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
Mombotomy
Created by: toadstool57
Pronunciation: mom-bot-oh-mee
Sentence: It took 4 years of college and not returning countless phone calls from her mom but Jill was finally able to perform a successful mombotomy.
Etymology: Mom, lobotomy
Mumlinquish
Created by: fredm
Pronunciation:
Sentence: "Typical mumlinquish behaviour", exclaimed the conductor as she forced her children onto the bus, knowing she would have to wait for the next one.
Etymology: Mum + relinquish
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)
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:
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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Sacriprice
Created by: mrskellyscl
Pronunciation: sac-ri-price
Sentence: As a good mother, you pay the ultimate sacriprice when you watch the object of your total devotion walk out the door into the arms of the future. It's a bittersweet moment, and it stings for a while, until mother realizes that now she and daddy can go back to dating; eating and drinking whatever they want, and having sex wherever and whenever they want like they did the night their child was conceived. On top of that -- the heat, food and water bills plummet and there's always clean towels in the closet. An empty nest isn't so bad after all and it's well worth the sacriprice.
Etymology: sacrifice: complete giving to a specific person or cause + price: cost
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
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
Nurturifice
Created by: Mustang
Pronunciation: NERT-shur-reh-fice
Sentence: Ma Maribel put aside her own wishes as she spent half a lifetime to nurturifice her children, only to watch dry eyed as the left the 'nest' to pursue their own interests.
Etymology: Blend of the words 'Nurture' (rearing, upbringing, training) and 'Sacrifice' (the surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim)
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