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'My mother is a washing machine'

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.

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Verboticisms

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Maduty

Created by: adithi

Pronunciation:

Sentence:

Etymology:

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Parentharsis

Created by: Discoveria

Pronunciation: parr-EN-far-siss

Sentence: After her son Jack left home to start at university, Mary felt a great sense of parentharsis.

Etymology: parent + catharsis (release from strong emotions)

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Parentplegic

Created by: janatic

Pronunciation:

Sentence: I'd love to go out tonight, but we had an accident last night and i'm afraid i've become parentplegic.

Etymology: parent + paraplegic

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Motherrender

Created by: mweinmann

Pronunciation: mothur - end - ur

Sentence: It was a supreme motherrender for Bitsy to let Marcus leave. She had sacrificed everything she had for his schooling and now he was moving half way across the continent.

Etymology: mother, surrender, render (To give up; yield; surrender)

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Mumblebee

Created by: Nosila

Pronunciation: mum bil bee

Sentence: Busy Lizzie was a Queen Bee who lays thousands of eggs in her honeycomb. One of her offspring was chosen to be the next Queen. Despite the fact that Busy Lizzie laid 2000 eggs a day and ruined her figure, it stung for her to be overthrown by her own kids. The way they treated their Mumblebee was enough to give you hives. At least that's the buzz...

Etymology: Mum (mother) & Wordplay on Bumblebee (robust hairy social bee of temperate regions)

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Matrifice

Created by: benjamin

Pronunciation: mae-treh-fice

Sentence: from kindergarten through medical school Elliott's mother paid for everything and even baked cookies; it was the ultimate matrifice. Now he couldn't even find the time to call her once a week

Etymology: mater (prefix for all things having to do with mom) + sacrifice

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Philanmomthropy

Created by: Jocoman

Pronunciation: fill-an-mom-thra-pee

Sentence: Philanthropy is an important and generous thing, where a rich man gives something back to the community, but philanmomthropy is greater, because my mother gave me her everything without ever expecting a return.

Etymology: philanthropy + mom

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Weanherschitzel

whipspeak

Created by: whipspeak

Pronunciation: ween-hur-shit-suhl

Sentence: On her son Myron's 23rd birthday, Fran served weanherschitzel.

Etymology: wean: to withhold mother's milk from (the young of a mammal) and substitute other nourishment. + her: the possessive form of she + schitzel: whipspeak for unappreciative offspring

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COMMENTS:

Zehr gut! - Nosila, 2009-11-29: 11:57:00

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Totsmartyr

Created by: heartnsoul

Pronunciation:

Sentence: She had always been devoted to their young son, but when Mark caught his wife writing Tommy’s HS book report, he realized his wife’s totsmartyr ways would never die. This mom was sure she always knew best.

Etymology: tot's + martyr OR tot + smarter / martyr

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Emomcipate

Created by: Stevenson0

Pronunciation: i/mom/suh/-peyt

Sentence: After nine months of eating all the right foods,countless nights of discomfort and no drugs , or alcohol, she was ready to emomcipate her child.

Etymology: mom + emancipate

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Comments:

Verbotomy Verbotomy - 2007-05-11: 04:01:00
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.

Verbotomy Verbotomy - 2007-05-11: 03:23:00
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

Verbotomy Verbotomy - 2007-05-11: 17:17:00
Hey Bulletchewer, I replaced four letters in your message with non-alphanumeric symbols. Did that make you unhappy? ~ James

Verbotomy Verbotomy - 2007-05-11: 18:59:00
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.

Verbotomy Verbotomy - 2007-05-11: 20:20:00
Me too. But that's okay, it's a game ~ James

Verbotomy Verbotomy - 2007-05-11: 20:21:00
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

ohwtepph ohwtepph - 2007-05-11: 20:53:00
*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.

Verbotomy Verbotomy - 2007-05-12: 23:53:00
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

petaj petaj - 2007-05-13: 00:47:00
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.

Verbotomy Verbotomy - 2009-11-27: 00:01:00
Today's definition was suggested by doctorow. Thank you doctorow. ~ James