Vote for the best verboticism.
DEFINITION: n. The sacrifice a mother makes when she gives everything to her children, including life itself, and then simply lets them go. v. To give someone everything and then watch them walk away.
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.
Matrifice
Created by: eiggy
Pronunciation: 'matt-ri-fice (ri-fice as in sacrifice)
Sentence: Mrs. Jones raised Bobby on the best cereal, laundry detergent, and education money can buy. She spent every waking moment making his life meaningful. What matrifice!
Etymology: matri - from Latin mater 'mother' and fice - from facere 'make'
Weanherschitzel
Created by: whipspeak
Pronunciation: ween-hur-shit-suhl
Sentence: On her son Myron's 23rd birthday, Fran served weanherschitzel.
Etymology: wean: to withhold mother's milk from (the young of a mammal) and substitute other nourishment. + her: the possessive form of she + schitzel: whipspeak for unappreciative offspring
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COMMENTS:
Zehr gut! - Nosila, 2009-11-29: 11:57:00
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Chilflessness
Created by: Rhyme79
Pronunciation: chill-fuh-less-ness
Sentence: "My neighbour displayed such chilflessness when her son left the nest, it was quite moving."
Etymology: An amalgam of the words 'child' and 'selflessness'.
Sacriprice
Created by: mrskellyscl
Pronunciation: sac-ri-price
Sentence: As a good mother, you pay the ultimate sacriprice when you watch the object of your total devotion walk out the door into the arms of the future. It's a bittersweet moment, and it stings for a while, until mother realizes that now she and daddy can go back to dating; eating and drinking whatever they want, and having sex wherever and whenever they want like they did the night their child was conceived. On top of that -- the heat, food and water bills plummet and there's always clean towels in the closet. An empty nest isn't so bad after all and it's well worth the sacriprice.
Etymology: sacrifice: complete giving to a specific person or cause + price: cost
Matricede
Created by: pinwheel
Pronunciation: mat/ree/seed
Sentence: As Mrs Brown watched her youngest daughter walk up the aisle, tears of matricede filled her eyes... but heh, the house will be quieter now.
Etymology: matricide (the act of killing your mother) + cede (to give in/sacrifice) + a pun on seed - your children
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COMMENTS:
Spawntastic! - purpleartichokes, 2007-05-11: 04:44:00
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Spawndios
Created by: purpleartichokes
Pronunciation: spawn-dee-ohs
Sentence: Sending my son off to college was an emotional spawndios; almost as emotional as watching him miss the bus for the very first time... on the first day of school. (His stellar career as professional bus-misser commenced shortly thereafter.)
Etymology: spawn, adios (traditional Spanish goodbye)
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COMMENTS:
okay purple - "tit for tat" - spawndios navidad - spandios navidad - Prospero año y spandiosidad - Jabberwocky, 2007-05-11: 12:25:00
Oh dear. They're gonna think I'm a Looneytune when I start humming it 7 months before xmas. - purpleartichokes, 2007-05-11: 13:13:00
Like the connotation of "dios"- the Spanish for "god". Mary's getting everywhere today, or rather, my wild imagination has put her there... more pills, chief? - Bulletchewer, 2007-05-11: 16:46:00
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Mudderlode
Created by: Jabberwocky
Pronunciation: mud/ur/lowd
Sentence: Breastfeeding five children over a span of eighteen years demonstates a mudderlode of motherly love.
