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'Omigod! What happened to your nose?'

DEFINITION: v. To make something worse while attempting to make it better. n. A bad improvement.

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Verboticisms

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Badvancement

Created by: Tigger

Pronunciation: /bad-VANS-mehnt/

Sentence: It seems that each new elected politician is a badvancement on the last one. Although they promise improvement after improvement, and all sorts of advancements, things keep going from bad to worse.

Etymology: Bad - of poor or inferior quality; defective (of uncertain origin; meaning of "defective or inferior" first recorded around 1300 AD) + Advancement - a forward step; an improvement (from Old French, avancer "move forward")

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Fortifry

Created by: Stevenson0

Pronunciation: for/ti/fry

Sentence: Dave thought that adding wires to his breaker panel would fortify his electricity. Little did he know he would fortifry it.

Etymology: fortify + fry

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COMMENTS:

"smokin" - Jabberwocky, 2008-05-15: 11:41:00

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Grimprovement

Created by: TJayzz

Pronunciation: Grimm-proov-mant

Sentence: Since taking the home improvement course at her local college, Jenny couldn't wait to try out her new found skills in her own home, but when her husband saw the new lime green paint job in the lounge he thought it was more like a grimprovement.

Etymology: Grim(depressing, unappealing) + Improvement(The action of improving or improved, to make something better than it was) =Grimprovement

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COMMENTS:

good word..grimpressive - Nosila, 2008-05-15: 01:54:00

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Reekonstruction

Created by: galwaywegian

Pronunciation: reek on struk shun

Sentence: "how do you feel after your latest reekonstruction, mr Jackson?" the waiting media asked. "I'm bad" he said, "I'm bad"

Etymology: reek as in stinking, reconstruction

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COMMENTS:

nice reference to MJ - Jabberwocky, 2008-05-15: 11:45:00

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Unintendment

Created by: pieceof314

Pronunciation: un-intend-ment

Sentence: Horace had horrible headaches. He was getting rather desperate. He thought by cutting his head off, he would alleviate the problem. The one unintendment he didn't count on was death.

Etymology: un, not + intend, to direct one's attention towards

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Incompattempt

Created by: tmcg5625

Pronunciation: in-comp-att-empt

Sentence: "But honey the car looks way cooler now. you cant tell the spoilers made of cardboard and the foil on the wheels make them look like chrome. classy" "I think so too sweetheart. next should get some personalized plates that say INCOMPATTEMPT!"

Etymology: Incompetent- "Duuhh?" Attempt-"yeah i'll give it a go."

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COMMENTS:

great word - Jabberwocky, 2008-05-15: 11:48:00

like it - galwaywegian, 2008-05-15: 12:10:00

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Adworsity

Created by: bookowl

Pronunciation: Ad/wurs/itee

Sentence: They suffered further adworsity when the contractor hung the windows upsidedown.

Etymology: add + worse + adversity

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Shitigate

Created by: japanaysian

Pronunciation: Shit-e-gate

Sentence: There was an argument within the group, and Tom shitigated the situation by telling everyone to calm down and stop acting like bitches.

Etymology: Shit + mitigate

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Misrepair

youmustvotenato

Created by: youmustvotenato

Pronunciation: miss-repair

Sentence: With clippers in hand, I began cutting my hair. I kept having to "fix" my mistakes and soon enough, my hair was in misrepair.

Etymology: mistaken; repair

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Shedit

Created by: ZenoX

Pronunciation: shed it

Sentence: She went to a plastic surgeon the other day and shedited her nose. She was telling me all about that present she'll never afford now. Wait till she hears about her embarrassing shedit. She'll probably never admit her mistake.

Etymology: A shit edit, a change that should be hid in a dark place (shed).

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Comments:

Verbotomy Verbotomy - 2008-05-15: 00:01:00
Today's definition is inspired by author and philosopher, Mark Kingwell who I saw last night speaking about "Social Change". He reminded us that not all change is good change. And noted that in German they have word to describe such bad improvements -- Schlimmbesserung -- which we don't have in English. And so it's today's challenge. Thanks Mark! ~ James