In another post, someone used the word "directment", saying something like, "The US is the leading directment of the idea that . . . ". I cannot find the word in any of my dictionaries. What does it mean, please?

Dear Julian, Hi! -

When speaking or writing have you ever searched for that one word that would perfectly convey the spirit and meaning of your thoughts and no other word would do? Well in the context of its usage "directment" was one of those words.

It is not surprising that you couldn't find "directment" in any dictionary. "Directment" is a "nonce word", a word of the moment, a word created to fill a need. A word that swims toward the future like a wiggle-tail male sperm cell hoping against hope to be fruitful and multiply until maybe one distant day the word "directment" will be the every other word out of everyone's mouth. Unfortunately, although many start out, few reach the egg.

Are all words then recorded in dictionaries? Of course not. Well then what determines that a word is a word?
Well on this board the rule of thumb is that a word becomes a word when Faldage says it is and uses it in a complete sentence.

We use to have another rule of thumb, tsuwm's rule of thumb. But paradoxically we found out that in order for a word to be so useless as to gain recognition on tswum's "Worthless Word of the Day" website it had to be recognized as being important enough to haven been put into someone's dictionary. This confused everybody, so now we just ask Faldage. Is this clear?


Directment: n. that which directs.
usage example. England* is the leading directment of the effete posture that...


Note: (*) = Post Edit to reflect a mouvement de retro that whines to carve the tired old terms of yesterday into the new bark of today.

when Faldage says it is and uses it in a complete sentence.

Ha! The very idea! A complete sentence indeed! Harrumph!®

The US is the leading directment of the idea that..

Yuk bloody yuk!

What's wrong with, say, "proponent"?
Or "propellent", at that.

A word that swims toward the future like a wiggle-tail male sperm cell hoping against hope to be fruitful and multiply until maybe one distant day the word "directment" will be the every other word out of everyone's mouth. Unfortunately, although many start out, few reach the egg.

Very good, Mr M.

>What's wrong with, say, "proponent"?

prolly got mislaid in a cave somewhere..

Dear Milum,
Sorry to temporarily join the nitpickers club, but I suspect that leading directment, for all that it's worth, amounts to a schoolbook example of a pleonasm.

I agree that proponent is a perfectly good word and that directment is crrrrap[/Scottish brogue].

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although many start out, few reach the egg.

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Milo's elegant screed, particularly the quoted part, brings to mind the remark of Charlie Chan, or some other apochryphal Chinese, "Many man smoke but Fu Manchu."

>is crrrrap[/Scottish brogue]

I've heard that before - it is from a film or summat?

Now see what you gone and done Julian, you've woke up the big dogs what was sleeping under the porch and they don't cotton to no strange notions. Believe me, compared to ruckus this bunch of egg-sucking hounds can raise the bloody Spanish Inquisition was a mere tea party, a quiet tete a tete between the Parson and the Choir Director having a little chat about whether the word "wretch" should be included in the hymn Amazing Grace.

But mistake it not Julian, this snarling pack of ankle- nipers are not your usual knee-jerks. They are bonded only by their distaste of the innovative and new, and by the fact that they all learned most of what they know about language by playing Beatles records backwards when they were kids.

Now I must enter the fray and I may not come back. Or worse, I could come back as one of them, a zombie, a robot, mindlessly singing Beatles songs backwards and wearing bell-bottom pants. But go I must. I do this for you Julian, and for a thousand Julians yet to come. Together we confront the old ways of the dim dusty past and march bravely into the shining new world that awaits just ahead.


You first Faldage. Didn't you read all that good stuff I wrote about you, you know, about you being the final arbiter of usage and other stuff? Yeah, yeah, I know you didn't say anything bad. Yours is the sin of omission.
Straighten up. You know as well as I do that if you say "directment" over and over and over, pretty soon it begins to sound natural and you'll begin to use it often to impress your friends.
You are on probation.

(Coming Next Post: Milo Makes Mincemeat Out Of Fishonabike - The Nicest Man In England.)

say "directment" over and over and over

Ah-ite, Mr Minderbinder, I'll give it a try, but don't be coming puling and micturating at me when it comes back it don't look nothing like it did when you dropped it into this morass.

The complete tosh gurgitated by our down-south acquaintance begs the question you asked, Julian. "Directment" doesn't exist in dictionary.com - the only dictionary I currently have access to. And although I can't check at the moment, I'm willing to bet that if it does exist in a dictionary somewhere, perhaps, for instance, the much-boosted OED, it won't mean what it appears to be meant to mean in the statement you quoted.

However since it emanated from the US government, it's a safe bet that one of the US president's equally ill-educated minions came up with it when s/he couldn't come up with "proponent" or "supporter" or some synonym of them.

Coining new words is only justified when there isn't a word which exactly means what you want to say. Except swear-words of course, and this [i[could be one those, of course.

