Vote for the best verboticism.
DEFINITION: v. To have difficulty recognizing, and correctly interpreting, human facial expressions. n. A person who cannot read faces.
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.
Misvibception
Created by: marinus
Pronunciation: mis-vib-cep-tion
Sentence: In his misvibception, disinterest meant confusion and I was stuck having the longest conversation on Shakespearian etymology I never wanted to have.
Etymology: mistaken, vibes, reception.
Visagaffe
Created by: verysimplegame
Pronunciation: Vis-ay-gaff
Sentence: Brandon's propensity to visagaffe always left him on the wrong foot in one-to-one negotiations.
Etymology: Visage (expression or countenance) + gaffe (blatant mistake or misjudgement)
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COMMENTS:
Oh, that's clever! - jedijawa, 2007-05-10: 11:44:00
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Confround
Created by: Discoveria
Pronunciation: con-FROWND
Sentence: Mick tended to confround around new people, especially when seeing smiles and shocked expressions.
Etymology: confound (to confuse) + frown
Auspockling
Created by: thefreewheeler
Pronunciation: awe - spock ling
Sentence: You have to spell it out literally for Timmy--the damm freak has auspockle syndrom; that's right--he's auspcokling big time.
Etymology: "au" from autism. "spock" from Spock, the character whose Vulcan half rejects emotional, non-logical input.
Emotionull
Created by: artr
Pronunciation: iˈmō sh ənəl
Sentence: Rudy is the perfect person to work the exchange desk. He is absolutely emotionull. He doesn*t get rattled by angry, screaming customers because doesn*t understand those feelings. He never learned to read expressions. To him jovial looks just the same as irate. He has been taught to tense certain muscles in his face when working. He has been told that doing this looks something like a smile and that it will help in his job. Most of his clients leave semi-satisfied but creeped out by the look on his face.
Etymology: emotional (arousing or characterized by intense feeling) + null (lacking distinctive qualities; having no positive substance or content)
Malfacioread
Created by: duchessella
Pronunciation: mal-FA-ci-o-reed
Sentence: He keeps malfacioireading people and hence giving wrong responses; that is embarrassing.
Etymology: Mal = wrong, bad, mistake Facio = facial Read = read, interpret, understand (as in palm-reading)
Discognify
Created by: jonobo
Pronunciation: dis-cogni-fy
Sentence: He completely discognified her defensive monkey-smile for an open invitation into deeper conversation. She discognified my looks on her T-Shirt for interest in her *oops*, but actually i was only interested in the printing-technique of the message on her chest.
Etymology: dissonance = reduced to "dis" cognitare = latin for recognize identify dissonance + cognitare + identify = discognify.
Missedemeanour
Created by: CharlieB
Pronunciation: miss-duh-mean-er
Sentence: As Bill threw his paper aeroplane across the classroom, Mr Smith frowned. Bill mistook his stern expression for one of delight, promptly grinned and set about making an entire air force from his maths text book. He wasn't being naughty, it was just an unfortunate missedemeanour.
Etymology: Missed (failed to notice or understand) + demeanour (facial appearance) + Misdemeanour (misbehaviour)
Smilulate
Created by: hooterbug
Pronunciation: smī(-ə)l/yəˌlāt
Sentence: OH Geesh! Thanks guys! mouthed Holly as her friends seem to magically disperse from the bar. Luckily for them they had seen the loomimg presence of their co-worker Stalker Dan, who always seemed to show up wherever Holly and the girls from work decided to party. "Hey Holly, You know what would look good on you?,Dan laughed. No?, Me!!" Ha-hahaha. Holly was going to have a hard time trying to smilulate her way out of this one.
Etymology: Combination of SMILE (A facial expression characterized by an upward curving of the corners of the mouth and indicating pleasure, amusement, or derision)+ SIMULATE (To make a pretense of; feign: simulate interest)
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COMMENTS:
I like it, hooterbug...so apt when dealing with idiots! - Nosila, 2008-07-09: 20:42:00
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Afacia
Created by: mjmlabs
Pronunciation: uh-FAY-shuh
Sentence: Dan's got to be very careful when he goes out drinking; last weekend, his afacia almost got the two of us killed or arrested, I'm not sure which.
Etymology: Aphasia ("partial or total loss of the ability to articulate ideas or comprehend spoken or written language, resulting from damage to the brain caused by injury or disease") + a cheap pun on "face"
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COMMENTS:
Well done! - purpleartichokes, 2007-05-09: 14:50:00
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Comments:
Today's definition was inspired by Cory Doctorow's short story "I, Row-Boat", where a sentient, and very sensitive Row-Boat has some difficulty reading a woman's facial expressions. See the full story in Overclocked. Thank you Cory! ~ James
MIENBLIND is very good- and far more cerebral than my entry. Good work, Ozziebob.
MaybeLater_x - 2008-08-19: 19:10:00
Visagenary is also a play on Imaginary, nay?
Today's definition was suggested by doctorow. Thank you doctorow. ~ James
ldikarev - 2012-09-06: 16:44:00
ldikarev - 2012-09-06: 16:45:00
Prosopagnosia -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia Prosopagnosia (Greek: "prosopon" = "face", "agnosia" = "not knowing") is a disorder of fa