shero

Packing estrogen and, not infrequently, a pen and a sword, sheroes come in every imaginable shape, size, and color, and manifest their sheroism in infinite ways.

1998, Varla Ventura, Sheroes: Bold, Brash, and Absolutely Unabashed Superwomen from Susan B. Anthony to Xena, Conari Press, →ISBN, →OL:

Every human grouping, whether it's just two people, a family, people in the neighborhood, people in the city, in a nation, a tribe, a species; people live in direct relation to the heroes and the sheroes they have.

2006 November 30, Dave Chappelle & Maya Angelou (Iconoclasts), season 2, episode 6, Maya Angelou (actor), via Sundance:

He talks about how we must remember the unsung heroes and sheroes of the Talahassee boycott, of the movement in general, and finally, he wonders how C. K. Steele would be accepted here.

2010 April 1, Ana Maria Spagna, Test Ride on the Sunnyland Bus: A Daughter's Civil Rights Journey, University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN:

“They are nobodies. They could be silenced tomorrow. They are sheroes, to the world.”

2012 August 17, Melena Ryzik, quoting Kate Conroy, “In New York, a Show of Solidarity for Russian Punk Band”, in New York Times:


workfare

(US) A form of welfare in which people are required to work as a condition of receiving aid


twinight

(of a baseball double-header) that begins in the late afternoon


twirly

Blend of too + early from the question "Am I too early [to use my pass]?" frequently asked of bus drivers, etc. by holders of OAP/senior citizen or similar travel passes that are not valid before a certain time (usually 9:30am).

Some passengers do try to use passes fraudulently and the time restriction on OAP passes can sometimes lead to arguments (the so-called "twirlies" — "Am I too early?") but seldom to assaults.

1986, Working Group on Violence to Road Passenger Transport Staff, Assaults on bus staff and measures to prevent such assaults, HMSO, page 51:

These are a great hit with "Twirlies" (senior citizens, infamous for using their bus passes "too-early" before rush hour fades).

1986, Rick Steves, Great Britain in 22 days: a step-by-step guide and travel itinerary, →ISBN, page 52:

I once had a twirly get on my bus, well I have had several hundred actually but that's beside the point!

2007 May 14, Daisy Dart, “Re: Passengers say the stupidest things”, in Bus drivers canteen (Usenet), message-ID <1179173999.213616.59880@n59g2000hsh.googlegroups.com>:

He'd been so desperate to go to the toilet that he'd parked the bus, locked the twirlies on it and run through the gully home!

2008, Maureen Harvey, “5 The Breakthrough”, in Pure Evil - How Tracie Andrews murdered my son, deceived the nation and sentenced me to a life of pain and misery, →ISBN:

(British, Ireland, slang, sometimes derogatory) an old age pensioner or other elderly person, especially one using public transport.


Incoterm

Blend of international + commerce + term, a registered trademark of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)

blend

(international trade) Any of a series of international sales terms that divide transaction costs and responsibilities between the buyer and seller.


heliport

Blend of helicopter + port, by analogy to airport.

(aviation) A facility, such as a small airport, designed to let helicopters take off and land.


champing

When I passed them each a plate of the fried meat, they ate greedily, making loud mouth-noises — champings of worn teeth and sucking intakes of the breath, accompanied by a continuous spluttering and mumbling.

The sound or action of one who champs (bites or chews).


champing

Blend of church + camping; a concept promoted by The Churches Conservation Trust, a British charity that protects historic churches. Registered in the UK as a trademark in 2015.

(neologism) The practice of camping overnight in historic churches as a novelty or part of a holiday.


crackberry

Blend of crack + BlackBerry, suggesting the addictive nature of crack cocaine.

many people call theirs a CrackBerry. This thing is absolutely addictive! This unit can websurf, send/receive email, ...

2001 May 16, Steve Pyles, “Blackberry^([sic]) Service around WDW”, in rec.arts.disney.parks (Usenet):

Phone and handheld computer US$449 www.blackberry.com
The corporate gold standard, once called "crackberries" in Silicon Valley because executives seemed addicted to them.

2003 December 1, Greg Brown, Latin Trade, Freedom Magazines, Inc. BlackBerry 7210

2005 March 1, Ron Seigneur (interviewee), Rick Telberg (author), Journal of Accountancy, American Institute of CPA's
I just moved to a Treo 600 to replace my old cell phone and my Palm Pilot. Not quite a "Crackberry," but I just cannot stand those who have to check e-mail every five minutes.

2005 October 1, Waxer, Cindy, Chief Executive (U.S.), Chief Executive Publishing
Today, over 50,000 organizations and 3 million subscribers count on BlackBerry, dubbed 'crackberry' for its addictiveness, to receive and deliver email messages on the spot.

The Blackberry^([sic]) mobile office typifies this workstyle with...levels of stress generated in the individual such that productivity may be quantitative but not necessarily qualitative (the “Crackberry” syndrome).

2005 October, Paul Cunningham, M. Cunningham, editors, Innovation and the Knowledge Economy: Issues, Applications, Case Studies, IOS Press, page 1368:

Roberts seemed driven to distraction by whatever was on the screen of his "crackberry"—which is what the infernal devices were nicknamed by their hopelessly addicted users.

2006 February, Bill Sammon, Strategery: How George W. Bush Is Defeating Terrorists, Outwitting Democrats, and Confounding the Mainstream Media, Regnery Publishing:

It is a goal that...I have been obsessing over, and emailing myself on my crackberry so I don’t forget ideas, and one that I bother my friends with constantly.

2006 May, Thomas Louis Ampeliotis, Pursuit of a Perfectionist, iUniverse, page 9:

(slang) A BlackBerry, a handheld device considered addictive for its networking capability.


disemvowel

en-verb

disemvowel (third-person singular simple present disemvowels, present participle disemvowelling or disemvoweling, simple past and past participle disemvowelled or disemvoweled)

disemvowels (present singular third-person)
disemvowelling (participle present)
disemvoweling (participle present)
disemvowelled (participle past)
disemvowelled (past)
disemvoweled (participle past)
disemvoweled (past)

By the way, what has become of the conspiracy of Brander Matthews et als to disemvowel the English language? Not that it matters.

