👨🏼🏫😵💫💡🙋⚡️🤯📝🤓📚👨🏼🏫😵💫💡🙋⚡️🤯📝🤓📚👨🏼🏫😵💫💡🙋⚡️🤯📝🤓
Today I am pleased to present another set of ten brand-new English words! These are the brainchildren of several of my brilliant readers, and the result of the Dr. Neologism series here on Living Elsewhere.
What is Dr. Neologism? It is a project to identify experiences that many of us have had but for which there is not yet any name, and come up with words for them.
Every week I post a challenge, in the form of a definition in search of a word. Then, my faithful readers participate, either suggesting a word, or voting for others’ suggestions by “liking” them. It’s fun, and it helps stave off dementia for a few more minutes.
For the first set of words produced by the Dr. Neologism project, please see the post “10 New English Words You Didn’t Know You Needed: Dr. Neologism Roundup 1”. Today we add to this list with the second set of ten neologisms, or newly coined words.
As before, I present each word with a hyperlink to the original Note, so that you can see all of the candidates. If more than one received a lot of votes, I include the runners-up as “special mentions”. I don’t say who came up with each word, because I like to see this more as collaboration than as competition. I want to thank everyone who participated.
So, without further ado, let’s see how we are pushing the boundaries of the English language together…
to flail wildly with your hands when the automatic light in a restaurant bathroom suddenly turns off
Special mention: do a flapsicle, Jedi Mime Tricks
a squiggly design on the shower wall created by displaced hairs
an amount of food that is sufficiently small that you feel you can leave it uneaten without too much guilt
Special mention: leftunders
the futile process of struggling to decide which of two identical hotel pillows is better by repositioning them endlessly
Special mention: hotel roomination
that little bit of eggshell that gets into the bowl and is so hard to get out again
Special mention: shellvader, eggscrement
the surprising moment of silence when you drive under an overpass on a very rainy day
a coaster that clings to the bottom of your glass and drops noisily to the floor when you least expect it
that “oops” feeling before something hits the bottom of the trash can but after you realize you forgot to put a bag in there
Special mention: cryliner, trashdread
a vegetable—onion, potato, garlic clove, etc.—that has lost patience with you and decided to start a new life
Special mention: vegscapee, doneion
a switch on the wall that appears to do nothing whatsoever
Special mention: pseudotoggle, nadaluz
That’s it for this round! Make sure to check your Notes feed for the next series of Dr. Neologism notes, which usually come out on Sundays.
If you enjoy pieces about words and language, here are some more from Living Elsewhere:
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.