Verboticism: Foma
DEFINITION: n. A harmless untruth, intended to comfort simple souls. v. To use a little bit a fiction to smooth over the perplexities and complexities of life.
Foma
Created by: vonnegut
Pronunciation: fo-ma
Sentence: Nothing in this book is true. "Live by the foma* that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy." The Books of Bokonon. I: 5
Etymology: Created by Kurt Vonnegut for Cat's Cradle, published in 1963.
Points: 536
Comments: Foma
Alchemist - 2007-04-16: 06:51:00
foma - accept no substitutes.
rikboyee - 2007-04-16: 09:24:00
we can't go through the whole week respelling Vonneguts words....or can we?
jedijawa - 2007-04-16: 12:54:00
It's the best way to win the prize.... :-)
Bulletchewer - 2007-04-16: 15:11:00
What's the singular? And should I have heard of Vonnegut? Has he been on TV? Recently? Bliss.
wordmeister - 2007-04-16: 15:22:00
The singular form is "fomum", like phenomena (plural) and phenomenum (signular). Comes from Latin. Did you study Latin in highschool? I did, and I'm still trying to get over it.
Bulletchewer - 2007-04-16: 16:14:00
It's all Greek to me!
rikboyee - 2007-04-16: 17:44:00
you can even go into the news/blog section and it will tell you which word this definition comes from.... i honestly feel that using Vonneguts word taints the wampeter of our humble karass