1906 September 5, Puck, volume 60, number 1540, New York, N.Y.: Puck Pub. Co., →OCLC:

The trick will be in usurping as many vowels as you can, thus disemvoweling the others, and the one with the most words when all or as many letters as possible are used up wins.

1930, Judge, volume 98, New York, N.Y.: The Judge Publishing Co., →OCLC, page xlix, column 2:

"What happened?" the Amigoid asked. / "D'nt knw," she said. "Jst wk p nd hrd y tw tlkng n thn, sddnly nd wtht wrnng, thr ws ths ns." / "What?" Robotech_Master asked. / "I think I know what happened," Lawrence said. "It must be part of the Silliness that's infecting the Author's Altiverse." / "S wht hppnd? / "You've been disemvoweled," the Amigoid informed her.

1995 October 28, strange days indeed [username], “AA: is that a nerfsword in your pocket, or …”, in bit.listserv.superguy (Usenet), message-ID <Pine.LNX.3.91.951028150058.20293A-100000@sojourn1.sojourn.com>:

Edna [Dame Edna Everage] reveals that she will always outmuscle [Barry] Humphries, disemvowelling his name to reduce it to the interjection "Hmmph!"

2004, Paul Matthew St. Pierre, “Autobiography as Mockery, or Barry Humphries in Mock Turtle”, in A Portrait of the Artist as Australia: L’Œuvre Bizarre de Barry Humphries, Montreal, Que., Kingston, Ont.: McGill-Queen's University Press, →ISBN, page 181:

Another swearing-curtailing device is to allow the taboo word but disenvowel it, so that fuck and cunt become "f-ck" and "c-nt."

2005, Ruth Wajnryb, “Bootleggers and Asterisks”, in Expletive Deleted: A Good Look at Bad Language, New York, N.Y.: Free Press, →ISBN, page 187:

If someone you've disemvowelled comes back and behaves, forgive and forget their earlier gaffes. You're acting in the service of civility, not abstract justice.

2006 December, Douglas K. van Duyne, James A. Landay, Jason I. Hong, “Community Conference”, in The Design of Sites: Patterns for Creating Winning Web Sites, 2nd edition, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education, →ISBN, page 145:

Back to our Internet trolling behavior, some comment board moderators have tried to control trolling by "disemvoweling," removing all the vowels from the offending comments of trolls. This punishing practice makes troll comments easier to detect and harder to read, and therefore, less likely to generate the kind of outraged response a troll finds rewarding. Disemvoweling punishes the troll and effectively has decreased the numbers of offensive comments and hijacked comment threads on many message boards.

2011, Ronald Comer, Elizabeth Gould, Psychology Around Us, Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 16:

Write a program that removes all vowels from a file ("disemvowels"). For example, Once upon a time! becomes nc pn tm!. Surprisingly often, the result is still readable; try it on your friends.

2014, Bjarne Stroustrup, Programming Principles and Practice using C++, 2nd edition, Upper Sadde River, N.J.: Addison-Wesley, →ISBN, page 408:

(transitive, sometimes humorous) To remove the vowels from, for example, for the purpose of expurgating offensive words.


manumation

1999, Frank Sklarsky (interviewee), “DaimlerChrysler: Revving the Finance Engine”, Financial Executive
One operating tip: "Always move from manumation to automation," Sklarsky advises. "Any time there's a piece of information, record it once. Then you can funnel it where it needs to go and let the computer do the reporting."

2003 April, Kalle Kangas, Business Strategies for Information Technology Management, page 179, Idea Group Inc., IRM Press
Indeed, without a firm connection to good external benchmarks (best practice, best-of-class indicators) companies can fall victim to manumation, simply automating old, outdated processes.

2005, Maria A. Wimmer, ed. Electronic Government: 4th International Conference, EGOV 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark, page 5 - citing L. Mohan and W. K. Holstein, Decision support systems: an applications perspective. Albany: Unpublished draft, 1998.
In contrast, the "manumation" of processes through traditional MIS never facilitated such rapid change in strategy and structure.

When asked about the biggest risk the organization faced with this effort, the CFO replied “Manumation. Automation of our existing manual processes. . . .”

2006, C. Cristian Wulf, CFO Insights: Enabling High Performance Through Leading Practices for Finance ERP, John Wiley and Sons, page v:

(business, nonstandard) Applying technology to automate a business process that produces the same results as the manual process before automation.


outplant

Blend of out + implant (“breast implant”). Analysable as out- + plant.

blend

[…] breast outplants to teenage hypochondria.

1996, Theatre Record, volume 16, numbers 9-15, page 720:

Outplants for a Fuller, Larger Bust Line Instantly! Avoid irreversible surgery and its high cost.

1999, Cine Blitz (volume 25, issue 1, page 29)

(chiefly in the plural) A gel-like prosthesis placed inside the cup of a bra (outside the breast) to enhance apparent breast size.


humidex

(Canada, meteorology) A measurement used by Canadian meteorologists to reflect the combined effect of heat and humidity, as the apparent temperature felt by a person.


cafetorium

en-noun

cafetorium (plural cafetoriums or cafetoria)

Blend of cafeteria + auditorium (originated 1950–55)

Then Mitchell reminded his mother that they both needed money to pay for their lunches, which meant a search for the exact change to pay for two lunches so they would not slow up the line in the cafetorium.

1967, Beverly Cleary, Mitch and Amy, HarperCollins, published 2009, →ISBN, pages 86–87:

A large room, usually in a school, used as both a cafeteria and an auditorium.


exurb

I had my first taste of a collapsing exurb last night.

2008 July 21, Megan McArdle, “Exurbs delenda est”, in The Atlantic:

Lots of cities are exurbs of other cities for reasons of finance or infrastructure.

2022, N. K. Jemisin, The World We Make, Orbit, page 91:

Miles of exurbs bristle with hundreds—no, thousands—of apartment towers. These monoliths soar like gigantic dominoes into a dust-whitened sky. The area was hand-tilled cornfields when Lui grew up in Xi’an in the 1980s.