Welcome, by the way.

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Coining new words is only justified when there isn't a word which exactly means what you want to say.

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And as long as this "you" is singular, Cap. Ki, and the singular "you" wants to say something that maybe the rest of the you's out there might not "want" to say, we're back in a "to each his own" kind of linguistic situation...taste is indisputable and all that jazz.

Where is Musick when we need him?

Where is Musick when we need him?

Off, no doubt, involved in the directment of the reconstructuring of the venerable H. Dumpty.

re:(Coming Next Post: Milo Makes Mincemeat Out Of Fishonabike - The Nicest Man In England.)

Now that's a neat trick, and i want to see it done.. now if you had suggested gefilte fish, i wouldn't have been too surprised, but to make mince meat out of fish!

Just what county do you live in? Bumcome is it?

Mincemeat Out Of Fishonabike

Eewww! With little pieces of frame and derailleur and like that?

perhaps milo was trying to get into the faux-French thing--but directement means something else entirement.

the faux-French thing

Lemme toss that into the mix. I'll be back with you directment, tsuwm.

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perhaps milo was trying to get into the faux-French thing--but directement means something else entirement.

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Well, entirementally, what does directement mean, she asked pointmentally?

actualment®, Faldage used it properment just then..

playing Beatles records backwards

I roared!

Hm. What happens if you say directment backwards? Maybe you feel an uncontrollable urge to put on a pair of bell bottoms. Hang on, let's see....

tnemtcerid

ack ack, pass the bell bottoms, I need a lava lamp, where's the black light and my poster of Jim Morrison?

If you can't see the bright side, polish the dull side.

Yes, Jo. "If it's not Scottish, it's CRRRRRRRAP!" - Mike Myers in So I Married an Axe Murderer. Same film where he pitched a fit about how huge the kid's head was... pretty funny in an "I feel myself getting dumber by the moment" kinda way...

Dear Fishonabike,

I trust your day went well. First I must apologize for saying that I would make of you "mincemeat". As of troy pointed out, that would be impossible, cookerarily speaking, and figuratively speaking impossible because of your keen wit and great intellect.

Further, this post is better used in thanking you for your two suggestions of words to replace the bastard word "directment". It pains me, however, to report that my troublesome quirk of excessive intellectual honesty forbids the use of your two fine words. May I explain...

The clumsy word "directment" was suggested to me by the "Trouble maker" of my psyche. I was writing a sentence designed to annoy the non-usa 'uns on the board (all in good fun, of course) and when I needed a word to express, in exaggerated form, the role of the US as top banana in styles and trends "Troublemaker" suggested "directment".

At the time the word sounded good, action turned into a quality, yes, more concrete, more forceful. Just what I was looking for; the US directing all the other countries on how to proceed. I liked it. Sorta like ordering everybody around. And what the hell, I thought, the germans noun words all the time.

Later all hell broke loose, and I began considering the substitution of your words...

[proponent]
at first glance this looks good, but look again...all rah-rah and no action, nothing like directing.

[propellant]
Great, I thought. But no, a propellant is a fuel, in other words, something that you draw from, rather than something that orders. Not at all like directing.

And so now me and Troublemaker sit here unloved, while the entire english speaking world waits in vain and without a viable substitute for the word directment.

Thanks for listening Fish, and I know that I won't be presumptuous if I take the liberty of thanking you on behalf of all of the First-string A-teamers on this board for your delightful participation. Your kind intelligent wit was returned to this forum when it was sorely needed. Your calm charm, repartee and your kindness directed us all to follow your example. And now, we would all like to say...
Fishonabike, thank you for being our directment.


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And so now me and Troublemaker sit here unloved...

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Mais non, Monsier milum. L'amour vole tout autour de vous aiment le bluebird du bonheur.

Bird regards,
WordWing

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Yes, Jo. "If it's not Scottish, it's CRRRRRRRAP!" - Mike Myers in So I Married an Axe Murderer. Same film where he pitched a fit about how huge the kid's head was... pretty funny in an "I feel myself getting dumber by the moment" kinda way...

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Thanks to Fiberbabe for explicating my quip. It really heightens the humor... Now go and kiss your mother before I kick your teeth in.

That kid's head's like Sputnik. Spherical but quite pointy in parts. Oh, that was a harsh one, wasn't it? He'll be cryin himself to sleep tonite on his huge pilla'

I stand (or tread water) corrected, Mr M.
You see, in the following sentence:

thank you for being our directment

- you mean something quite different to proponent. It's more like "guiding star", "inspiration", or "shining example". And then, these positive interpretations are only apt because of the initial "thank you". Strip away good and bad values and it's hard to find an alternative to your coinage.

Oh no!

Myself and what 's left of Humpty D. are glad our energies were envolved in redirectment during this escapade.