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'Look at that big smile!'

DEFINITION: v. To have difficulty recognizing, and correctly interpreting, human facial expressions. n. A person who cannot read faces.

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Verboticisms

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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.

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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

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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.

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Emotionull

artr

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)

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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)

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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.

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Missedemeanour

CharlieB

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)

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Smilulate

hooterbug

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:

Verbotomy Verbotomy - 2007-05-09: 02:26:00
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

metrohumanx metrohumanx - 2008-07-09: 02:49:00
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?

Verbotomy Verbotomy - 2009-11-25: 00:48:00
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