2023 July 7, Paul Salopek, “China's Hinge”, in National Geographic:


snoof

en-verb

snoof (third-person singular simple present snoofs, present participle snoofing, simple past and past participle snoofed)

snoofs (present singular third-person)
snoofing (participle present)
snoofed (participle past)
snoofed (past)

Perhaps an alteration of sniff or snuff; or perhaps a blend of snort + sniff.

To sniff around, usually in the search for food.


gazunder

gazunder (third-person singular simple present gazunders, present participle gazundering, simple past and past participle gazundered)

gazunders (present singular third-person)
gazundering (participle present)
gazundered (participle past)
gazundered (past)

(British, colloquial) To reduce the offer price of a property after agreeing to a higher one (normally just before contracts are exchanged)


trip hop

Journalistic coinage as a blend of trip (“drug-induced hallucinations”, alluding to psychedelic music) + hip-hop.

blend

Trip-hop, on the other hand, takes the opposite approach. The genre can be described as a slower and dub-influenced reworking of African American hip-hop, aptly described by writer Phil Johnson as “dubbed-up hip-hop derived music...beats whose customary urgency is deconstructed into dreamy, erotic soundscapes.”

2013, Michael Veal, Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae, Wesleyan University Press, →ISBN, page 235:

A genre of slow electronica combining elements of hip hop with melodic, often psychedelic, sounds and impressionistic lyrics.


wakeover

The youth group will have another wakeover this weekend.

A sleepover party in a public place, such as a church, at which little or no sleep actually takes place.


fanzine

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-fanzine.wav

Blend of fan + magazine. Coined by American chess player and SF fandom founder Russ Chauvenet in the October 1940 edition of his own science fiction fanzine Detours, to replace the earlier fanmag.

coined

I don't know how many fanzines there've been, but surely no fewer than 500 different items, some running for one issue and some for several dozen.

1950 September, Francis Towner Laney, “Syllabus for a Fanzine”, in Spacewarp, number 42, page 8:

"Well, long ago," said the Tin Woodsfan, "a fan and I were feuding, and the fan decided to drive me out of fandom. But no one can leave Iz because of the great burning desert called Public Contempt which surrounds this fannish land, and since nobody ever gafiates while still inside the country, he had to cast a spell of immobility upon me. One day when I was chopping wood to make paper for my fanzine, he cast his spell, and there I've been until you came along."

1959, Terry Carr, Ron Ellik (as Carl Brandon), “The Tin Woodsfan”, in The BNF of Iz, archived from the original on 2013-07-21:

Maybe a few dozen hours of collective neofans, all reading him fanzine press at once, would cure him of these paternal instincts.

1988, Sharyn McCrumb, Bimbos of the Death Sun, →ISBN, page 9:

The US jazz magazine Coda began in 1958 as a 12-page mimeographed fanzine, put together by its editor and a team of volunteers working for beer and pizza.

2013, Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, volume 1, →ISBN, Fanzines, page 227:

A magazine, normally produced by amateurs, intended for people who share a common interest

迷友雜誌

a magazine, normally produced by amateurs


bonkbusting

(informal) of, pertaining to, or using the style of a bonkbuster


dumbsize

en-verb

dumbsize (third-person singular simple present dumbsizes, present participle dumbsizing, simple past and past participle dumbsized)

dumbsizes (present singular third-person)
dumbsizing (participle present)
dumbsized (participle past)
dumbsized (past)

(informal) To reduce the number of employees in a business without regard to organizational efficiency, such that its operations become unprofitable or inefficient.


parkade

(Canada, South Africa) A multilevel parking garage.


cybrary

(computing) An online collection of reference material.

A library that provides electronic access to reference material.


maholla

Maholla, want to hit the beach?


scuzzy

en-adj

scuzzy (comparative scuzzier, superlative scuzziest)

scuzzier (comparative)
scuzziest (superlative)

Probably a blend of scummy + fuzzy 1960s, US, colloquial, expressive coinage, with influence from scum, fuzzy, lousy, sleazy.

They were easy to shrug off as harmless cranks, only interested in getting together in scuzzy pubs to talk about a revolution they would never manage to provoke, more likely to fight among themselves than raise a concerted attack on the minorities they were so opposed to.

2015, Eva Dolan, Tell No Tales, Random House, →ISBN, page 167:

I’d been counting on Paul, a scuzzy-but-still-sexy manager of a music club in Shoreditch, to meet up with me on my first night in London.

2016 March 21, Allison P. Davies, “What I Learned Tindering My Way Across Europe”, in Travel + Leisure, archived from the original on 2018-01-06:


canadew

A melon that is a cross between a honeydew and a cantaloupe.


palimony

Blend of pal (“close friend”) + alimony (“maintenance”). Coined by celebrity divorce lawyer Marvin Mitchelson in 1977 in suit of his client Michelle Triola Marvin against the actor Lee Marvin.

coin

Who won, huh? Nobody. Used to be sex was the only free thing, No longer. Alimony… palimony… it's all financial. Love is an illusion.

1985, Joel Schumacher, Carl Kurlander, St. Elmo's Fire (motion picture), spoken by Kevin Dolenz (Andrew McCarthy):

Audball's latest pickup didn't seem to care where they were, or anything at all about alimony, palimony, or child support […]

2002, James A. Abrahamson, Confessions of a Diplomatic Pouch Clerk, page 192:

(law) A form of alimony paid to a former partner in a nonmarital relationship.


mafic

en-adj

mafic (comparative more mafic, superlative most mafic)

more mafic (comparative)
most mafic (superlative)

As a whole, rocks of this type are referred to as mafic, because of the importance of magnesium and iron in their composition.

2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society, published 2011, page 60:

(geology) Describing rocks, such as silicate minerals, magmas, and volcanic and intrusive igneous rocks, which contain relatively high concentrations of magnesium and iron.

mafinen

describing rocks, such as silicate minerals, magmas, and volcanic and intrusive igneous rocks, which contain relatively high concentrations of magnesium and iron


Bakerloo

It was the Evening News, I know, which had a competition for naming one of the Tube lines. Hence our Bakerloo.

