Vote for the best verboticism.
DEFINITION: v. To create an illusion of busyness so that your co-workers, and most importantly your boss, never realize that you have absolutely nothing to do. n. A person who pretends to be very busy.
Verboticisms
Click on each verboticism to read the sentences created by the Verbotomy writers, and to see your voting options...
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Accounterinsurgent
Created by: CharlieB
Pronunciation: ack-ount-er-in-serge-ant
Sentence: Ted believed in subverting the system from within by doing as little as possible. He clicked between spreadsheets while gazing into middle distance. No one knew it, but he was proud to be an accounterinsurgent.
Etymology: Accounts (money, esp in business) + counter (a desk from behind which service is given) + counterinsurgency (combating guerrilla warfare)
Exertsham
Created by: Stevenson0
Pronunciation: exert/sham
Sentence: The illusion of working is an age old problem and is also known as walking the dog, a government job, or exertsham.
Etymology: EXERTSHAM - noun - from EXERT (to put oneself into strenuous, vigorous action, or effort)+ SHAM (something that is not what it purports to be; a fraud, or hoax)
Defartmentalize
Created by: lumina
Pronunciation: dee/fart/men/tul/ize
Sentence: Josh was able to convince everyone in the office that he was on top of several projects at once. He had the ability to defartmentalize any project thrown his way. Yes, he had gotten so good at allocating everything to others on the sly, that he considered himself the Head of the Customer Service Defartment.
Etymology: Root word: Departmentalize: To organize something into departments. Phrase: fart around: To waste time.
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COMMENTS:
I think my boss is the defartment head. What should I do? - reverb, 2008-07-19: 06:42:00
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Faketivity
Created by: mrskellyscl
Pronunciation: fake-tiv-i-ty
Sentence: Wally was so well practiced in the art of faketivity that his pointy haired boss never knew that in 20 years he never once accomplished a single task. It was probably a good thing since Wally was so incompetent that he probably would have caused the company to go belly up if he had actually done any work. It was especially laughable that he won employee-of-the-month several times because the pointy haired boss thought he was really working hard.
Etymology: fake: having a false or misleading appearance; fraud + activity: the state of being active; energetic, lively; participate in specific pursuits (Wally is a character in the comic strip Dilbert who is always standing around holding a coffee cup, going to meetings and getting involved in conversations without ever actually working. Nevertheless he somehow always manages to stay under the pointy haired boss' radar and collect his paycheck.)
Conshymime
Created by: OZZIEBOB
Pronunciation: KON-she-mahym
Sentence: Bob was the marcel-marceau of merchandising, going silently about his business, coshymimimg his every unproductive move assiduously.
Etymology: CONSHY(Conch): a hard worker, often with the connotation of one who "sucks-up" to the boss; from SE: conscientous) & MIME: the art or technique of portraying a character, mood, idea, by gestures and bodily movements; to play or act out a part; imitate (familiar).
Seemulanting
Created by: jonobo
Pronunciation: like "simulating" but with an emphased "ANT" (yes the little insect), and "seem" and "mule" is also included - so it depends a bit on your mood how you pronounce it - but the easy way: simulanting.
Sentence: He was seemulanting the hell out of his secret new project. He was seemulanting so good, that he seemed to be a whole state of ants in one person and a hard working mule at the same time, he was not only seemulanting, he was "The Seem-Mule-Ant-Thing".
Etymology: Simulate + Seem + Mule + Ants (they always seem so busy).
Shirkcrafting
Created by: jedijawa
Pronunciation: shirk-craft-ing
Sentence: Betsy has honed the skill of shirkcrafting so that she can manage to get no work done during a day with nobody being the wiser.
Etymology: shirk + crafting
Busybodiness
Created by: allawson
Pronunciation:
Sentence: Katrevor sunk down behind her computer to in busybodiness in hopes that her boss would not notice.
Etymology: At work!
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COMMENTS:
Thing is, by the rules of English morphology, "busybodiness" should mean: The state of being a busybody. A "busybody" is a nosey, meddlesome person. - cacarr, 2018-08-22: 03:34:00
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Borecast
Created by: thefreewheeler
Pronunciation: boar kast
Sentence: I didn't catch Ted's borecast yesterday, so I asked him what he wad doing.
Etymology: casting: spread; similar to broadcast
Scampress
Created by: Mustang
Pronunciation: skam-PRESS
Sentence: Jonathan had various ways to scampress his coworkers and supervisors by making it appear that he was not only hard at work but was performing above and beyond his experience level while actually being totally incompetent in his real job.
Etymology: Blend of the words 'scam' (a fraudulent or deceptive act or operation) and 'impress' (influence in opinion)
Comments:
Today's definition was suggested by petaj.
Thank you petaj! ~ James
Congratulations to petaj for her win last week. We are offering a new Verbotomy Cup for the top player this week. And next week, we are doing theme on Cory Doctorow, and offering his newest book "Overclocked" as a prize to the top writer. See more about Cory at his blog www.craphound.com ~ James
A word that NEEDS no introduction...