Verboticisms

Created by: Alchemist

Pronunciation: mal-uh-PRO-pree-ate

Sentence: Sensing an opening, McClain fixed his opponent with a glittering gaze. Overeager, he leaned over the podium and malapropriated the oft-misquoted Benson zinger, spouting, "You, sir, are no Dead Kennedy!"

Etymology: malaprop, appropriate

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Created by: emil7

Pronunciation: luke on

Sentence: i want to have some fun. lets play lukon

Etymology:

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Created by: OZZIEBOB

Pronunciation: ruhb-skyoor-RAHN-to

Sentence: The robscuranto and gabyrinth of the late Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Queensland premier from 1968 to 1987, famous for his unique mangling of the English language, was very effective in fobbing off journalists with irrelevant non-answers in a performance he called "feeding the chooks." Of two political opponents, he said: " You can push a 44-gallon drum of molasses up a hill easier than you can push those two fellas." Other bjelkisms, include: "If you fly with crows, look like the crows, you'll be shot with the crows" or something to that robscurantic effect.

Etymology: Blend of ROB: Steal, take, borrow; OBSCURE: to render or make difficult unclear, difficult to understand, unintelligible; (R)ANTO of Esperanto; and OBSCURANTO:the jargon and acronymese of large bodies, such as the UN. Indeed, many critics of Esperanto claimed that Zamenhof took perfectly good words from Latin, French, German and English and render them obscure and unrecognizable. Furthermore, it is often said, that he filled his language with unnecessary grammatical forms and confusing syntax.

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COMMENTS:

That's funnier than a one-legged well digger. - stache, 2008-04-25: 08:09:00

terrific word - Jabberwocky, 2008-04-25: 09:24:00

G'Day, "You can't keep a good man down" from Muriel's Wedding! or "A life lived infear is a life half lived" from "Strictly Ballroom". Cheers, Mate! - Nosila, 2008-04-25: 22:20:00

On the topic of condoms Joh said "We don't want any of that sort of thing up here." in Queensland. - petaj, 2008-04-26: 03:16:00

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Created by: Raquelle

Pronunciation: Play-jor-ate

Sentence: The oratory competition would be a breeze, thought Michelle, what with her recent discovery of the online archive of speech transcripts. She would simply choose a published one, plagiorate it to suit her topic and present with utmost confidence.

Etymology: Plagiarism + Orate = to plagiarise one's oration

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Created by: frozenpeas42

Pronunciation: a-prop-ro-lin-iator

Sentence: I can't stand that bloody aproproliniator; he sounds like a broken record!

Etymology: to appropriate Lien

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Created by: Nosila

Pronunciation: diss sin tax

Sentence: Hillary & Barack had verbally jousted in every state so far that they had been campaigning. They each had spies in the other's camp and would get a drift of the other's speech ideas before that speech was given. In this way, one could scoop the opponent's theme and words and leave the second presenter scrambling to come up with something else. Invariably, each would dysyntacks the other's words to the point that they made nonsensical rhetoric, which confused voters even more. Although guilty of it herself, Hillary decided to play Barack at his own game and threw the word dysyntacks into her next speech. She had the last laugh when Barack got up and announced a plan to eliminate the Dissin' Tax from the federal budget!

Etymology: Dysfunctional (failing to serve an adjustive or conducive to adjustment purpose) + Syntax (the grammatical arrangement of words in sentences) + Attacks ( take the initiative and go on the offensive) + Tax (make a charge against or accuse)

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COMMENTS:

I guess I cancelled the wrong word...Should read Dysyntacks, Oops! - Nosila, 2008-04-25: 01:11:00

Great punchline on your story though! - Tigger, 2008-04-25: 02:29:00

Betcha Hilary would talk about "sintax" when Bill's around! - OZZIEBOB, 2008-04-26: 19:02:00

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Created by: rebelvin

Pronunciation: echo+theft

Sentence: Time and again, all he did was echothieve, appropriating ideas from others at the meeting, offering no ideas of his own.

Etymology: echo+theft

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Created by: bookowl

Pronunciation: speer/ah/fraze

Sentence: To spearaphrase is a sure fire way to mangle it.

Etymology: spear + paraphrase

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Created by: Jamagra

Pronunciation: term/bezz'/el

Sentence: It isn't a puzzle, to those who can't juggle the fairer forms of speech. Why create a new phrase for what your candidate says? Termbezzle for words out of reach!

Etymology: termbezzle (v) - term + embezzle - could apply to stealing a word, a phrase, or an entire election! termbezzlement (n)

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Created by: ErWenn

Pronunciation: /ˌmælˈɒpt/

Sentence: The English and Japanese languages have a long history of malopting each other's words.

Etymology: from mal- + opt (as in badly co-opt)

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