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.
Empaphy
Created by: mustilicor
Pronunciation:
Sentence: While most people eventually overcome their ignorance of other's discomfort, for some this utter empaphy lingers indefinitely.
Etymology: empathy pronounced with the lisp of a small child
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COMMENTS:
Very creative. I tend to just mash words together, which gets old after awhile. - purpleartichokes, 2007-05-09: 19:57:00
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Misguise
Created by: Jabberwocky
Pronunciation: miss/guys
Sentence: He would always misguise the apprehensive looks on co-workers faces and consequently talk to his boss when it was an inappropriate time
Etymology: miss + guise
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COMMENTS:
Can also be used as a noun. My boss wears a misguise every day. He always looks like he's smiling, even when he's pissed off. - purpleartichokes, 2007-05-09: 08:55:00
Great word because most guys miss these signals! - Stevenson0, 2007-05-09: 12:31:00
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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)
Misface
Created by: autophile
Pronunciation: miss-FACE
Sentence: Ever since Myron realized that he misfaced regularly in face-to-faces, his prefered interface space was the clean textual context of instant messaging.
Etymology: "Mis-", prefix meaning bad, wrongly, failure, and "-face" from both "interface" and plain ol' "face".
Mismugamy
Created by: bookowl
Pronunciation: miss/mug/amee
Sentence: Mismugamy is the failure to note the true meanings of facial expressions.
Etymology: miss + mug + amy
Badfacer
Created by: oliviabrown
Pronunciation: B-AH-d-FAY-sir
Sentence: I'm such a badfacer.
Etymology: {bad} not good, {facer} with faces
Impearance
Created by: ziggy41
Pronunciation: im-PAIR-ence
Sentence: Her impearance led me to believe she was a psychopath on the verge of killing me... it turned out that she loved me.
Etymology: Impair (difficulty) + appearance (expression)
Winceblind
Created by: metrohumanx
Pronunciation: WINCE-BLIND
Sentence: Paul regaled his dinner date with an endless succession of irrelevant anecdotes,childish jokes and lewd comments. Being congenitally WINCEBLIND,he mistook Bab's expressions of terminal boredom and abject horror as sultry approval and scampish encouragement.
Etymology: WINCE-to grimace BLIND-unable to see that one has NO chance with the opposite sex.
Mugmunge
Created by: jedijawa
Pronunciation: mug-munje
Sentence: Marc was bad about mugmunging facial expressions and thinking that people were reacting favorably to his boring stories.
Etymology: mug (face) + munge (to imperfectly transform information i.e. "address munging")
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