Vote for the best verboticism.
DEFINITION: n. A person who constantly corrects other people's grammar. v. To habitually correct the grammar of everyone with whom you speak regardless of the social context or the minuteness the perceived error.
Verboticisms
Click on each verboticism to read the sentences created by the Verbotomy writers, and to see your voting options...
You have two votes. Click on the words to read the details, then vote your favorite.
Gramminatrix
Created by: Jamagra
Pronunciation: gram/i/nay/tricks
Sentence: "Oh, Gerund, my love" said the gramminatrix, "you have been so very naughty! You have split infinitives as if they were made of bamboo. You have dangled your participles for all the world to see. You have modified some of my articles without permission. You are forever asking questions: which one? what kind? how many? Gerund, I am the one who asks questions. When I ask you "Why?" do not change my "Why?" to "I" and try to add your friend Ed to my plans! I am adverbse to a third person's point of view. It is obvious your grammar needs discipline and now it is time to teach you that lesson!"
Etymology: grammar + dominatrix
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COMMENTS:
Can't wait for your sentence on this one. - stache, 2008-03-26: 11:23:00
Maybe she's busy beating improper pronouns outta someone. Great word tho! - purpleartichokes, 2008-03-26: 12:25:00
Dang kids keep interfering with my Verbotomy time!!! Stupid spring break! heh. - Jamagra, 2008-03-26: 12:30:00
Well worth the wait. Gerund is such a bad boy. - stache, 2008-03-26: 12:52:00
Gerund may need a tongue lashing at the "House of the Subjunctive" - OZZIEBOB, 2008-03-26: 17:31:00
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Speakrighter
Created by: purpleartichokes
Pronunciation: speek-rite-ur
Sentence: It's, like, impossible to talk at Mary. Always correcting me, she is. She's a speakrighter determined to make me speak righter.
Etymology: speak, right, speech writer
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COMMENTS:
Dylan Thomas said, 'British broadcasters speak as if they had Elgin's marbles in their mouth," - OZZIEBOB, 2008-03-26: 17:36:00
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Linguistickler
Created by: Tigger
Pronunciation: /ling-gwi-STIK-ler/
Sentence: Sarah's customer, Mr. Vern Acular stopped by her office to tell her that the business proposal she'd sent him to review was "written very good," and that he was hoping to award her company the contract for his account. "Well," she said, after a cringe and a long pause. After another long pause Vern asked, "Well what?" confused by her pained expression and stiff body language. She couldn't hold it in any longer — Sarah was an obsessive linguistickler, and all her careful writing was wasted on this ignorant buffoon. "It was written very WELL!" she said. "You said it was written very GOOD' but you should've said WELL instead of GOOD," she explained. Vern thought about that for a few moments and then said, "Alright then, I thought the writing was very WELL."
Etymology: Linguistic - consisting of or related to language (from Latin, lingua "language, tongue") + Stickler - a person who insists on something unyieldingly (from Old English, stihan "to arrange order")
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COMMENTS:
Love your story, Tigger, especially since I have dealt with guys like him myself...you really don't have to make this stuff up, do you? - Nosila, 2008-03-26: 02:00:00
It took me a minute to get the Vern Acular ref. heehee :) Hilarious he came back and said the writing was well. I hope he did that on purpose out of spite! - diyan627, 2008-03-26: 02:32:00
Wonderful word. I tend to suspect the percentage of linguisticklers among verbotomists is higher than that in the general population. - stache, 2008-03-26: 11:26:00
I tend to think of verbotomists as being lingui-ticklers - Jabberwocky, 2008-03-26: 11:47:00
Ahhhhh, I posted a similar word w/out seeing yours first. Your sentence, however, is much better than mine. You've got my vote. - werdnurd, 2008-03-26: 15:17:00
Love yore sentence and word! Someone said, "A grammarian is one who thinks it is more important to write correctly than to write well". - OZZIEBOB, 2008-03-26: 17:16:00
So true, Bob and stache. I bet everyone here has their pet-peeves about bad grammar though, things that just make you cringe. - Tigger, 2008-03-26: 21:43:00
I love "lingui-ticklers" too, Jabberwocky. That's an excellent verbotomy for 'verbotomists'. - Tigger, 2008-03-26: 21:46:00
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Effeleven
Created by: youmustvotenato
Pronunciation: F-11
Sentence: Who cares if I said "me and my dog" instead of "my dog and I"? Don't be such an effeleven!
