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.
Mumblebee
Created by: Nosila
Pronunciation: mum bil bee
Sentence: Busy Lizzie was a Queen Bee who lays thousands of eggs in her honeycomb. One of her offspring was chosen to be the next Queen. Despite the fact that Busy Lizzie laid 2000 eggs a day and ruined her figure, it stung for her to be overthrown by her own kids. The way they treated their Mumblebee was enough to give you hives. At least that's the buzz...
Etymology: Mum (mother) & Wordplay on Bumblebee (robust hairy social bee of temperate regions)
Gestashun
Created by: porsche
Pronunciation: jest/ay/shun
Sentence: She enjoyed the pregnancy but loved the gestashun more - fortunately she had a stay at home husband.
Etymology: gestation + shun
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
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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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'.
Mudderlode
Created by: Jabberwocky
Pronunciation: mudd/ur/lode
Sentence: Breastfeeding five children over a span of eighteen years demonstates a mudderlode of motherly love.
Etymology: mother lode + udder
Sumblinativity
Created by: verysimplegame
Pronunciation: sub-li-nay-ti-vi-ty
Sentence: Frank's ship slowly made it's way into orbit. Her sublinativity was now complete.
Etymology: sublimate + nativity
Martyrnal
Created by: rikboyee
Pronunciation: mar-terr-nul
Sentence: She started sacrificing all of her outside interests when her martyrnal instinct kicked in
Etymology: martyr, maternal
Totsmartyr
Created by: heartnsoul
Pronunciation:
Sentence: She had always been devoted to their young son, but when Mark caught his wife writing Tommy’s HS book report, he realized his wife’s totsmartyr ways would never die. This mom was sure she always knew best.
Etymology: tot's + martyr OR tot + smarter / martyr
Emomcipate
Created by: Stevenson0
Pronunciation: i/mom/suh/-peyt
Sentence: After nine months of eating all the right foods,countless nights of discomfort and no drugs , or alcohol, she was ready to emomcipate her child.
Etymology: mom + emancipate
Comments:
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.
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
Hey Bulletchewer, I replaced four letters in your message with non-alphanumeric symbols. Did that make you unhappy? ~ James
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.
Me too. But that's okay, it's a game ~ James
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
*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.
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
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.
Today's definition was suggested by doctorow. Thank you doctorow. ~ James