Vote for the best verboticism.
DEFINITION: n. The sacrifice a mother makes when she gives everything to her children, including life itself, and then simply lets them go. v. To give someone everything and then watch them walk away.
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.
Sacribyes
Created by: Nosila
Pronunciation: sak rib ize
Sentence: After her tenth child was born, Melba knew it was time to start giving her sacribyes to the older kids. Not that she wanted to, but they were 19, 20 AND 21 and needed to get out in the world to make their own way. Besides, she would still have 7 at home under age for now to look after. Her biggest worry was what would she do when this last little one left the nest...because she had given up all her identity to raise him and his siblings.How much of her own self was there left?
Etymology: Sacrifice (endure the loss of;the act of losing or surrendering something) & Byes (a farewell remark;) and rhymes with Sacrifice
Mumacrifice
Created by: remistram
Pronunciation: mum-ak-rih-fyce
Sentence: Only when Ethel became a mother herself did she truly understand her own mother's mumacrifices.
Etymology: mum + sacrifice
Mozzurender
Created by: ohwtepph
Pronunciation: MOH - zoo - rren - derr [make sure to roll the Rs so you sound like a real smexi French dude]
Sentence: Said the single parent mother washing machine, "It was a real mozzurender when I had to give up my virginity to bear a child to a half-human, half-chainsaw and a quarter pencil."
Etymology: mother [mozzer] (every French-guy/French-impressionist/French-wanna-be knows that you always turn your /th/ to /zz/) + surrender (to give oneself up to someone, in this case, your child; also, to "surrender" [let go] your child in the end)
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COMMENTS:
It's also a good word to describe giving up pizza! - purpleartichokes, 2007-05-11: 08:25:00
and a good word to switch to mozilla. - ohwtepph, 2007-05-11: 08:33:00
Also when the mosquitoes get so bad you have to abandon the barbecue. - petaj, 2007-05-13: 00:31:00
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Momligation
Created by: Clayton
Pronunciation: mom-li-GEY-shuhn
Sentence: Momligation is bittersweet, but it was Linda's prostitutelage that became the subject of some concern.
Etymology: mom + obligation
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COMMENTS:
and possibly some momlitigation! - galwaywegian, 2007-05-11: 06:29:00
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Chilflessness
Created by: Rhyme79
Pronunciation: chill-fuh-less-ness
Sentence: "My neighbour displayed such chilflessness when her son left the nest, it was quite moving."
Etymology: An amalgam of the words 'child' and 'selflessness'.
Cordummycut
Created by: Bulletchewer
Pronunciation: cord-um-mee-cut or core-dumm-me-cut
Sentence: Oedipus was a little too grateful for the times before the cordummycut; he longed to go back...
Etymology: From "umbilical cord" meaning "child's lifeline", "mummy" meaning "bandaged corpse", "dummy" meaning "pacifier or scariest type of hand puppet" and "cut" meaning "please stop, actors".
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COMMENTS:
Just realised this weirdly puns on the name of the dude who inspired the definition (yet again, so famous I've never heard of him). - Bulletchewer, 2007-05-11: 11:54:00
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Gestashun
Created by: porsche
Pronunciation: jest/ay/shun
Sentence: She enjoyed the pregnancy but loved the gestashun more - fortunately she had a stay at home husband
Etymology: gestation + shun
Babsication
Created by: oren22
Pronunciation: Bab pronuonced like tab.
Sentence: the first smile from a new born child, is worth all the babsication a mother has to make.
Etymology:
Matrifice
Created by: eiggy
Pronunciation: 'matt-ri-fice (ri-fice as in sacrifice)
Sentence: Mrs. Jones raised Bobby on the best cereal, laundry detergent, and education money can buy. She spent every waking moment making his life meaningful. What matrifice!
Etymology: matri - from Latin mater 'mother' and fice - from facere 'make'
Maternityield
Created by: petaj
Pronunciation: ma-TURN-et-yield
Sentence: Maternityield manifests itself in many ways throughout the lifecycle. First she yields physically, then has to give up full control of her career and lifestyle, and eventually her car (and don't forget to top up the petrol before you get home, drive carefully) and then after all those years the little darlings take off leaving her in an empty nest.
Etymology: maternity + yield
Comments:
Today's definition was inspired by Cory Doctorow's novel Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town, which is a story about a guy who's mother is literally a washing machine. It's a great read! And since this weekend is Mother's Day, it seems like the perfect fit! I was also thinking about "After the Siege" in Overclocked, where a mother pushes herself beyond exhaustion trying to save her child - the sacrifice. And purpleartichokes inadvertently suggested the mother idea with her comments on the younger degeneration. Thank you Cory and purpleartichokes! ~ James
ErWenn - 2007-05-11: 09:39:00
I noticed that many verbotomists focussed on the "letting go" part of the definition as the key, while others treated it as just one small part of the maternal sacrifice. I'm sure it says something about our personalities, but I'm not sure what.
We have posted The Petaj Splinterview on the Verbotomy Blog. ~ James
Bulletchewer - 2007-05-11: 16:55:00
I "have issues" because I advocate free speech as opposed to miserable hypocrisy of censorship? HUSH
Hey Bulletchewer, I replaced four letters in your message with non-alphanumeric symbols. Did that make you unhappy? ~ James
Hey ErWenn, I agree with you. The words and language we choose to use do indeed reflect our personalities. And with a definition like today's, there are many different viewpoints, so it gets complicated... I guess that's why they have Freudian psychiatrists. ~ James
Bulletchewer - 2007-05-11: 19:18:00
It made me THE most $@*#ing miserable crybaby in the whole world! Just kidding.
Me too. But that's okay, it's a game ~ James
Anyways, in many parts of the world, this Sunday is Mother's Day, so I would like to remind all our verbotomists to take appropriate action (e.g. buy flowers). And to all our verbotomists who happen to be mothers, I would like to say thank you. Thank you for your wonderful creativity. ~ James
*gasp* I am so honored. Petaj used my word TWICE!!! in his splinterview. Now, I can die peacefully.
Clayton - 2007-05-12: 17:21:00
Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that the highest scoring words often do not reflect the part of speech suggested by the definition? Occasionally, this can be somewhat difficult to determine from a given description, but "the sacrifice a mother makes" clearly indicates that this word is meant to be a noun. Just nitpicking.
Hey Clayton, I have made a blog posting about this question. See: Parts of Speech and Verbotomy. It will be very interesting to hear what ErWenn has to say about this issue, since he also asked similar questions. ~ James
Clearly I should have mentioned that ohwtepph can also be relied on for coming up with not only amusing words, but very useful additions to everyday language.
Today's definition was suggested by doctorow. Thank you doctorow. ~ James