1945 July and August, John Gibbons, “Thirty Years of The Railway Magazine”, in Railway Magazine, page 228:

The Bakerloo Line of the London Underground, originally known as the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway.


Earthican

Blend of Earth + American. Possibly popularized by the adult animated sitcom Futurama.

Fry: Well, if you're going to be Earthicans, we're going to have to teach you.

2001 April, “A Leela of Her Own”, in Futurama, season 4, episode 10:

(nonstandard, humorous, science fiction) An inhabitant of planet Earth.


fursona

en-noun

fursona (plural fursonas or (rare) fursonae)

fursonas (plural)
fursonae (plural rare)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-fursona.wav

Blend of fur + persona. By surface analysis, fur + -sona.

Fursuiters dress the part of their furry persona or fursona.

2009 July 28, Zack Parsons, Your Next-Door Neighbor is a Dragon, New York: Rebel Base, →ISBN, →OL, page 159:

(fandom slang) An anthropomorphic animal character used to represent oneself online or in furry role-playing.


Franglais

/ˌfɹɑŋˈɡleɪ/

/ˌfɹɑːŋˈɡleɪ/

From French franglais, blend of français (“French”) + anglais (“English”).

blend

(often derogatory) French terms or expressions recently borrowed from the English language.

franglais

French terms or expressions borrowed from English


Globish

→ French: globish

Coordinate term: ELF

The typical conversation in Globish could be grating to a native speaker, but get the job done between, say, a Kenyan and a Korean trying to navigate a business deal or asking for help at the airport check-in.

2006 August 6, Noam Cohen, “Language not pronounced trippingly on native tongue”, in New York Times:

Nobody is likely to grow up speaking Globish as a mother tongue.

2008, Mark Abley, The Prodigal Tongue: Dispatches from the Future of English, page 98:

Across a dozen different time zones, financial journalists in each of these cities filed reports for their national desks, but the language of the crisis was unvaryingly Globish.

2011, Robert McCrum, Globish: How English Became the World's Language, W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 280:

Perhaps most importantly, Globish cannot draw on the history and idioms of any one culture.

2012, Gerard Kelly, Church Actually: Rediscovering the Brilliance of God's Plan, page 144:

Meanwhile, the local Englishes of Asian and African countries will become increasingly regional in flavour. But the rise of Globish may be prevented by the Babel chip.

2018, Gaston Dorren, Babel: Around the World in Twenty Languages:

A simplified version of the English language, not created but consisting of the most common English words and phrases, enabling non-English-speakers to communicate.


hasbian

On the Hasbian Phenomenon [article title]

1989 June, Patricia Roth Schwartz, “On the Hasbian Phenomenon”, in off our backs, page 11; quoted in Arlene Stein, Sex and Sensibility: Stories of a Lesbian Generation, Berkeley; Los Angeles, Calif.: University of California Press, 1997, page 228, footnote 10

Evelyn White reports that in feminist circles, lesbians who have gone straight — apparently all the rage these days — are known as ‘hasbians’.

1990 March 12, Herb Caen, “Plenty of Monday”, in The San Francisco Chronicle:

Say that you’d only just got used to telling your friends your daughter was a lesbian and do not relish having to inform them that she is now a hasbian.

1995 November 20, “Dear Dawn”, in The Dominion:

(LGBTQ, slang, derogatory, sometimes offensive) A woman who formerly identified as lesbian but now identifies as heterosexual or bisexual.


skyjack

en-verb

skyjack (third-person singular simple present skyjacks, present participle skyjacking, simple past and past participle skyjacked)

skyjacks (present singular third-person)
skyjacking (participle present)
skyjacked (participle past)
skyjacked (past)

To steal or commandeer (hijack) an airplane, usually by threat of violence to the passengers and/or crew members.


rollick

rollick (third-person singular simple present rollicks, present participle rollicking, simple past and past participle rollicked)

rollicks (present singular third-person)
rollicking (participle present)
rollicked (participle past)
rollicked (past)

Presumably a blend of roll + frolic; appeared 1811 as rollicking, 1826 as rollick.

unk

Presumably

But the third Emir, now seeing himself all alone on the quarter-deck, seems to feel relieved from some curious restraint; for, tipping all sorts of knowing winks in all sorts of directions, and kicking off his shoes, he strikes into a sharp but noiseless squall of a hornpipe right over the Grand Turk’s head; and then, by a dexterous sleight, pitching his cap up into the mizentop for a shelf, he goes down rollicking so far at least as he remains visible from the deck, reversing all other processions, by bringing up the rear with music.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 34, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 163:

To behave in a playful or carefree manner; to frolic or romp.


beautician

Blend of beauty + technician, originally coined in Cleveland, Ohio, c. 1920s.

Someone who does hair styling, manicures, and other beauty treatments.


ampacity

en-noun

ampacity (countable and uncountable, plural ampacities)

The root mean square of the electrical current which a device (usually a wire) can carry within a specific environment (including temperature rating, power loss, heat dissipation, etc.) It is measured in amperes (amps) and is most often used to rate electrical wires and cables.

ampacidade

root mean square of the electrical current which a wire can carry


flob

Uncertain; possibly imitative. Possibly a Blend of phlegm + gob

(UK, slang) Spittle or phlegm, especially a piece of spittle or phlegm that has been spat out.


flob

en-verb

flob (third-person singular simple present flobs, present participle flobbing, simple past and past participle flobbed)

flobs (present singular third-person)
flobbing (participle present)
flobbed (participle past)
flobbed (past)

Every day she would flob on Zoe’s head from the flats as the little girl walked to school. And every day Tina would laugh, as if it was the funniest thing in the world.

2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

I pointed out that they both looked equally unhappy, and that he was essentially kicking himself. He contemplated this for a moment, then flobbed at me and kicked the weakling slightly harder.

27 September 2010, Charlie Brooker, The Guardian:


bulimarexia

(pathology, uncommon) Synonym of bulimia nervosa.


microbiome

From micro- + biome or blend of microbiota + genome.

The human microbiota consists of the 10-100 trillion symbiotic microbial cells harbored by each person, primarily bacteria in the gut; the human microbiome consists of the genes these cells harbor.