Etymology: mother lode + udder
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COMMENTS:
haha, nice. you got my vote! XD - ohwtepph, 2007-05-11: 06:50:00
Great! Mudderload would work too! - toadstool57, 2007-05-11: 08:04:00
Mammaries... light the corners of my mind... (uh-oh) - purpleartichokes, 2007-05-11: 08:12:00
Grr... purple!! milky watercolour mammaries.... and yes toadstool57 mudderload is good - Jabberwocky, 2007-05-11: 09:12:00
Try using "Louie Louie" to exorcise Barbara Streisand. Nobody knows the lyrics to it. - purpleartichokes, 2007-05-11: 11:17:00
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Mamartyrdom
Created by: ErWenn
Pronunciation: /məˈmɑːɹtɚˌdʌm/
Sentence: A rose and a card once a year easily make up for her mamartyrdom.*
Etymology: From mama + martyrdom
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COMMENTS:
*Yes, this is sarcasm. My mother deserves a helluva lot more than I can give. But she'll have to settle for a batch of oatmeal banana chocolate chip cookies this year. - ErWenn, 2007-05-11: 09:34:00
Wow! Those cookies sound great! Where'd ya get the recipe? - purpleartichokes, 2007-05-11: 12:21:00
The missing connection between "Magdalena" and "REV 22:20"? I'll ask Mr Keenan. - Bulletchewer, 2007-05-11: 16:41:00
The recipe is a modification I made of an Alton Brown recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies. I can send you a copy if you want. - ErWenn, 2007-05-12: 21:42:00
Maybe your recipe could be shared on the blog. - petaj, 2007-05-13: 00:34:00
made me laugh! - pguse, 2007-06-01: 14:25:00
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Mombotomy
Created by: toadstool57
Pronunciation: mom-bot-oh-mee
Sentence: It took 4 years of college and not returning countless phone calls from her mom but Jill was finally able to perform a successful mombotomy.
Etymology: Mom, lobotomy
Sacriglect
Created by: jedijawa
Pronunciation: sack-ree-glect
Sentence: Julie tended to sacriglect for her child in that she would give all that she could and then give up before the end.
Etymology: sacrifice + neglect
Comments:
Verbotomy - 2007-05-11: 04:01:00
Today's definition was inspired by Cory Doctorow's novel Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town, which is a story about a guy who's mother is literally a washing machine. It's a great read! And since this weekend is Mother's Day, it seems like the perfect fit! I was also thinking about "After the Siege" in Overclocked, where a mother pushes herself beyond exhaustion trying to save her child - the sacrifice. And purpleartichokes inadvertently suggested the mother idea with her comments on the younger degeneration. Thank you Cory and purpleartichokes! ~ James
ErWenn - 2007-05-11: 09:39:00
I noticed that many verbotomists focussed on the "letting go" part of the definition as the key, while others treated it as just one small part of the maternal sacrifice. I'm sure it says something about our personalities, but I'm not sure what.
Verbotomy - 2007-05-11: 03:23:00
We have posted The Petaj Splinterview on the Verbotomy Blog. ~ James
Bulletchewer - 2007-05-11: 16:55:00
I "have issues" because I advocate free speech as opposed to miserable hypocrisy of censorship? HUSH
Verbotomy - 2007-05-11: 17:17:00
Hey Bulletchewer, I replaced four letters in your message with non-alphanumeric symbols. Did that make you unhappy? ~ James
Verbotomy - 2007-05-11: 18:59:00
Hey ErWenn, I agree with you. The words and language we choose to use do indeed reflect our personalities. And with a definition like today's, there are many different viewpoints, so it gets complicated... I guess that's why they have Freudian psychiatrists. ~ James
Bulletchewer - 2007-05-11: 19:18:00
It made me THE most $@*#ing miserable crybaby in the whole world! Just kidding.
Verbotomy - 2007-05-11: 20:20:00
Me too. But that's okay, it's a game ~ James
Verbotomy - 2007-05-11: 20:21:00
Anyways, in many parts of the world, this Sunday is Mother's Day, so I would like to remind all our verbotomists to take appropriate action (e.g. buy flowers). And to all our verbotomists who happen to be mothers, I would like to say thank you. Thank you for your wonderful creativity. ~ James
ohwtepph - 2007-05-11: 20:53:00
*gasp* I am so honored. Petaj used my word TWICE!!! in his splinterview. Now, I can die peacefully.
Clayton - 2007-05-12: 17:21:00
Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that the highest scoring words often do not reflect the part of speech suggested by the definition? Occasionally, this can be somewhat difficult to determine from a given description, but "the sacrifice a mother makes" clearly indicates that this word is meant to be a noun. Just nitpicking.
Verbotomy - 2007-05-12: 23:53:00
Hey Clayton, I have made a blog posting about this question. See: Parts of Speech and Verbotomy. It will be very interesting to hear what ErWenn has to say about this issue, since he also asked similar questions. ~ James
petaj - 2007-05-13: 00:47:00
Clearly I should have mentioned that ohwtepph can also be relied on for coming up with not only amusing words, but very useful additions to everyday language.
Verbotomy - 2009-11-27: 00:01:00
Today's definition was suggested by doctorow. Thank you doctorow. ~ James