Verboticisms

Created by: spotthecat1

Pronunciation: trash-kuhm-bob-yuh-ley-shun

Sentence: Stella and Stan spent hours sorting through the remains of their mega-market shopping splurges and in a fury of trashcombobulation threw all the refuse in a giant Hefty™ bag and carefully deposited the unsorted mess in their neighbor's pile. The only witness was the owl who just blinked and asked, "Who?"

Etymology: (trash)1325–75; ME trasches (pl.), appar. c. Norw trask rubbish; akin to OE trus brushwood, ON tros rubbish + (dis-combobulation) 1825–35, Americanism; fanciful alter. of discompose or discomfort

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COMMENTS:

Very informative etymology! - silveryaspen, 2008-03-25: 13:21:00

Nice! - purpleartichokes, 2008-03-25: 15:19:00

Very nice - OZZIEBOB, 2008-03-25: 20:06:00

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Created by: kateinkorea

Pronunciation: per KERBD

Sentence: I am getting fed up with Mike always being percurbed about putting out our recylables on the road. He worries about whether we are putting out too much or too little. Last week he brought some of our trash to work so nobody would see it in front of our place in our recycle bins.

Etymology: PERTURBED: alarmed anxious or worried about something CURB: side of the road

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COMMENTS:

funny - Jabberwocky, 2009-01-15: 13:20:00

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Created by: Nosila

Pronunciation: all lit ter ay shun

Sentence: Al & Alice allegedly allowed allitteration anxiety at all angles affect an attitude attack at acquiring any absolute atonement.

Etymology: Alliteration (use of the same consonant at the beginning of each stressed syllable in a line of verse) & All Litter (all garbage) & Shun (avoid and stay away from deliberately; stay clear of)

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Created by: Jabberwocky

Pronunciation: dis/com/post/yur

Sentence: I hurried down the street with my sunglasses on, listening to my ipod, so that none of the neighbours would notice my discomposture after I had hastily stashed a plastic muffin tray in the recycling bin. It did have a recyling symbol on it but I wasn't sure if the number was acceptable or not.

Etymology: discomposure + compost + dis (as in disrespect)

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COMMENTS:

Too true! - silveryaspen, 2009-01-15: 12:41:00

Sounds like the makings of great gardening soil - Mustang, 2009-01-16: 01:23:00

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Created by: Tigger

Pronunciation: /en-vay-ern-di-MEN-shuh/

Sentence: On the point of crying, Lauren sat slumped between bins of plastic bottles and stacks of papers, in a state of environdimentia. She knew that the #1 and #2 plastics were supposed to go together, but there was also a bin for bottles with 'necks'... so then what did those numbers mean on the bottles with the necks? Then there were the plastic bags, and some were recyclable, but some weren't. There was also the newspapers, and she remembered something about not mixing in any shiny circulars and flyers, which were often stuck into the newspapers when they were sold. Why would they do that?! It all seemed so ecoillogical. Lauren's husband Gregg would be home soon, and he was an ecologist — he understood all the rules. But he couldn't seem to understand why Lauren didn't get it, and he'd be frustrated with her again. She really wanted to be a tree hugger, like he was, but with all these crazy rules she felt like more of a tree-shrugger.

Etymology: Environment - natural surroundings (from Old French, environ "in circle") + Dementia - madness or insanity (from Low Latin, démentāre "deprive of mind")

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COMMENTS:

I like the way you presented a different way of looking at this. Strong verboticism. - silveryaspen, 2008-03-25: 12:45:00

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Created by: lplybon

Pronunciation: "in-SAN-i-tay-SHUN"

Sentence: Sharon's insanitation has greatly increased since she moved to Green Acres, a community where everyone recycles. Her insanitation has gotten so bad she swears to her husband that the "recycle police" are coming to get her!

Etymology: Combination of the words "insanity" and "sanitation"

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Created by: artr

Pronunciation: rēsīkəld

Sentence: Friday is coming again and Mrs. Green is freaking out. Sure, she read all the regulations about what to throw out and what can be put in the sacred blue bin but she is completely repsychled out. It doesn't help that the rules have been changed several times in the past year. With her mother scheduled to come for a visit, she has vowed to stop hiding her trash in the guest room.

