A.Word.A.Day -- AWADmail Issue 1187

Brainwidth: the amount of information one can hold in memory at any one time.
-Karen Bleakley, Montreal, Canada (karen thedaigles.ca)

Highdilutin: a word that redundantly dilutes the meaning of the sentence. For example: “I suspect she PROBABLY took it” or “Evidence suggests a POSSIBLE role.”
-Il Anso (via online comments)

Fruish: a verbification of the long and clumsy phrase “to bring to fruition”. Example: “She tried and tried, and finally, it fruished -- project completed.”
-Alison Schoew, Chesapeake, Virginia (2schoew cox.net)

I was born in Canada but lived in Seoul for a few years before having a family in Hungary, so we tend to use terms that are unlikely to exist outside our home. One of these is szombatchingu (literally, Saturday friends) for two or more family members who were born on Saturdays. And we have countless Hunglish mashups too, like elfbenzin (elf gasoline) for maple syrup, because our 14-month-old elf of a daughter gets very conspicuously energized by the stuff.
-Robert James Robson, Szeged, Hungary (robertjamesrobson gmail.com)

When a big storm’s blowing in, I can’t resist stepping outside and (in the voice of Auntie Em) calling out “Dorothy!” So now when it gets like that, I say that it’s getting dorothy out there, or that it’s starting to dorth. When my wife and I catch ourselves complaining about some small matter, one of us will say (in mock injured tones) “Olash” -- an acronym of Our Lives Are So Hard.
-Casey Swank, St. Cloud, Minnesota (cswank stcloudstate.edu)

Imbegor: A coincidence that someone feels must be attributable to a higher power. For instance, “I was at the Burger King when the shooting occurred, and the bullet just missed my head when I went to answer my cell phone. God was surely looking out for me that day!” (From It Must BE GOd Reasoning.)
-Mike Newdow, Nice, California (mikenewdow gmail.com)

As our three kids grew up, we would periodically try to coin new words for commonplace situations. One of our best and most used terms addressed the inconvenience when a waiter overfilled a beverage glass with way too much ice. The person affected would look up in frustration and announce “I’ve been berged.”
-Mark David, Dallas, Texas (wmdavid21 gmail.com)

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Fauxrensics: junk science; debunked investigative techniques that have led to many miscarriages of justice (i.e., bite mark analysis, shaken baby syndrome, lie detector tests, and the like).
-Michelle Geissbuhler, Worthington, Ohio (goathill columbus.rr.com)

My Dad always used to say “stop foofing around” when my brother or I were doing something half-heartedly or taking too long to do something, like a chore. I have no idea where that word came from or if he just made it up. But 75 years later I can still hear him saying it to me.
-Jill Diskan, Washington, DC (jilldiskan comcast.net)

When I was an undergrad, I invented traffical island on the pattern of tropical island. A traffical island is a concrete oasis in the middle of a two-way street.
-Melody Friedenthal, Worcester, Massachusetts (friedenthalmelody gmail.com)

My husband unconsciously coined malamity -- a calamity together with a malady, such as a knee that gives out in the middle of a hike.
-Joan Reisman-Brill, New York, New York (jreismanbrill gmail.com)

I’ve coined words for two new poetic forms that have now been used in a number of projects, particularly from the writers’ group 26.
Sestude was the word coined for a poem in exactly 62 words, and was defined as “26 in reflection”. The form was first used in the 26 Treasures project that was published in a book by Unbound and included sestudes on objects from various museums. It’s since been used in many projects including 26 Wild with the Wildlife Trust.
Centena was coined for a poem of exactly 100 words, with the first three words repeated as the last three. The centena was first created in 2018 for the centenary anniversary of the First World War Armistice in a project involving the Imperial War Museum in London.
-John Simmons, London, UK (johnsimmons blueyonder.co.uk)

Postdecisionalanalysis: The process by which an arbitrary executive decision is analyzed to explain why it was correct.
-Steve Goldman, New York, New York (segoldman hush.com)

When my younger brother was a pre-teen, he sometimes surreptitiously ate crackers in bed after the lights were out. We labeled the resulting detritus as bed crumbs.
-Jonathan Rickert, Bainbridge Island, Washington (therickerts hotmail.com)

The Invention of Nature tells about Charles Darwin’s much-anticipated meeting with Alexander von Humboldt. Unfortunately, Humboldt as was his wont, talked incessantly, not letting Darwin explain his theory. So instead of a conversation, they had a oneversation.
-David Hatcher, Winston-Salem, North Carolina (davidphatcher icloud.com)

Sliption: The ability or tendency of an object to slide or lose its grip. The opposite of traction. Example: “That hockey puck has plenty of sliption on this ice.” (This term is not mine, but credited to someone I know: Benjamin Chambers of the Mountain View area of California.)
-Roger Clark Williams, Chestertown, Maryland (rogerw nordlink.com)

When I was young, probably 10 or 12, my brother would grab the cushiony skin beneath my belly button and declare “It’s the nubule!” Now I’m 58 and should we be vacationing together at the beach, he still does it. It’s not a tire tube, a pot belly or extra weight, it’s really just an anatomical feature of some body types. My mom had it and so does one of my sons. My brother does not have a nubule. I think he points it out because he is jealous.
-Cynthia J Landon, New York, New York (landwit mac.com)

Barkalounger: A dog that stands or sits on a sofa / upholstered chair and barks (usually at passers-by it sees through a window). (I created this word to describe our dog, who stationed himself on the back of our sofa all day to surveil and alert the neighborhood about all people in the area.)
-Leslie Cohen, Cambridge, Massachusetts (lzenacohen gmail.com)

Fifteen years ago I coined a new word based on the AWAD entry paramnesia. Paramnesium is a word for a recorded account of the past which is riddled with false memories and delusions.
-Rebecca Migdal, Easton, Pennsylvania (migdalart mindspring.com)

As politicians are the only people who can hold positions of importance without any suitable qualifications, I propose they have an alternative name: pillockticians.
-Conrad Smit, South Africa (consatsa hotmail.com)

Billiocracy: Government of non-billionaires, by billionaires, for billionaires.
-Mike & Dale Kitney, South Perth, Australia (mikekitney westnet.com.au)

Granulclarity: This is what Trump could use more of, clarity in detail, specificity instead of weaselly generality. Replacing “Everybody hates it” with “I vaguely remember someone agreeing with me when I said I hated it.” A year or so ago, I noticed that my goals were often lacking in detail, which made them less likely to get done. So I coined this word for my journal. -Leslie Lowe, New Orleans, Louisiana (leslie leslie.ms)

Though Spiro Agnew has long left this world and gone into the darkest circle of hell where he belongs, and is hardly remembered at all except by some nonagenarians like me, an Agnewism is the act of a political leader betraying his oath of office, an act that is epidemic in our country. It’s shocking and extremely disappointing to see how many in the Trump administration are Agnewists.
-Jack Salem, Los Angeles, California (djsalemla gmail.com)

Before I was born, my older brother, Bob, coined a term that is still used in our family a decade after his death. After whacking a fly in our living room, our father handed the swatter, tiny corpse still attached, to Bob and told the six-year-old to get rid of it. When Bob returned with an empty swatter and Dad asked, “What did you do with the fly?” Bob proudly proclaimed, “I put him down Bubbly Creek!” From that point on over the next 90 years, any stream of water going down a drain became Bubbly Creek.
-Ken Kirste, Sunnyvale, California (kkkirste sbcglobal.net)