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Once worked with a woman who constantly combined words - frustrated + flustered = flustrated. While drinking late one night with friends, we managed to find a word in the dictionary that actually described this compulsion of hers. Ironically, the word itself is a combination of two words. For years, we've tried to recall this word, but with no luck. Can anyone help?
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oooh, that's a good one, Cindy. Could it be maybe conflation or portmanteau that you're thinking of? I've heard "flustrated" a lot -- it's a useful combo. 
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I knew a co-worker who used clumbersome often.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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M-W unabridged: flustrated Etymology: fluster + -ated (as in frustrated) : FLUSTERED (flustrate is in Webster's 1913 edition, evidently as a var. of fluster) edit - here are the OED citations: 1712 STEELE Spect. No. 493 {page}4 We were coming down Essex Street one Night a little flustrated. 1797 A. M. BENNETT Beggar Girl (1813) I. 106 She was, she confessed, quite flusterated at the idea. 1876 MRS. OLIPHANT Curate in Charge (ed. 5) II. iv. 100 The head of the college was slightly flustrated, if such a vulgar word can be used of such a sublime person.editē - I think in Linguistics this is merely called a blend, which The Mavens say flustrate is not.
Last edited by tsuwm; 01/26/07 04:24 PM.
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stranger
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It was neither. Portmanteau is the word most often used, but the word I found was similar to conflation. I think 'conflation' was one of the words found en route to the word I'm trying to recall. I basically searched the dictionary - one word leading me onto another - until I came upon it. What really tickled me was that the word itself was a combination of two words, each of which described the process. I love when stuff like that happens!
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It can also be called a frankenword. and, I pervicaciously repeat, the term used in linguistics seems to be blend. I remark on this because I was struck by the unusual event of a technical term being simpler than others in use.
Last edited by tsuwm; 01/29/07 12:23 PM.
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Quote:
I knew a co-worker who used clumbersome often.
then we have misunderestimate, as used by some noninestimable U.S. politician.
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Let's not forget: Quote:
chortle verb & noun. laugh in a breathy, gleeful way; chuckle. ORIGIN 1871: coined by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking Glass; probably a blend of chuckle and snort.
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Hydra, though I have perforce read your signature line many times, I still don't understand it. Would you explain and/or source it?
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Is perforce a portmanteau word?
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>Hydra, though I have perforce read your signature line many times, I still don't understand it. Would you explain and/or source it?
It's a dictum from the Turba Philosophorum (or Turba Philosopkorum), a twelfth century text on alchemy.
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Quote:
Is perforce a portmanteau word?
I think a portmanteau word you take a little bit of one word and a little bit of another and kinda smoosh them together. Perforce is two whole complete words whanged one right up next to each other.
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>explain and/or source it?
And as to its meaning, Herman Hesse provides the clue when he states: "It is an old idea that the more pointedly and logically we formulate a thesis, the more irresistibly it cries out for its antithesis."
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two whole complete words whanged one right up next to each other
Same with French ā propos when it got Englished.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Quote:
the more pointedly and logically we formulate a thesis, the more irresistibly it cries out for its antithesis."
Thank Anu for:
Do you want to view other user's signatures with their posts
Yes No
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whanged one right up next to each other So this is an official grammatical term, right? 
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Quote:
Thank Anu for:
Do you want to view other user's signatures with their posts
Yes No
So it's like that, is it?
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Even the greatest signature gets boring after about 225 posts.
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It must be like having a conversation with someone who finishes every sentence by saying "...but you must know that we are all in agreement, whatever we say." He he. I totally agree. Bye-bye signature.
Last edited by Hydra; 02/02/07 11:41 AM.
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enthusiast
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I agree that no signature is immune from becoming trite and boring. Especially when you are an active poster.
In my "professional" email signature line I have a list of over 30 which I rotate.
(Perhaps I should stop being lazy and do the same here)
=========
42% of all statistics are made up on the spot
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Some posters tend to drop the signature after a first post in a given string as a [perhaps inadequate] courtesy. But a signature line could appear quite natural in certain cases, e.g., for a Canadian: ,eh? 
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Quote:
42% of all statistics are made up on the spot
And people are 72% more likely to believe an assertion if it is accompanied by a statistic and 87.634% more likely to believe it if the statistic has more than two significant figures to the right of the decimal point.
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>more than two significant figures
What's an insignificant figure?
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Quote:
>more than two significant figures
What's an insignificant figure?
Oh, like trailing zeroes. 8.17500000 has only three signigicant figures to the right of the decimal point.
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is there a limit to the significant figures in, e.g., 0.3333333333333333333333...?
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Quote:
>more than two significant figures
What's an insignificant figure?
Twiggy.
TEd
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Quote:
is there a limit to the significant figures in, e.g., 0.3333333333333333333333...?
Not the way you wrote it. Leave off the ... and it's limited to how many 3s you can write before kicking the bit bucket.
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Quote:
Quote:
>more than two significant figures
What's an insignificant figure?
Twiggy.
slight, perhaps. insignificant? hardly.
formerly known as etaoin...
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old hand
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Quote:
It must be like having a conversation with someone who finishes every sentence by saying "...but you must know that we are all in agreement, whatever we say." He he. I totally agree. Bye-bye signature.
Peacock?
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