Verboticism: Modifail

'Honey, you just ran a red light!'

DEFINITION: v. To unintentionally encourage bad behavior by responding to it in a manner that incites even worse behavior. n. A response designed to stop bad behavior, which paradoxically produces more of it.

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Baboozle

Created by: melodydrama

Pronunciation: Bah-boo-zle

Sentence: The comment meant to hurry her husband along was a sad baboozle, he only walked slower and they missed their appointment.

Etymology: Baboon+bamboozle

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Modifail

Created by: Stevenson0

Pronunciation: mod/i/fail

Sentence: As a teacher, I sometimes modifail when a student over reacts in a negative way to an attempted behaviour modifcation causing even further trouble in class.

Etymology: modify + fail

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Intentevior

Created by: Issunrai

Pronunciation: In-ten-tave-eeh-or

Sentence: "You're playing those video games too much," she said. "You're just being intentevior!" said her son.

Etymology: "Intent" from "unintentionally" and "evior" from "behavior."

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Moregramming

Created by: Nosila

Pronunciation: mor gram ming

Sentence: Wanda whined, "You are such a loser, I don't know what I saw in you! Loser, loser!" To which Ralphie replied, "You keep calling me that, but I'm not a loser! You keep moregramming me with that title." After which he stormed out of the house, went to the store and bought himself the Powerball Lottery ticket which became the single winner of $280 million, U.S.!

Etymology: More (comparative of much; to a greater degree or extent) & Programming (a learning process in which an organism's behavior becomes dependent on the occurrence of a stimulus in its environment)

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Scaradigm

Created by: mweinmann

Pronunciation: skair - a - dime

Sentence: There was a scaradigm shift in Tony's behavior after Lisa tried to soothe him during the drive through the Catskills. The road was narrow and slippery and an antelope strolled out and started to play around in the headlights.

Etymology: scare (A general state of alarm), paradigm (A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality)

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Dissuascalation

petaj

Created by: petaj

Pronunciation: dis-sway-sca-lay-shun

Sentence: Bobby, just ignore your brother. You know that when you tell him not to swear he just tells you to f&*$ #$%&&% )!!@^&$$. I know you mean well, but it's just a dissuascalation.

Etymology: dissuasion (discouragement) + escalation (increase, especially in the case of military escalation where every action is responded to with greater force)

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Tranquilose

Created by: Rutilus

Pronunciation: tran-kwi-looz

Sentence: However hard Peggy tried to pacify Ivan's ire she only ever seem to tranquilose him and in the process make him even more uptight. She was getting tired of this relationship and wanted out!

Etymology: tranquilise - to pacify; lose - to be defeated (in purpose)

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Crazydriver

Created by: Andrew98

Pronunciation:

Sentence:

Etymology:

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Reverbirate

Created by: Mustang

Pronunciation: re-VERB-eye-rayt

Sentence: It seemed that whenever Cindy would try to motivate her husband, Charlie, to behave more civilly, her words would only reverbirate in some dark corner of his psyche and have the opposite effect with him responding in even more outrageous manner.

Etymology: blend of 'reverberate' (echo) and 'irate' (angry)

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Naggravate

Created by: Tigger

Pronunciation: /NAG-ruh-veyt/

Sentence: Matt was normally an aggressive driver — he practiced 'offensive driving' rather than 'defensive driving' — and when his passengers complained it would only naggravate the situation. Unfortunately, Matt's girlfriend, Mona, still hadn't learned this, and their roadtrips would turn into white-knuckled rollercoaster rides of reckless driving and near accidents, which only grew worse as Mona's screams intensified.

Etymology: Nag - to annoy by persistent faultfinding, complaints, or demands (from Old Norse, gnaga "to complain") + Aggravate - to make worse or more severe; intensify; irritate (from Latin, aggravāre "to burden")

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COMMENTS:

Good word!! - TJayzz, 2008-05-20: 11:28:00

good word. love Mona. - galwaywegian, 2008-05-20: 10:28:00

Was her name Mona Lott? Good Word - Nosila, 2008-05-20: 22:40:00

Yes, it was! Do you know her too? - Tigger, 2008-05-21: 00:30:00

Good word - OZZIEBOB, 2008-05-22: 01:20:00

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