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.
Lifeprovisionist
Created by: guesser
Pronunciation: Life + pro + vision + ist
Sentence: Her journey consisted of being a lifeprovisonist , a choice she would make out of the love in her heart.
Etymology:
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
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)
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
Sprogression
Created by: CharlieB
Pronunciation: sprog-resh-shun
Sentence: Cynthia was sad to see her first born leave home - particularly in such a flippant and nonchalant manner. But she sighed and waved, knowing that her thankless task of bringing up baby was a natural sprogression.
Etymology: sprog (slang for child) & progression (advancing, moving forward)
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)
Mamartyrdom
Created by: ErWenn
Pronunciation: /məˈmɑːɹtɚˌdʌm/
Sentence: A rose and a card once a year easily make up for her mamartyrdom.*
Etymology: From mama + martyrdom
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COMMENTS:
*Yes, this is sarcasm. My mother deserves a helluva lot more than I can give. But she'll have to settle for a batch of oatmeal banana chocolate chip cookies this year. - ErWenn, 2007-05-11: 09:34:00
Wow! Those cookies sound great! Where'd ya get the recipe? - purpleartichokes, 2007-05-11: 12:21:00
The missing connection between "Magdalena" and "REV 22:20"? I'll ask Mr Keenan. - Bulletchewer, 2007-05-11: 16:41:00
The recipe is a modification I made of an Alton Brown recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies. I can send you a copy if you want. - ErWenn, 2007-05-12: 21:42:00
Maybe your recipe could be shared on the blog. - petaj, 2007-05-13: 00:34:00
made me laugh! - pguse, 2007-06-01: 14:25:00
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Progeflee
Created by: artr
Pronunciation: präjəflē
Sentence: Theirs was a dysfunctional household. As each child approached the age of majority the urge to progeflee became stronger and stronger. Some went off to college, some found friends to room with. None made any effort to move back home.
Etymology: progeny (a descendant or the descendants of a person) + flee (run away from a place or situation)
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
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
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