Vote for the best verboticism.
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".
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.
Adfactation
Created by: petaj
Pronunciation: ad-fact-ay-shun
Sentence: Interest in climate change has produced a slew of adfactations about greenhouse gases, electric cars and energy conservation.
Etymology: adaptation (biological - feature or behaviour of animal that suits it's habitat) (artistic - the making of a movie from a literary piece often making it more commercial for a larger audience) + fact
Signce
Created by: splendiction
Pronunciation: SIGH ence
Sentence: The "butterfly effect" is the signce of chaos.
Etymology: signce n. from sign or signal and the word science.
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
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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
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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'
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COMMENTS:
BRAVO! Down with pseudoscience! - metrohumanx, 2009-01-30: 00:33:00
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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.
Chemhistory
Created by: Nosila
Pronunciation: kem his toree
Sentence: When Sodium met Chloride, they produced a child named Salt, who ended up waiting on tables. When the Hydrogen Twins met Oxygen, they all landed in hot Water. When Iron and Oxide's stormy marriage began to bore, their relationship became very rusty. Sooner or later people would know that Silicone had had some work done. Tune in tomorrow for more chemhistory in that Great SubOpera, Another Half-Life to Live.
Etymology: Chemistory (the science of matter; the branch of the natural sciences dealing with the composition of substances and their properties and reactions;the way two individuals relate to each other) & History ( the discipline that records and interprets past events involving human beings;
Blandification
Created by: greenwireless
Pronunciation:
Sentence: The professor's findings underwent an extensive blandification process before they were sent to the media.
Etymology:
Desciencetize
Created by: Mustang
Pronunciation: de-SCI-ehns-eh-tize
Sentence: Henry 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'
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:
Today's definition was suggested by metrohumanx. Thank you metrohumanx. ~ James
Well put.
...and thank you for letting me "vent".
Thank you for venting! Obviously you are very gnawledgeable. ~ James
Today's definition was suggested by metrohumanx. Thank you metrohumanx. ~ James