Vote for the best verboticism.
DEFINITION: v. To hurry up and wait. n. A person who compels you to prepare quickly for an activity which they know will be delayed, postponed or retarded.
Verboticisms
Click on each verboticism to read the sentences created by the Verbotomy writers, and to see your voting options...
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Hastenwaiter
Created by: Mustang
Pronunciation: HASE - uhn - wate - er
Sentence: Armando is an ardent and incurable hastenwaiter; he'll purposely prepare for meetings, trips or even visits hours in advance knowing he and his wife Matilda will sit around needlessly awaiting the appointed hour.
Etymology: Blend of hasten and wait.
Hypertia
Created by: Jamagra
Pronunciation: hi/per/sha
Sentence: While travelling on their honeymoon, newlyweds Guy and Gail O'Leo had unfortunate encounters with Newton's lesser-known "Scofflaws" of Motion: Scofflaw #1(Rule of Hypertia) - An object in motion tends to remain in motion, and an object at rest is usually at the wrong departure point (thus rapidly substituting the state of "hyper" for the state of "inertia"). Scofflaw #2 - The velocity (V) of any person in motion is directly proportional to the traveller's distance (D) from his or her departure point; but inversely proportional to the amount of luggage (L) he or she is toting, and the amount of time (T) he or she has before departing.
Etymology: hyper + inertia
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COMMENTS:
I absolutely love this one! Classic! - pieceof314, 2008-04-22: 09:16:00
Excellent word! - ErWenn, 2008-04-22: 09:49:00
You could probably sell tee-shirts at the airport with these 'laws' on them, although the people most apt to buy them would be running to their gates and ticket counters. Very amusing. - Tigger, 2008-04-22: 23:20:00
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Speedelay
Created by: artr
Pronunciation: spēdilā
Sentence: Phil is not the most polite driver we know. He cuts from lane to lane trying to get ahead of slower drivers only to be stopped by a traffic signal. He will speedelay all the way to work to get there 2 minutes earlier than someone who goes with the flow of traffic. His biography may well be entitled ”Rushing to the Red Light”.
Etymology: speed (rapidity of movement or action) + delay (be late or slow; loiter)
Punctualwaition
Created by: hyperborean
Pronunciation: punk-shwul-wayt-shuhn
Sentence: I know the plane doesn't leave for another two hours, but I'm a stickler for punctualwaition.
Etymology: punctual (on time) + wait (to stay in place and remain in readiness) + inspired by punctuation (the act or practice of using standardized marks in writing and printing to separate sentences or to make the meaning clearer)
Pretard
Created by: wordmeister
Pronunciation: pre-tard
Sentence: Jonathan was never late. In fact his girlfriend often complained that he came too early, but his perpetual pretardation never got in the way of their relationship until their planned wedding day, when the anxious pretard arrived at the church 16 hours early and ended up sleeping with another lady in waiting, who coincidently had pretarded her intended groom by a day and a half.
Etymology: pre+tard
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COMMENTS:
The wedding must have taken place at Hour lately of Pre-pet-ual Help church - Jabberwocky, 2008-04-22: 11:29:00
Yes it was consecrated at the Church of Hour Lately, but it was done a holy hour early. - wordmeister, 2008-04-22: 13:47:00
The word standing alone is hilarious. The sentence is icing. (not sure, however, you meant "come to early," which would mean being an early riser, as opposed to "come too early," which means, well, kind of the same thing...oh, never mind.) - stache, 2008-04-22: 19:03:00
Thank you stache. I have added another "o" to my "too", for clarification purposes... - wordmeister, 2008-04-23: 00:11:00
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Racenpace
Created by: Nosila
Pronunciation: race en pace
Sentence: Ella had been a flight attendant for a long time. Although passengers were different on each flight, they had one thing in common. Once the plane had landed and taxied up to the ramp, it was like someone fired a starter's pistol and yelled, "And, they're off!" It was the luggage derby...it was the ritual racenpace. People jumped out of their seats before advised to, grabbed all their possessions and stood in the aisles, like horses at the starting gate. Once the swoosh of cool air was felt as the door was opened, off they ran. It reminded her of harness racing, because most passengers dragged something with wheels on it behind them. They ran down the covered ramp, along very long corriders in the bowels of the airport, up escalators, down escalators, on walkalators, through doorways and then galloped to the finish line...the baggage carousel. That's when the pace part of the racenpace kicked in...they paced back and forth, got carts, changed positions at the carousel and lingered waiting for their beloved bags (mostly black, of course, and hard to identify) come tumbling out onto the roulette wheel of checked in baggage. Ella often wished she could be honest with them...running down there won't bring your bags any sooner...particularly since they probably didn't travel on the same flight as you anyway!
Etymology: race (a contest of speed, cause to move fast or to rush) & "n" (and, as well as) & pace (to walk slowly back and forth while waiting for something)
Hastenwaste
Created by: Nosila
Pronunciation: hay sten wayst
Sentence: You have seen him hundreds of times on airplanes. The guy in the back row who grabs all of his stuff. He never checks bags, just crams his overhead with tons of luggage. As soon as the plane lands he jumps into the aisle, ready to sprint out the gangway. Except the plane hasn't docked yet, others are in his way with the same idea and he cannot jump over them to get to the front of the line-up. He is guilty of hastenwaste, because he has to impatiently stand there for twenty minutes. This traveller never has a connecting flight or someone waiting for him...he just has to beat all the others out the cabin door!
Etymology: Hasten (hurry;act or move at high speed) & Waste (spend thoughtlessly;useless or profitless activity)
Franticipator
Created by: DrWebsterIII
Pronunciation: fran - tis - uh - peyt - er
Sentence: What Frank hadn't franticipated , would be that Denise would be asking for a divorce on this their final vacation together. She was at wits' end exhausted by his never ending foreboding.
Etymology: frantic (excessively agitated; transported with rage) + anticipate (to nullify, prevent by taking countermeasures in advance)
Anticrastinate
Created by: stache
Pronunciation: ān'tī-krās'tə-nāt', ān'-tē-krās'tə-nāt'
Sentence: "Why must you always anticrastinate?!?" Chelsea berated Jackie. They had rushed to Ronald Reagan International Airport to catch their flight home to Atlanta, which involved a scramble from their hotel to the metro station, then transfers from the red to the orange to the green line, and then a mad dash to the baggage check station and a sprint to the gate where they arrived two hours early with their pre-printed boarding passes despite the strip-search they endured at the security gate, only to discover that their flight was delayed SIX HOURS due to snow in Duluth.
Etymology: 'anti,' var. of 'auntie,' favored spinster relative; 'crastinate,' var. of 'castanet,' flamenco percussion instrument.
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COMMENTS:
Such a interesting word! If my Latin serves me correct, the "cras" means tomorrow. And of flamenco and castanets, brings to mind the song, "Manana" and "the land of manana" - OZZIEBOB, 2008-04-23: 05:55:00
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Panicstaytions
Created by: petaj
Pronunciation: panic stations
Sentence: Jerry had panicstaytioned his team to get their responses in today, even though the survey to decide on a venue for the Christmas party would not close for 6 weeks, and the party itself was still 3 months away.
Etymology: panic (characterised by hurried movements and stirred up by being rushed) + stay (stop, keep still, wait) + panic stations (British & Australian, informal) a time when you feel extremely anxious and you must act quickly because something needs to be done urgently)
Comments:
Today's definition was suggested by Nosila. Thank you Nosila. ~ James
Today's definition was suggested by Nosila. Thank you Nosila. ~ James