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.
Wordzilla
Created by: Mustang
Pronunciation: werd - zill - uh
Sentence: Brunhilda was a stickler for grammar and had become a veritable wordzilla at parsing every one of Geoffrey's utterings.
Etymology: Blend of word and Godzilla
----------------------------
COMMENTS:
I parse on this one. Good blend. - OZZIEBOB, 2008-03-26: 17:39:00
----------------------------
Grammarcracker
Created by: artr
Pronunciation: gramerkraker
Sentence: James hates e-mail, not for its intrusive nature but the way most people use it. Worse yet is text messaging. (He refuses to call it texting) When someone sends him a message, he replies with a corrected edition of the original message with commas, hyphens, spelling and proper verb tense. He won't respond to the content until the originator sends it back in its corrected form. His friends have started calling him a grammarcracker. He is amused by the term but won't actually type it because it isn't in the dictionary.
Etymology: grammar (the whole system and structure of a language) + cracker (a fine example of something)
----------------------------
COMMENTS:
I h8 txtn 2. - wayoffcenter, 2009-01-16: 04:46:00
And a very nice play on graham crackers! - silveryaspen, 2009-01-16: 10:12:00
Show them no Grammercy! - Nosila, 2009-01-16: 20:44:00
Those purists can really contaminate our ebonics. - metrohumanx, 2009-01-21: 15:35:00
----------------------------
Speakertweaker
Created by: mweinmann
Pronunciation: speek - ur - tweek - ur
Sentence: Margerie could not listen to anyone without "tweaking" their statements so that the speaker's grammar and voice inflection were correct in the context of the sentence. Her family and friends became loath to even talk to her for fear of being corrected. Other than being a speakertweaker, Margerie's biggest compulsion was playing Verbotomy every day and checking her scores every hour.
Etymology: Speaker (someone who expresses in language; someone who talks) + tweaker (a person who tweaks something) tweak (fine-tune: adjust finely)
----------------------------
COMMENTS:
nice one! - galwaywegian, 2009-01-16: 11:41:00
----------------------------
Syntaxassessor
Created by: Nosila
Pronunciation: sin taks as ses sor
Sentence: Comma Chameleon found her mark in her new boyfriend, Colon. Although he came from good parenttheses, was very dashing, earned a high income bracket and had a hyphenated name, his English skills were dreadful. Although his Grammar had taught him well, Comma found she had to edit everything he said. She became his syntaxassessor and if it were not for the fact that he had a cute asterisk and was great at the old interrobang, she would have put a bullet beside his name before now. It did not hurt that he punctuated his wedding proposal with a large caret diamond ring...
Etymology: Syntax ( the grammatical arrangement of words in sentences) & Wordplay on Tax Assessor (an official who evaluates property for the purpose of taxing it)
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
----------------------------
COMMENTS:
Dylan Thomas said, 'British broadcasters speak as if they had Elgin's marbles in their mouth," - OZZIEBOB, 2008-03-26: 17:36:00
----------------------------
Parsnickety
Created by: Mustang
Pronunciation: par-SNIK-ety
Sentence: Being a stickler for grammar, Miriam was always quick to correct even the most insignificant grammatical blunders, and was especially critical of her boyfriend, Maxim, whose grammar skills were particularly weak.
Etymology: Blend of 'parse' (To break (a sentence) down into its component parts of speech with an explanation of the form, function, and syntactical relationship of each part. ) and 'persnickety' (Overparticular about trivial details; fastidious)
----------------------------
COMMENTS:
Excellent! - silveryaspen, 2009-01-16: 02:09:00
love it - Jabberwocky, 2009-01-16: 16:14:00
He should MAXIMize Miriam's skills as his own personal editor...great word. - Nosila, 2009-01-16: 20:49:00
----------------------------
Grammamend
Created by: diyan627
Pronunciation: gram-a-mend
Sentence: Rohit was a grammamend I couldn't date, much less tolerate in any setting. So what? -I meant "couldn't bear it" rather than "couldn't bare it". He corrected me in the instant messenger, and my replying with "Ahh" was not good enough. He went on to say that he can't stand people who can't handle criticism, and he thinks I'm petty. He wouldn't move on until I cyber-bowed down before him and thanked him for putting me on the right path. Quite bizarre. At first I didn't mind the correction at all..It didn't even phase me.. It was his insistence for recognition of his brilliance that was the clincher! And he actually thought I'd go out with him for a first-meet after that.
Etymology: grammar + amend
----------------------------
COMMENTS:
Sounds like a true story. [By the way, you mixed verb tenses in one of your sentences. — Yours Truly, Rohit] Just kidding, diyan. - Tigger, 2008-03-26: 23:10:00
Don't worry. I'm not your [hopefully fictional] linguistalker. - Tigger, 2008-03-26: 23:15:00
Tigger, "linguistalker" is correct! The linguadventure is a true tale. hahaha... And he did keep calling me and IMing me after that one, but I linguiblocked him. - diyan627, 2008-03-27: 11:48:00
----------------------------
Wordnerd
Created by: rebelvin
Pronunciation: wordnerd
Sentence: She wordnerds me every time I say the least thing grammatically incorrect.
Etymology: word+nerd
----------------------------
COMMENTS:
Hey, quit making fun of the username! - werdnurd, 2008-03-26: 15:23:00
----------------------------
Complainisitionist
Created by: jajsr
Pronunciation: Come-plane-i-z-i-shun-ist
Sentence: Delores was quite the complainisitionist. When her husband came down for breakfast and asked, "Is that grits I smell", she quickly replied, "you mean, ARE those grits I smell".
Etymology: Combination of "Complain" - to express grief, pain or discomfort; and "sition" from composition - an intellectual creation
----------------------------
COMMENTS:
I'll bet he smelled them when the plate impacted his face. - metrohumanx, 2009-01-21: 15:39:00
----------------------------
Pricktionary
Created by: rikboyee
Pronunciation: prik-shun-air-ee
Sentence: as soon as i sent the email 'i'll see you their at 8pm', i knew that pricktionary would be on my case
Etymology: prick, dictionary
----------------------------
COMMENTS:
Just something about this word that I like. - OZZIEBOB, 2008-03-26: 17:41:00
----------------------------
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
[url=http://arabic-perfume.ru/aromat] Каталог парфюмерных масел[/url]