Created by: ZenoX

Pronunciation: shed it

Sentence: She went to a plastic surgeon the other day and shedited her nose. She was telling me all about that present she'll never afford now. Wait till she hears about her embarrassing shedit. She'll probably never admit her mistake.

Etymology: A shit edit, a change that should be hid in a dark place (shed).

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Reekonstruction

Created by: galwaywegian

Pronunciation: reek on struk shun

Sentence: "how do you feel after your latest reekonstruction, mr Jackson?" the waiting media asked. "I'm bad" he said, "I'm bad"

Etymology: reek as in stinking, reconstruction

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COMMENTS:

nice reference to MJ - Jabberwocky, 2008-05-15: 11:45:00

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Misrepair

youmustvotenato

Created by: youmustvotenato

Pronunciation: miss-repair

Sentence: With clippers in hand, I began cutting my hair. I kept having to "fix" my mistakes and soon enough, my hair was in misrepair.

Etymology: mistaken; repair

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Faltercation

Created by: Jabberwocky

Pronunciation: fal/tur/cay/shun

Sentence: The alteration quickly became a faltercation once the bandages came off in the doctor's office.

Etymology: alter + falter + the ensuing altercation

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COMMENTS:

Sounds like some of my home improvement projects. lol - Mustang, 2008-05-15: 21:46:00

Excellent blend! - Tigger, 2008-05-15: 23:31:00

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Badderment

petaj

Created by: petaj

Pronunciation: bad-er-ment

Sentence: The government's social engineering activities were well intentioned but ended up for the badderment of all. It was really more like woeful engineering.

Etymology: bad + betterment

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COMMENTS:

Good one! - Mustang, 2008-05-15: 21:47:00

Oh, this word works nicely! Good job. - Tigger, 2008-05-15: 23:33:00

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Adworsity

Created by: bookowl

Pronunciation: Ad/wurs/itee

Sentence: They suffered further adworsity when the contractor hung the windows upsidedown.

Etymology: add + worse + adversity

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Grimprovement

Created by: TJayzz

Pronunciation: Grimm-proov-mant

Sentence: Since taking the home improvement course at her local college, Jenny couldn't wait to try out her new found skills in her own home, but when her husband saw the new lime green paint job in the lounge he thought it was more like a grimprovement.

Etymology: Grim(depressing, unappealing) + Improvement(The action of improving or improved, to make something better than it was) =Grimprovement

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COMMENTS:

good word..grimpressive - Nosila, 2008-05-15: 01:54:00

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Unintendment

Created by: pieceof314

Pronunciation: un-intend-ment

Sentence: Horace had horrible headaches. He was getting rather desperate. He thought by cutting his head off, he would alleviate the problem. The one unintendment he didn't count on was death.

Etymology: un, not + intend, to direct one's attention towards

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Badvancement

Created by: Tigger

Pronunciation: /bad-VANS-mehnt/

Sentence: It seems that each new elected politician is a badvancement on the last one. Although they promise improvement after improvement, and all sorts of advancements, things keep going from bad to worse.

Etymology: Bad - of poor or inferior quality; defective (of uncertain origin; meaning of "defective or inferior" first recorded around 1300 AD) + Advancement - a forward step; an improvement (from Old French, avancer "move forward")

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Comments:

Verbotomy Verbotomy - 2008-05-15: 00:01:00
Today's definition is inspired by author and philosopher, Mark Kingwell who I saw last night speaking about "Social Change". He reminded us that not all change is good change. And noted that in German they have word to describe such bad improvements -- Schlimmbesserung -- which we don't have in English. And so it's today's challenge. Thanks Mark! ~ James