Etymology: recycle (convert (waste) into reusable material) + psyched out (intimidated)

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COMMENTS:

Excellent!! - Mustang, 2009-01-16: 01:24:00

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Created by: Biscotti

Pronunciation: kon-ref-ew-zhun

Sentence: Jack was in conrefusion when the city made a new ordinance that paper could not be put out to the street in a paper bag; instead it had to be put in a city approved styrofoam bin. The bins always ended up breaking about once a month; causing great conrefusion and suffering for the citizens of the city.

Etymology: Confusion (not understanding) + Refuse (garbage or trash)

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COMMENTS:

Great ending twist in your last sentence that gives your verboticism the double meaning beyond the two meaninngs of both words in your etymology. Very clever! - silveryaspen, 2008-03-25: 13:03:00

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Created by: Nosila

Pronunciation: eko dis ord era fob eeya

Sentence: Eric was new to the whole recycling thing. He had thought recycling was when they made the Tour de France be run again. He & Kate spent hours trying to sort all their household waste into suitable categories. You could say they suffered from ecodisorderafobia, because they were always afraid they were sorting their trash improperly. Would the Garbage Police shut them down once and for all for failing to conform? For months they lived with this fear. Finally Eric got brave one morning and approached the garbageman (okay Waste Disposal Technician) as he came down their alley. Biting the bullet he bravely asked the civic employee how they were doing in their sorting efforts. The garbageman winked and chuckled and told him not to worry. When Eric pressed him why he should not worry, he was told that all the stuff was just going to be dumped into the landfill anyway! All these months they had been sorting their trash for the seagulls. It was then that Eric & Kate vowed to become ecowarriors and run for city council.

Etymology: ecology (the environment as it relates to living organisms) & disorder (a condition in which things are not in their expected places or disturb in mind or make uneasy or cause to be worried or alarmed) & phobia ( an anxiety disorder characterized by extre

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COMMENTS:

Your sentence and word do a great job of presenting this part of the issue. Excellent! - silveryaspen, 2008-03-25: 12:48:00

I agree. Your sentence hits on the topic of the economics of recycling, and how recycling programs are only successful when it's economically feasible to recycle (i.e. if it costs more to recycle something, then the program must either be subsidized or abandoned). Very thought provoking. - Tigger, 2008-03-25: 22:58:00

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Created by: metrohumanx

Pronunciation: bow-GUST-oh-green

Sentence: Trudy and Dave carefully separated ALL their plastic bags from the thousands of disposable juice boxes and miniature half-ounce cat fuel tins. Trudy bought a rechargeable electric car which really ran on toxic strip-mined coal produced near the Rocky Mountains, and Dave developed a nasty squint because he'd replaced all their light bulbs with underpowered compact fluorescent curly tubes filled with carcinogenic chemicals. Trudy and Dave felt extremely BOGUSTOGREEN when the gargagemen arrived and tossed all that carefully sorted waste into the same truck and shipped it off to a landfill in an economically depressed region where folks were GLAD to fill in a verdant valley just to lower their own property taxes. BOGUSTOGREENIES everywhere blissfully ignored the principles of minimal packaging, returnable bottles and NOT bringing all that crapola home IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Etymology: BOGus+gUSTO+GREEN=BOGUSTOGREEN.........BOGUS:not genuine;obsolete argot bogus counterfeit money 1825...GUSTO:enthusiastic and vigorous enjoyment or appreciation,: vitality marked by an abundance of enthusiasm; Italian, from Latin gustus, past participle 1620.....GREEN: relating to or being an environmentalist,pretending to preserve environmental quality (as by being recyclable, biodegradable, or nonpolluting )

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COMMENTS:

Recycling is a sham. Less than 2% really gets reused, but I do it anyway. - metrohumanx, 2009-01-15: 02:02:00

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