2012 August 20, “Defining the Human Microbiome”, in Nutrition Reviews, volume 70, number Suppl. 1, pages S38–S44:

Your body’s microbiome is all the genes your microbiota contains, however colloquially the two terms are often used interchangeably.

2018 March 26, Nicola Davis, “The human microbiome: why our microbes could be key to our health”, in The Guardian:

(genetics) The genetic information (genomes) of a microbiota.

Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.

2013 June 29, “A punch in the gut”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, pages 72–3:

The microbiome creates the immediate environment for our genes as they play out their part in disease mechanisms.

2014 June 30, Wayne Koberstein, “Second Genome”, in Life Science Leader, volume 6, number 7, page 14:

For your community of microbes— your 'microbiome' — your body is a planet.

2020, Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life, page 18:

(biology) A microbial biome, such as the community of microbes within the human gut.


babymoon

The trendiest new trend among young expectants is to go on a “babymoon.” You know, like a honeymoon except the woman is fatter, and there's not as much action.

2007, Linda Oatman-High, The Hip Grandma's Handbook, page 8:

Humidity and flying will worsen your sausage-like legs, so a trip to the Caribbean rain forest is not an ideal babymoon destination.

2014, Jill Hoefs, Denise Jagroo, Your Best Pregnancy, page 84:

A last vacation taken by expectant parents before a baby is born.


cosplay

en-noun

cosplay (countable and uncountable, plural cosplays)

Borrowed from Japanese コスプレ (kosupure), which is a clipping of コスチュームプレイ (kosuchūmu purei), from a compound of English costume + play.

كُوسْبْلَاي

subculture centered on dressing as characters

Men, of course, also participate in cosplay and all its attending events, but women make up the greater numbers.

2003, Cosplay Girls: Japan's Live Animation Heroines:

The environments and spaces created for and by cosplay provide cosplayers with a variety of spaces for social interactions.

2006, Frenchy Lunning, Mechademia 1: Emerging Worlds of Anime And Manga, page 75:

It didn't take long for anime cons and cosplay to become a part of popular culture fandom in the West[…]

2010, Antonia Levi, Mark McHarry, Dru Pagliassotti, Boys' Love Manga, page 5:

(uncountable) The art or practice of costuming oneself as a (usually fictional) character.

Central to the activity of cosplay is elaborate costuming, though some cosplays are enacted using a game system.

2010, Sarah Lynne Bowman, The Functions of Role-playing Games, page 29:

According to a student from France who went to Japan to study Japanese, "Universities in France are like Halloween when otaku students engage in these cosplays. They take Japanese language because of anime, but they see after a few classes that it's hard and not fun. Many drop out" (author interview, 2009).

2010, Anne Cooper-Chen, Cartoon Cultures: The Globalization of Japanese Popular Media, page 121:

Popular cosplays include, for example, characters from the Final Fantasy range of games[…]

2012, Dan Hunter, Ramon Lobato, Megan Richardson, Amateur Media: Social, cultural and legal perspectives:

(countable) A skit or instance of this art or practice.


cosplay

en-verb

cosplay (third-person singular simple present cosplays, present participle cosplaying, simple past and past participle cosplayed)

cosplays (present singular third-person)
cosplaying (participle present)
cosplayed (participle past)
cosplayed (past)

→ Norwegian: cosplay

→ Portuguese: cosplay

→ Russian: коспле́й (kospléj)

→ Spanish: cosplay

→ Thai: คอสเพลย์ (kɔ́ɔs-plee)

→ Ukrainian: коспле́й (kospléj)

She cosplayed at the manga convention.

Senior politicians have cosplayed as train drivers, ambulance workers, Border Force officials – the list goes on.

2022 December 23, Marina Hyde, “Who can doubt the futuristic brilliance of Sunak and co? They’ve given us driverless government”, in The Guardian:

(intransitive) To costume oneself as a character.

She cosplayed Sailor Moon at the manga convention.

(transitive) To costume oneself as (a character).

Why has the Russian Federation decided to cosplay the Nazi Third Reich by attacking the peaceful neighboring state and plunging the region into war?

2022 March 17, Aila Slisco, “Ukrainian UN Ambassador Accuses Russians of Engaging in 'Nazi Cosplay'”, in Newsweek, retrieved 2022-03-18:

On weekends, there was usually a party. Her classmates, free from their wealthy families, cosplayed as struggling intellectuals.

2022, Ling Ma, “Office Hours”, in Bliss Montage, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN:

[…] turning conservative white men into amateur commandos cosplaying war wherever they liked and the US into a war zone.

2022 May 30, Rebecca Solnit, “US mass shootings will continue until the majority can overrule the minority”, in The Guardian:

Whilst their stability was generally an improvement on earlier German destroyers, as the vessels no longer displayed a strong desire to cosplay as U-boats, the main armament proved to be something of a problem.

2022 August 27, Drachinifel, 2:44 from the start, in Type 1936A / Narvik class - Guide 298, archived from the original on 2022-08-29:

(figurative, often derogatory, transitive) To adopt the behavior and mannerisms of another.


nutpick

(US) A sharp tool used for digging the edible portion out of a nut.


screamo

Audio (US)

(music) A genre of aggressive lo-fi guitar-driven music with predominantly screaming vocals, while preserving structural aspects of the emocore/hardcore emo genres of the early 1990's.


claymation

en-noun

claymation (countable and uncountable, plural claymations)

A blend of clay + animation. Originally registered as a trademark by Will Vinton in 1978, then entered the English language as a genericized trademark.

As my friends deserted our weekend movie-making for more teenagerly pastimes, I had turned to the cold, clean world of claymation and animated LEGOs.

stop-motion animation where each animated piece is made from a deformable substance, typically Plasticine clay.

Knetanimation

stop-motion animation using pieces made from a deformable substance


phasor

(sciences, engineering) A plotted line whose length and angle represent the amplitude and phase, respectively, of a sinusoidally varying quantity such as an alternating current.

perehuri

A plotted line that represents the amplitude and phase of a sinusoidally varying quantity such as an alternating current.


nutrigenomics

(medicine) The field of study that examines how the interaction between genetics and nutrition affects human health, specifically to devise a personalized diet to improve or maintain good health.

nutrigenomiikka

the field of study that examines how the interaction between genetics and nutrition affects human health


Motown

Blend of motor + town; see Motor City. The poker slang comes from jacks and fives sounding similar to Jackson 5, associated with Motown popular music.


