Verboticisms

Created by: Nosila

Pronunciation: ree ty ro sar

Sentence: When Mary reached 65, she knew it was time to stop working. She had become a retirosaur. She no longer spoke the language of her younger boss and co-workers. She could remember working the teletype, a comptometer and her ancient Underwood typewriter had served her well. She had used a dictionary, a thesaurus, knew how to spell; remember people's names; compose grammatically correct sentences and do complex mathematical computations in her head. The staff loved her, but found her to be a quaint walking, talking museum on legs. Yes, Mary had worked for 45 years at the same place and the reason she had been kept on this long was because she knew how to do each job well and she knew where all the bodies were buried!

Etymology: Retire (Withdraw from circulation or participation; cease to work) & Dinosaur (any of numerous extinct terrestrial reptiles of the Mesozoic era)

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COMMENTS:

"Retirosaur!" Just like the Little Red Hen, let Mary say "Not I!" It's sad we can't make the good things that are in the past, more a part of the good things in the present ... glean the best of the both! - silveryaspen, 2009-01-07: 15:48:00

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Created by: Jabberwocky

Pronunciation: mith/i/ca/lig/ra/fee

Sentence: Since no one under the age of twenty uses cursive writing anymore, handwritten essays have become mythicaligraphy.

Etymology: mythical + caligraphy

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COMMENTS:

What's in a hand? Applause for this word! Outstanding! - silveryaspen, 2008-03-14: 17:10:00

marvelous word! love it!~ - diyan627, 2008-03-15: 11:15:00

Another top word. - OZZIEBOB, 2008-03-16: 17:06:00

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Created by: Lazberg

Pronunciation: Cal ook el

Sentence: Individ 1: "Hey, let's go to the library and rent some good old-fashion calookles!" Individ 2: "Ah yes, i totally agree, i haven't read a calookle in a while, better get reading."

Etymology:

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Created by: Stevenson0

Pronunciation: tik/stingkt

Sentence: The inability of any of today's computers to read the written data on the old large floppy disks have made them textinct.

Etymology: text + extinct

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COMMENTS:

Meaning readily apparent and so full! Ingenious choice of words to blend! Superb Won! - silveryaspen, 2008-03-14: 18:30:00

Excellent!! - Mustang, 2008-03-14: 19:38:00

Excellent! - OZZIEBOB, 2008-03-16: 17:07:00

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Created by: Nosila

Pronunciation: gram pa fone

Sentence: The boys loved going to visit Grampa, because he had so many neat old-fashioned gizmos that they had never seen before. One of their favourites was the grampaphone. It was a gramophone that played very old songs on 78 rpm records. It needed wound up all the time. Their parents were amazed that the boys knew the words to very old vaudeville, burlesque and music hall songs. They knew all the songs recorded by Al Jolson, Gracie Fields, George Formby, Edith Piaf, Rudy Vallee and Fats Waller among others. Their folks knew they spent too much time on the grampaphone, when they said goodbye to their teacher, Mrs. Jones. They would croon to her, "Toot-Toot-Tootsie goodbye, Toot-Toot-Tootsie, don't cry..."

Etymology: Gramophone (an antique record player; the sound of the vibrating needle is amplified acoustically) & Grampa (your father or mother's father; the affectionate term for a grandfather)

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COMMENTS:

A Grampaphone could also be that odd black plastic device that plugs into the wall and works like a cell with an anchor. - artr, 2010-05-24: 07:54:00

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Created by: bigveg

Pronunciation: har-mee-dee-um

Sentence: son: dad, the kitten chewed my new shoes! father: here son, execute him with this laserdisc! son: nice harmedium dad! dad: i know

Etymology: harm, medium.

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COMMENTS:

Evokes lots of different thoughts! Wonderful originality! - silveryaspen, 2008-03-14: 18:01:00

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Created by: queenjane75

Pronunciation: un-rad-e-yo

Sentence: Dad gave me an unradio again, want it?

Etymology: a radio that is not rad.

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Created by: Tigger

Pronunciation: /ruhs-teh-kor-ding/

Sentence: George totally enjoyed bringing his 8-year-old son with him to help clean out Grandpa's attic — where Grandpa had stored all of his old electronics and rusticordings. Grandpa had been an avid technophile in his day and the attic was like an obsolete technology museum. When George showed him the Betamax and VHS video tapes, and explained that they were like DVD-R's, Nathan inpected them and asked where the lasers went. Then, when they got to the cassettes and 8-track tapes, George told Nathan that they were what people kept their MP3's on, and then he showed Nathan the rust-colored tape and demonstrated how it turned. Nathan wanted to know how people selected the song they wanted to hear, and so George had to explain Fast Forward and Rewind, while his son struggled with the archaic concept. The vinyl records were next, and when George showed him the groove on the record, and explained how you had to carefully position the needle so as not to scratch the record, Nathan just winced and said, "Wow, Grandpa really had it rough!"

Etymology: Rust[ic] - iron [ferric] oxide; also, a thin layer of ferric oxide was used in most magnetic tapes, floppy disks and early hard discs (Old German, rost "red") + Recording - storage device containing information (from Old French, recorder "testimony")

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COMMENTS:

Yeah, I can no longer play my rustaccordion either! - arrrteest, 2008-03-14: 12:04:00

Will use it a lot! Excellent word! - silveryaspen, 2008-03-14: 18:22:00

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Created by: FreakyDeak

Pronunciation: Pro-toe-gram

Sentence: Still using your brain to think? It's such a protogram. Try google, you Neanderthal.

Etymology: Proto(prefix meaning earliest form of something) + Program

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Created by: Jamagra

Pronunciation: ster'/e/o/lith

Sentence: Jacob cringed in embarrassment at every soccer game. When would his parents get rid of that stereolithic camera they had and get with the digital age? It was completely humiliating... especially when the flip flash blinded his teammates just as they tried to score a goal.

Etymology: stereo - three dimensional (as in stereoscopic photography & stereotype print); also stereophonic sound reproduction + monolith - something formed of a single slab of stone

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COMMENTS:

Innovative etymology and word. Well done! - silveryaspen, 2008-03-14: 18:03:00

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