Verboticism: Cybertific

'Then we go for the brain!'

DEFINITION: v. To simplify, dramatize and fictionalize scientific knowledge so that it appeals to a general audience. n. A scientific fact, which has been exaggerated and dumbed-down to make it more "interesting".

Create | Read

Voted For: Cybertific

Successfully added your vote For "Cybertific".

You still have one vote left...

Idioticks

Created by: abrakadeborah

Pronunciation: id-ee-ot-icks

Sentence: The idioticks section of the Science test may be found on page 0h-0ne-0h-0ne.

Etymology: Idio- Part of idiotic - Very stupid. Icks- (Made up)and pertaining to ; a person who doesn't have the capacity to retain scientific facts.

| Comments and Points

Desciencetize

Created by: Mustang

Pronunciation: de-SCI-ehns-eh-tize

Sentence: Albert was a bit of a dunce where science is concerned but he had a gift for gab so by using a smattering of actual knowledge, sprinkling in an abundance of gibberish and doubletalk he could desciencetize just about any kind of medical or scientific information.

Etymology: A play on the word 'desensitize'

----------------------------
COMMENTS:

metrohumanx BRAVO! Down with pseudoscience! - metrohumanx, 2009-01-30: 00:33:00

----------------------------

| Comments and Points

Tryptostretch

Created by: jajsr

Pronunciation: Trip-toe-str-etch

Sentence: After Thanksgiving dinner, Shawn sat down on the couch and started to doze off. When his nephew, John, asked him why he was so sleepy, Shawn said it was because of the tryptophan in the turkey. Little to Shawn's knowledge, John had just finished watching a special about the "tryptophan myth", and realized Shawn just delievered a classic tryptostretch.

Etymology: Combination of "Trypto" from tryptophan - amino acid in turkey that's 'supposed' to make you sleepy; and "stretch" - an exercise of something beyond ordinary or normal limits - exaggeration.

| Comments and Points

Gnawledge

Created by: readerwriter

Pronunciation: naw-led-geh

Sentence: At first, Sophia thought it was stupid. Her science teacher at Totally High School had just given the class something he called a Sillybus. On their handouts, a bus was pictured on a kind of map travelling over land and water. The teacher explained the journey the science class would take throughout the school year towards something he called the land of GNAWLEDGE. The teacher promised to show the class that every organism, living or dead, was fed or became food for other organisms in a boat called a HIGHERARKY. For those students who were spiritually-minded, the teacher would present a special section called the Angel Food Cake Walk and prove that after all the little things you couldn't see were eaten by the things you could see, then angels, which you couldn't always see, ate people which you could only see for a while. That day, at morning break, Sophia decided to become anorexic.

Etymology: A play on KNOWLEDGE, the fact or state of knowing + GNAW, to bite or chew persistently

----------------------------
COMMENTS:

love the story - Jabberwocky, 2009-01-30: 11:16:00

Thanks for the high praise, Jabberwocky! - readerwriter, 2009-01-30: 11:53:00

Memorable story and verbotomy - silveryaspen, 2009-01-30: 15:43:00

no way! if gnawledge's etymology is based on "chew persistently", then doesn't that mean quite the opposite (or at least different) than "to simplify"? To me, this word means chewing on information and slowly making your own judgment, in contrast to passively swallowing "knowledge" that was produced by someone else - elcanyonazo, 2009-02-07: 15:28:00

----------------------------

| Comments and Points

Kinetic

Created by: MissLetterJumble

Pronunciation:

Sentence:

Etymology:

| Comments and Points

Defactoid

mrskellyscl

Created by: mrskellyscl

Pronunciation: de-fac-toid

Sentence: Due to the success of his book, "K-9 ET" (Extra-terrestrial Doggies), Fred became the defactoid authority on canine aliens. He was a popular guest on the talk show circut and, after appearances on Larry King and The Tonight Show, landed his own cable television show, called "Is Your Dog an Alien?"