Motown

They may be a rock band, but their retro style shows a heavy Motown influence.

(music, often attributive) A style of popular soul music strongly associated with Motown Records.

(poker slang) A jack and a five as a starting hand in Texas hold 'em.


tug of love

(UK, informal) A dispute concerning which of two separated parents should have custody of one or more children.


cineplex

Blend of cinema + complex or from cine- + -plex

Maybe twice a month they go to a movie at a cineplex in a giant mall over on Palmetto Palm Boulevard two miles away

(US) A cinema having multiple theatres (showing rooms).


planeteer

Blend of planet + volunteer or planet + -eer.

Someone who helps protect the environment.

(science fiction, rare) Someone who makes interplanetary journeys.


moob

Vince has Moobs (man boobs = moobs)

1998 September 6, 6PANTERA, “Re: SUNDAY NIGHT HEAT: November 29, 1998, I'll be there...”, in t-netz.wrestling.wwf (Usenet), retrieved 2016-09-12, message-ID <6svsrp$dnp@chronicle.concentric.net>:

2001 September 3, miha ³, "Re: I know I shouldn't be doing this but...", in alt.games.video.nintendo.gamecube, Usenet,
Yeah, put a shirt on gene, we don't want to see your fatty moobs.

Often – I refer you in particular to Rod Stewart and Tony Blair – these moobs are strangely taut and unsaggy, and have that bee-stung, 12-year-old girl look.

Ranged along the sides of the broad chamber were curtained booths containing day beds, and from time to time an overweight East End cabbie would emerge from one of these, his moobs glistening with sweat, [...]

2009, Will Self, Ralph Steadman, Psycho too, page 242:

(slang, usually in the plural) A plump or untoned breast on a man.


thirl

en-verb

thirl (third-person singular simple present thirls, present participle thirling, simple past and past participle thirled)

thirls (present singular third-person)
thirling (participle present)
thirled (participle past)
thirled (past)

Uncertain. Perhaps a blend of throw + hurl.

And many Authours doe in this manner wound the protection of their cause, by over-rashly running against that which they take hold-of, thirling [translating lanceant] such darts at their enemies, that might with much more advantage be cast at them.


bedsit

(British, Ireland) A form of rented accommodation consisting of a single room for use as both sitting room and bedroom; there may also be a small kitchen area and washing and toilet facilities, but these amenities are more commonly outside the room and shared by several tenants.


dykes

Likely a blend of diagonal + cut, with influence from dyke and dike.

If you use undersized dykes to cut large wire, you can damage or break them.

2008, John Hechtman, Audio Wiring Guide: How to Wire the Most Popular Audio and Video Connectors, page 15:

For cutting lead came, you’ll need ‘lead came dykes,’ which are simple nippers designed to avoid crushing the lead.

2022, Neile Cooper, Kicking Glass: A Creative Guide to Stained Glass Craft, page 40:

Diagonal cutting pliers; diagonal pliers; diagonal cutters; wire cutters.


smirch

en-noun

smirch (countable and uncountable, plural smirches)

From Middle English *smorchen ("to spatter, soil"; attested in besmorchid (“bespattered, soiled all over”)), of uncertain origin. Perhaps a derivative of Middle English smeoren, smuren, smeren (“to smear”) or related to Middle English smotry (“sooty, grimy”). Compare also Middle English bismotered (“bespattered, soiled”), Old French esmorcher (“to torture”), Middle English smoterly, smoterlich (“besmirched”), modern English smut.

gl

"to spatter, soil"; attested in <i class="Latn mention" lang="enm">besmorchid</i> (“bespattered, soiled all over”)

unc

uncertain

cog

Too often, in the years between 800 and 1050, the everyday sun declined through the smirch of flame and smoke of a monastery or town robbed and burnt.

1998, Michael Foss, People of the First Crusade, →ISBN, page 6:


skinship

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-skinship.wav

Blend of skin + kinship; can also be formulated as skin + -ship. Recorded as early as 1966 by the OED; probably a calque of Japanese スキンシップ (sukinshippu), itself a pseudo-anglicism recorded to date back to at least 1955, or Korean 스킨십 (seukinsip) (1971 or older). In Japanese, this form was also observed in the Latin script as early as 1955.

This relationship of parents to children is especially enhanced by bathing together—commonly known as skinship (sukinshippu). Other groups, from businessmen or to neighboring housewives to hikers and classmates, often seek to increase the strength of a relationship by engaging in hadaka no tsukiai at a sentō, health center, or onsen.

1992, Scott Clark, “The Japanese Bath: Extraordinarily Ordinary”, in Joseph Jay Tobin, editor, Re-made in Japan: Everyday Life and Consumer Taste in a Changing Society (social science), Yale University Press, published 1992, page 102:

Spending time together naked for social bonding.


pixmap

(computer graphics) A grid of pixels; a bitmap, especially one having more than one bit (binary digit) assigned to each pixel, allowing for multiple shades or colors.


webumentary

1996, “Inside the Tobacco Deal”, Links & Further Readings, FRONTLINE online, Public Broadcasting Service
This web site also offers a 'webumentary' analysis of the thousands of pages of internal Brown & Williamson Corporation documents which were posted on the internet in 1995 and reveal three decades of tobacco industry secrets.

1996 November 18, “Canon goes on-air and on-line to raise consumer awareness for its award-winning PowerShot 600 digital camera”, Business Wire, Business Wire Newswire
The World's Widest Web, 50-feet wide, takes Web surfers on a "Webumentary" visit to one of Los Angeles' most famous tourist attractions, Venice Beach, all showcasing the digital imaging power of the PowerShot 600.

Your webumentary should be an essay or a journal entry (500 words or less) with photos and images that help tell your story.

1997 September 16, Corey Beckner, “Teen Search for Feature Writers!”, in school.teachers (Usenet):

There's a big webumentary on the making of at www.starwars.com, including interviews with the guy and some video of some training sequences.

