A politician, quoted in the good ol' Grauniad on Saturday, spoke of some MPs receiving an 'ignoral' from the Ministry of Defence. Having LIU'd (quick google search), it appears to have been a favourite term of a former (as in 'late') political figure called George Brown.

But it isn't in the dictionary.

The awful thing is that I think it should be there. I think the world needs a word that represents the noun form of the verb 'to ignore'. Ignorance, alas, is already taken. I would have voted for 'ignoration' myself, but since ignoral has already been coined...

What say the Ayleurs about this coinage?

Perhaps more importantly, can the collective erudition of this group come up with a 'legitimate' word that already fulfils this purpose?

cheer

the sunshine warrior

It sounds like a mixture between a 'referral' and 'ignore' to me.
What would the antonym be, a reply or attention/notice?
Would you define it as an evasive letter or perhaps a refusal?


(Come to think of it, it doesn't make much sense that one can receive an ignoral; by receiving something you have not been ignored)

I have nothing to offer but my support. If Maverick can coin a word (malaquote) that gets the thumbs up from NicholasW, I'm sure he could coin something suitable for this need.

What about ignoring? The MPs received an ignoring from the Minister of Defence.

you could, I suppose, just noun the verb. was he snubbed? he received a snub. was he rebuffed? he received a rebuff. was he slighted? spurned? disregarded? etc? no, he was the victim of an ignore.

Since the beaurocrats ignore anybody who lacks clout, I think the word "ignoral" describes one of their favorite prerogatives and is a suitable word to point that out.

How about a new verb: to bliss
like to diss, but meaning to serve up a pointed heap of ignorance?

If so, then the recipient would be blissed, and the bliss-er would be a blister

A blister on the posterior of progress.

'Ignoration' does exist, or at least can be found in your better-stocked antiquarian dictionary, but I've never seen it used. It's an Englishing of a technical term in philosophy, which only occurs in ignoratio elenchi, which is the fallacy of "ignoring the question" (or "ignorance of the issue"), i.e. arguing for something other than what you're supposed to be arguing for.

That said, 'ignoral' seems a reasonable coining, on the analogy of 'referral'.

If ol' Nick approves of it...

In any case, since there doesn't seem to be an extant word fulfilling the requirement, and since there are precedents for ignoral's use, I shall adopt it forthwith. Aenigma, can you hear me?

cheer

the sunshine warrior