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Faldage #177649 06/21/08 02:36 PM
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 Originally Posted By: Faldage
Gloat may be fine if the reason for it is valid. In the case of someone who smugly espouses some made-up rule that has no validity, e.g., the split-infinitive rule, smugificate gets my vote.

There is another difference. Gloating usually has to do with personal achievements or a victory won, or an enemy's downfall, that is, objectively real things or outcomes. But the practice in question is more superciliousness, a revelling in (supposedly) superior knowlege, so the combination of smug with pontificate is most apt. The only other neologism I could suggest would be to verbify supercilious - what would that be, to supercile?

Faldage #177650 06/21/08 02:56 PM
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smugificate

Smug has an interesting history. In the OED1 (link) there are two earlier meanings "Of male persons: Trim, neat, spruce, smart" and "Of things: Smooth, clean". (I do like the capitalization of the first word of a list after a colon which is not a mistake, but an editorial choice.) It is the first gloss has citations from the 16th century onwards. Somewhere around the middle of the 19th century, smug starts to become a pejorative term, and gets its "exhibiting excessive complacency, self-satisfied" meaning which seems now to have replaced the older ones. (Both the OED1 and A-H suggest a possible etymological connection with German Schmuck 'jewel; adornment' (not to be confused with Yiddish shmak, English schmuck).)

Of the verbs ending in -ficate (link), most are amplifications of other verbs ending in -fy, and those seem back formations from nouns in -fication. The one noun in -ficate which is common is certificate (though this may simply be a case of a nouned verb becoming more common and most would use certify for the verb anyway). The endings -fy and -ficate usually have the meaning 'to make', though in pontificate, it has more of the meaning 'to act like (a pope)'. (Cf. orient,orientate, and orientation: there's something going on there when coining or forming Latinate words many go for the sesquipedalian.)

By far, my favorite citation is: "[T]he smug look of a toad breakfasting on fat marsh flies" [William Pearson] (link). (I couldn't track down the author or the work quoted. Does anybody know who and what?) And this cartoon is funny (link).


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
The Pook #177651 06/21/08 03:02 PM
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supercile

From the Latin supercilium 'eyebrow; upper eyelid; pride' (< super 'above' + cilium 'eyelid; lower eyelid').


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
zmjezhd #177663 06/22/08 05:15 AM
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When I was a child my teacher called me supercilious. I heard, "super-silliest" and was more insulted than I should have been. Then again, my superciliousness was super-silly.

Hydra #177664 06/22/08 11:00 AM
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 Originally Posted By: Hydra
When I was a child my teacher called me supercilious. I heard, "super-silliest" and was more insulted than I should have been. Then again, my superciliousness was super-silly.

A friend of ours when her daughter was at school instructed her to tell her teacher in explanation of certain absences that her hypochondria had been acting up again. It wasn't until some years later that her daughter got the joke and was retrospectively mortified with embarrassment.

The Pook #177672 06/22/08 02:20 PM
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That's a good one.

Speaking of dancing a flamingo, I remember fondly how Jocks at school would, when the question was put to them, aggressively deny being "heterosexual".

* snigger snigger *

Hydra #177911 07/03/08 09:32 AM
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To you quite common I think. To me a new surprising word I just came across.

wile, wilier, wiliest, wilishness

Wile
1154, "wile, trick," perhaps from O.N.Fr. *wile (O.Fr. guile), or directly from a Scand. source (cf. O.N. vel "trick, craft, fraud," vela "defraud"). Perhaps ultimately related to O.E. wicca "wizard" (see Wicca). Lighter sense of "amorous or playful trick" is from 1600. Wily is attested from c.1300. (online Etym.)

BranShea #177927 07/03/08 11:46 PM
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Poor old Wile E Coyote


olly #177937 07/04/08 01:31 PM
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A lecture by Dawkins posted on YouTube; he used the word:

brachiate verb move by using the arms to swing from branch to branch; used of apes.

olly #177946 07/04/08 04:20 PM
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But when the Wile E. smiles, farmer heed your chickens.
Coyote, read my signature!

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