Etymology: from the keyboard shortcut for spellchecker
Lynnetrusstee
Created by: badsnudge
Pronunciation: lin-truss-tee
Sentence: When I told her it was 'an' elephant and not 'uh' elephant, she told me that I was a nal. "Certainly not. I am merely a humble lynnetrustee." I replied.
Etymology: Lynne Truss (author of Eats, Shoots, and Leaves) + trustee
Grammpa
Created by: artr
Pronunciation: grampä
Sentence: You could always count on Grammpa to correct his grandchildren whenever they spoke. Sometimes they could barely utter a word or two before he would jump in to rephrase what they had just said. Eventually the children stopped talking at all when he was around. Some think that was his goal in the first place.
Etymology: grammar (the whole system and structure of a language or of languages in general, usually taken as consisting of syntax and morphology) + grandpa (one’s grandfather)
Gramopoop
Created by: kashman
Pronunciation: gram-o-poop
Sentence: Alicia's act of gramopooping every sentence spoken by her mismatched boyfriend Billy Bob was fully justified in her heard; she had a Master's degree in English Language, while poor Billy Bob never even completed his high school education. Even though Alicia was the biggest ever gramopoop Billy has come across, he knew that's the highest level of intellectual dating chain he will ever get, so he kept hoping for Alicia's "gramonstipation".
Etymology: Grammar + Poop (slang for a person regarded as spoiler/fun destroyer).
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COMMENTS:
"Gramonstipation"! Oh, that takes the cake! No pun intended. - diyan627, 2008-03-26: 03:45:00
It seems that Billy Bob knew all about the "dative case" - OZZIEBOB, 2008-03-26: 17:54:00
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Wrecktify
Created by: silveryaspen
Pronunciation: Rek ti fy
Sentence: Killsay was excellent at morphemes and constituents. He was born a Grammar. Killsay was very in tense, and always in the accusative. He was overly generous in sharing his grammar. Killsay would restruckture the speecch of any one. No was was safe from his guydance (guidance) ... shuffling his feet, waving his finger, tweaking your verbose, nitpicking through one's words ... he would wrectify everything said.
Etymology: RECTIFY, WRECK. RECTIFY - correct, amend, revise. WRECK - to damage and destroy with too much revision. --- (Morphemes are basic word-building units. Constituents are sentence-building units. They are true grammatical words, not verbotomies.) Killsay Grammar is a pun on actor Kelsey Grammer, star of the tv show Frasier.
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COMMENTS:
Bet she had a bad rectutation.... - Mustang, 2009-01-16: 04:17:00
After she irritates enough people, she might turn a wreckluse. - mweinmann, 2009-01-16: 08:12:00
Thank you for the clever comments. But Killsay is a he ... not a she! Men are guilty of doing this, too! - silveryaspen, 2009-01-16: 10:03:00
nice - Jabberwocky, 2009-01-16: 16:16:00
Killsay Grammar...love it! - Nosila, 2009-01-16: 20:43:00
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Grammagarf
Created by: leechdude
Pronunciation: gra-ma-garf
Sentence: youre such a gramagarf Dave
Etymology: grammar
Comments:
Today's definition was suggested by stache. Thank you stache. ~ James
stache - 2008-03-26: 09:16:00
You're welcome, JG. Very worthy submissions today
doseydotes - 2008-03-26: 09:22:00
I'm afraid stache's definition is in reference to yours truly. I looked at the suggested words and I'm floored. I might as well give up right now. Great job, everybody.
doseydotes - 2008-03-26: 10:53:00
And I gotta add, "Man, you loving bestest ever!" to my repertoire.
stache - 2008-03-26: 11:47:00
That'd be hoovy of you, 'dotes.
Yes, there are lots of gramudgeons and linguweenies here. Apparently, they're the bestest! ~ James
Today's definition was suggested by stache. Thank you stache. ~ James
KatrinaNhor - 2018-06-02: 07:46:00
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