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.
Sumblinativity
Created by: verysimplegame
Pronunciation: sub-li-nay-ti-vi-ty
Sentence: Frank's ship slowly made it's way into orbit. Her sublinativity was now complete.
Etymology: sublimate + nativity
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
Giventry
Created by: thesmeagle
Pronunciation: giv-en-tree
Sentence: When she mother gave him the money she would have used to buy a condo in Hawaii to start his business, Bradley was moved to tears by his mother's giventry.
Etymology: From the children's book, The Giving Tree
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
Divorfeit
Created by: iwasatripwire
Pronunciation: di-vor-fit
Sentence: My poor mother had a hard time letting me go to college so far away, but eventually she came to terms with her divorfeit
Etymology: divorce (in the separation sense, not the end-of-a-marriage sense) + forfeit
Matrelease
Created by: serendipity9000
Pronunciation: mat-ree-lease
Sentence: After so many years of sacrifice for her babies, it was finally matrelease time - time to set them free.
Etymology: Mat (from maternal) + release
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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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)
Martyrnal
Created by: rikboyee
Pronunciation: mar-terr-nul
Sentence: She started sacrificing all of her outside interests when her martyrnal instinct kicked in
Etymology: martyr, maternal
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