Verboticism: Caratnschtick

'I've been pre-approved for a new credit card?'

DEFINITION: v. To offer pre-approved credit, loans or sweepstake prizes in order to lock the some poor sucker into permanent usury. n. Junk mail, spam or telemarketing offers for pre-approved credit and loans.

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Caratnschtick

metrohumanx

Created by: metrohumanx

Pronunciation: CARROTn-schtick

Sentence: Debbie Terwilliger pounced on any free offer, no matter how unlikely. At her college, sleazy agents handed out credit cards by the bushel, and DebT grabbed a handful. She fell for the old CARATNSCHTICK everytime, and now she's getting a pedicure in debtor's prison.

Etymology: CARAT+n+SCHTICK=CARATNSCHTICK..........CARAT:a unit of fineness for gold equal to 1⁄24 part of pure gold in an alloy.....CARROT:a reward or advantage offered especially as an inducement; Middle French carotte, from Late Latin carota, from Greek karōton.....SCHTICK: a usually comic or repetitious performance or routine; Yiddish shtik pranks, literally, piece, from Middle High German stücke, from Old High German stucki; akin to Old English stycce piece, Old High German stoc stick.....carrot and stick:The carrot and stick approach was first used by owners of donkeys in order to keep their animals moving. Whenever the animal stopped, the rider used to dangle a raw carrot in front of the animal's nose, or beat it with the stick.

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