1999 May 22, K. Kalani Patterson, “Opinions, anyone?”, in alt.fairs.renaissance (Usenet):

2000 December 4, “Yoko Ono to Chat Live On ABCNEWS.com to Mark the 20th Anniversary of John Lennon's Death”, Business Wire, Business Wire Newswire, as quoted in “Wednesday, December 6, 2:00 pm ET YOKO CHAT!”, rec.music.beatles, Usenet
The chat will take place during the week of the 20th anniversary of Lennon's death, and the day after ABCNEWS.com's premiere of the webumentary, "Lennon in New York."

A Web-based documentary using elements specific to the Web (links, images, audio, video, interaction, etc.) in conjunction with standard documentary composition elements.


payola

en-noun

payola (countable and uncountable, plural payolas)

Perhaps a blend of pay + Victrola, equivalent to pay + -ola.

(US, Philippines) A bribe given in exchange for a favor, such as one given in exchange for the promotion of goods or services (originally one given to a disk jockey to play a record).


pseudocide

pseudocide (countable and uncountable, plural pseudocides)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-pseudocide.wav

Secondly, the contention that suicide attempts are self-therapy is clarified by introducing the concept pseudocide, with no implication that pseudocides eventually lead to suicides.

1972 March, Robert L. Hamblin, R. Brooke Jacobsen, “Suicide and Pseudocide: A Reanalysis of Maris’s Data”, in Journal of Health and Social Behavior, volume 13, number 1, page 99:

Some suspect Lord Lucan of pseudocide after he vanished in 1974 on the night of a murder in the Lucan household. His family, though, are convinced the peer killed himself for real.

2000 February 14, “Pseudocide: Doing a Reggie Perrin”, BBC News

2005, Philip M. McCarthy, An Assessment of the Range and Usefulness of Lexical Diversity Measures and the Potential of the Measure of Textual, Lexical Diversity (MTLD), PhD dissertation, The University of Memphis.
Osgood examined suicide notes and compared them to pseudocide notes predicting that greater motivational levels would lead to more frequent use of high frequency words.

A death, or suicide attempt, that is faked.


squarson

William Wynne, a poet and squarson

1983, Prys Morgan, “The Hunt for the Welsh Past in the Romantic Period”, in The Invention of Tradition:


protomer

(biochemistry) Any of the subunits that constitute an oligomeric protein.


carhop

I ended my aimless-roaming-short-term-odd-jobs lifestyle and joyfully went to work at a local restaurant in Langley Park, Maryland, as a carhop.

(US) A waiter or waitress who serves customers, especially in their vehicles, at a drive-in restaurant, sometimes on rollerskates.


blacktress

[…] this literary/arts center presents Manifesto Night, with readings by such notable playwrights, poets, teachers, and blacktresses as John Baldessari, Max Benevidez, Pam Gregg, Sue Spaid, David Schweizer, and Ms. Vaginal Creme Davis.

(slang, film, rare) An African American woman who is a pioneer of the film industry.


communiversity

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-communiversity.wav

(humorous) An organization that is formed by a relationship between a university and a community.


buppie

Blend of black + yuppie or an abbreviation of black urban professional, modelled on yuppie (“young urban professional”).

abbreviation of

In Spike Lee’s story of interracial romance, Jungle Fever (June), Wesley Snipes plays a young buppie New York architect whose affair with his Italian-American secretary (Annabella Sciorra) threatens his marriage and her relationship to her family.

1991 June, Ella Taylor, “Identity crises”, in The Atlantic:

(US, slang) A black urban professional; an African-American professional or executive in their late twenties or early thirties.


cartooney

en-noun

cartooney (plural cartoonies or cartooneys)

Blend of cartoon + attorney, or a variation of cartoony.

Because we who don’t like spam need a good laugh once in a while (other than the occasional guffaws induced by cartooneys), let me share a few samples from my incoming spam cesspool.

2004, Danny Goodman, “Rule #3: Spammers Are Stupid”, in Spam Wars: Our Last Best Chance to Defeat Spammers, Scammers, and Hackers, SelectBooks, Inc., →ISBN, page 183:

(Internet slang) An empty and comically overstated threat of legal action, or a mock legal action.


netroots

(politics, US politics) Grassroots political activism on the internet, especially on blogs.


fanon

From Middle English fanon, fanoun, from Old French fanon, from Medieval Latin fanō, from Frankish *fano, from Proto-Germanic *fanô. Doublet of fane and vane.

A vestment reserved only for the Pope for use during a pontifical Mass.

Part of a bishop's mitre. They are the tabs extending down from the mitre, often with a cross near the end of each. See lappet.

(surgery) A fold of linen laid under a splint.


fanon

In this way, smaller groups within a fandom agree on readings which may be completely at odds with the canon, but which in time acquire legitimacy as fanon.

2014, Maria Lindgren Leavenworth, Malin Isaksson, Fanged Fan Fiction: Variations on Twilight, True Blood and The Vampire Diaries, page 53:

Loyalty is one aspect of Slytherin that canon and fanon readings technically agree on, but fans are significantly more sincere about this characterization.

2018, Kali DeDominicis, “Fitting Him for Leather Trousers: Fanon and the Reclamation of Draco Malfoy and Slytherin House”, in Amanda Firestone, Leisa A. Clark, editors, Harry Potter and Convergence Culture: Essays on Fandom and the Expanding Potterverse, page 97:

So in a fandom as old as Austen's, how does fanon get created?

2019, Holly Luetkenhaus, Zoe Weinstein, Austentatious: The Evolving World of Jane Austen Fans, page 24:

(fandom slang) Elements introduced by fans which are not in the official canon of a fictional world but are widely believed to be or treated as if canonical.


clue-by-four

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-clue-by-four.wav

If I think they're a jerk who's using a march to show how cool and open minded they are, I pull out the ol' clue by four.

1993, anonymous author, “Re: Recent Events from the Horseman”, in alt.sex.bondage (Usenet):

1998, TCurryFan, Re: Carlos and Ashley?, alt.fan.power-rangers, http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.power-rangers/msg/46e0bac76b6c462d?dmode=source&hl=en
Nah... I'm not gonna waste a good clue-by-four on someone with no brain...