Etymology: de:remove from + fact: truth -- defacto: dominant standard or law that exists because of common acceptance rather than authority + factoid: a "fact" that exists to create or manipulate public opinion - often applied to newsmedia accused of publishing untrue or unverified articles for the purpose of sensationalism.

| Comments and Points

Sciperbole

Created by: Nosila

Pronunciation: sy per bo lee

Sentence: Ed Speriment was the Grade 8 Science Teacher. It was not that he loved Science or knew anything about it, it was a choice between this class or teaching Sex Education (something he knew even less about and was not likely to learn). They do say the best way to learn something is to teach it, so Ed hoped that he could learn enough about the subject of Science to fool the little hooligans in his class at Hormone Junior High School. He exaggerated so many concepts and used simple tricks to try and get the curriculum through to unwilling minds. He called it his theory of Sciperbole. For Chemistry, he had success in showing Chemical reactions...which became a real Soap Opera. Who knew Bleach and Ammonia were not on speaking terms and brought the worst out in each other? Butyric Acid, yes it sure does smell like after your pregnant, single sister has had morning sickness. In Biology, he helped them see that old pizza under your bed, dead mice in the air vents or wet socks in your locker could grow whole new worlds of creatures. In Kinetics, he had them experiment at home. The volume of beer given to their Dads at night directly impacted the amount and timespan of inertia they observed of their paters on the couch, snoring in front of late-night paid programming. For Astronomy, he had them chart their horoscopes every day. (Everyone should be a Virgo until they get married, he would joke!) And Physics was easy, because he just showed them old Star Trek and Dr.Who shows to learn the salient words and concepts of time and space travel. (Yes, TARDIS stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space-Question #25 on the final exam!) All the kids got A's and everyone loved Mr. Ed. for making Science fun, even if it wasn't very scientific!

Etymology: Science (a particular branch of scientific knowledge;ability to produce solutions in some problem domain) & Hyperbole (Exaggeration;to enlarge beyond bounds or the truth)

----------------------------
COMMENTS:

metrohumanx All the kids at MoreScience Highschool owe you a debt of gratitude for your prolific contributions. - metrohumanx, 2009-01-30: 01:14:00

I'd like to thank the members of the Academy...oh no, that's for my Oscar! Cheers & Thanks. - Nosila, 2009-01-30: 01:22:00

great blend - Jabberwocky, 2009-01-30: 11:17:00

Thoroughly enjoyed the class of Ed Speriment. Edceptional verbotomy, too! - silveryaspen, 2009-01-30: 16:06:00

----------------------------

| Comments and Points

Dorkumentary

artr

Created by: artr

Pronunciation: dawrk-yuh-men-tuh-ree

Sentence: By the time the network was done making the scientific study interesting and understandable to their audience, all they succeeded in producing was a dorkumentary.

Etymology: dork (a silly, out-of-touch person who tends to look odd or behave ridiculously around others; a social misfit) + documentary (based on or re-creating an actual event, era, life story, etc., that purports to be factually accurate and contains no fictional elements)

| Comments and Points

Conciface

Created by: Artomun

Pronunciation: n. KAHN-sih-fiss; v. KAHN-sih-fayss

Sentence: n. The teacher used a conciface in order to increase understanding among his students. v. Sometimes it is necessary to conciface so people will understand a concept. However, concifacing can be difficult with some subjects. Many things have been concifaced in classroom settings.

Etymology: Concinno- make, cause to be, render (Latin); Facilis- easy (Latin).

| Comments and Points

Xcisefiles

Created by: Stevenson0

Pronunciation: X/cise/Files

Sentence: Be sure to watch PBS's latest and greatest scientific adventure yet, in the show all the scientific world is buzzing about 'The XciseFiles' starring David Duchonvy as Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully. In this week's nail biter, with a surprising and shocking ending, the two stars take you on a long, scary and sometimes dangerous journey on how water boils at 100 degrees celcius, turns to steam, then condenses and turns back to rain, or water. Don't miss this week's shocking, suspenseful premier called 'The Water Cycle'.

Etymology: XciseFiles - noun - from EXCISE (to remove, or cut out) + X-FILES (former popular TV show above strange and possible scientific facts and recent movie 'X-Files - I Want to Believe'

----------------------------
COMMENTS:

terrific sentence - you must be a science teacher - Jabberwocky, 2009-01-30: 11:18:00

I smell an Emmy...good word! - Nosila, 2009-01-30: 17:56:00

----------------------------

| Comments and Points

Show All or More...