Sometimes the magic "clue-by-four" is so obvious that even your oblivious rock-headed uncle picks up on it.

2003, Willow Polson, The Veil's Edge: Exploring the Boundaries of Magic, page 152:

(informal, humorous, figuratively) A notional weapon used to knock sense into the clueless.


Hispasian

(slang) A person who is half Asian and half Hispanic.


propheteering

Blend of prophet + profiteering, as a pun.

Acting as a prophet in order to obtain money; making profit from prophecy.


podosphere

Most likely Blend of podcast + blogosphere, it seems to have been first coined by podcaster Steve Gillmore during the opening session on podcasting of the Bloggercon III conference.

Religion is one of the most talked about subjects on earth and, unsurprisingly, one of the most podcasted in the podosphere.

2005, Steve Shipside, Podcasting: The Ultimate Starter Kit, →ISBN, page 132:

John Markoff, senior technology reporter at the New York Times, says more than 11 million Americans are now in the podosphere and that by 2008 there will be nearly 60 million, and double that worldwide.

2005 April 10, Garry Barker, “Welcome to the wide world of the podosphere”, in The Age:

You don't want to spend too much money on your podcast at first because you want to see how you like it and how much of a splash you make on the podosphere, but it's difficult to make that splash when you're making subpar recordings.

2006, Mur Lafferty, Tricks of the Podcasting Masters, →ISBN, page 178:

(slang) The collective podcasting community.


rex-pat

Blend of repeat + expat. Attributed to Alan Levy, an expatriate who edited The Prague Post from 1990 until his death in 2004.

A rex-pat is a returning expatriate, an ex-pat has been here, goes home to America, takes a job, maybe goes to law school, maybe does well in America but can't get Prague out of his or her blood and returns to Prague to live again.

2004, Alan Levy, in the film Rex-patriates, and quoted by The Prague Post: What's a Rex-pathttps://web.archive.org/web/20090105165432/http://www.rexpatriateproductions.com/experts.html

(US, informal) A repeat expatriate; one who becomes expatriated again.


technomad

Blend of techno- + nomad, originally coined by Steven K. Roberts to describe a nomadic person who remains connected through communications media such as the Internet during travel, exploration, and online nomadic living.

An itinerant person who remains connected to the Internet.


presentity

Blend of presence + entity; first introduced in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETC) RFC 2778.

Users of an instant messaging service are presentities that may show themselves as online, offline, or away.

(Internet, telecommunications) An entity (usually a human) which provides information about its presence (whether it is available and willing to communicate through communication services).


snart

While an occasional fart makes us laugh, snarts never do.

2009 April 18, Bobby Mercer, How Do You Light a Fart?: And 150 Other Essential Things Every Guy Should Know about Science, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

I was holding in a snart, and then right when she took the photo... don't you want to know what a snart is?

2011 January 27, Robert Carlock, “Operation Righteous Cowboy Lightning”, in Beth McCarthy-Miller, director, 30 Rock, season 5, episode 12, spoken by Liz Lemon (Tina Fey):

The elf knocks three times, coughs and knocks once more, followed by a snart – a tricky and highly dangerous procedure where you sneeze and fart at the same time!

2020 November 1, Benjamin G Hewett, Paddy Muldoon, The Amazing Lockdown Adventure (The Crystal Chronicles), Penguin Random House South Africa, →ISBN, →OCLC:

(slang) The phenomenon where one sneezes and breaks wind at the same time.


snart

en-verb

snart (third-person singular simple present snarts, present participle snarting, simple past and past participle snarted)

snarts (present singular third-person)
snarting (participle present)
snarted (participle past)
snarted (past)

Basil choked out a laugh of his own. “It snarted?”
“Snart?” She wiped at her eyes.
He grinned. “Sneeze-fart. It's a thing.”

2017, Nadine Mutas, To Stir a Fae's Passion: A Novel of Love and Magic (Love and Magic), Nadine Mutas:

Okay, first of all, I look weird there because I'm snarting.

“The one who farted when she sneezed.”
“I didn't break up with her because she snarted. She picked at her feet, which is gross and unhygienic.”

2020, Brea Brown, Let's Be Frank (The Nurse Nate series; 1), Wayzgoose Press, →ISBN:


wikinomics

Blend of wiki + economics. Coined by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams in Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (2007)

The theory and practice of mass collaboration using electronic communications.


cypherpunk

/ˈsʌɪfəpʌŋk/

Blend of cipher + cyberpunk, coined by American hacker and author Jude Milhon (St. Jude) in 1992.

coin

Coordinate term: crypto-anarchist

(computing) A person with an interest in encryption and privacy, especially one who uses encrypted email.


slumlord

Coordinate term: slumlady

The slumlord was collecting over $100 a month for this horrible place.

1959, Senate Hearings September 23 and 24, 1959: Vol 1, page 484:

The first rule in the slumlord business is: “The poorer the tenant, the bigger the profit!” The explanation is simplicity itself. For example, a poor family needs a two-room apartment, but can't afford the $40.00 a month rent. So you divide the two rooms into four smaller apartments, and rent each one for $20.00 a month. The poor families are happy with the low rent, and the slumlord is happy with the increased profit.

The guy's a real bastard, a real slumlord. He never did anything to maintain the place. He wouldn't give us a written lease—we only had a verbal agreement.

1989 December 3, Laura Briggs, quoting Mike Mamone, “'Somewhere Else' Plans January Opening”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 21, page 3:

(derogatory) A person who makes money by renting housing that is kept in poor condition.


bullycide

en-noun

bullycide (countable and uncountable, plural bullycides)

Our research reveals that each year in the UK at least sixteen children commit bullycide...

2003, Gail Pursell Elliott, School mobbing and emotional abuse:

Jared's loss by bullycide on September 29, 1998, filled our lives with grief...

2007, Tamra B Orr, Sandra Giddens, Linda Bickerstaff, Suicide:

A suicide resulting from depression caused by bullying, especially among children.


pervaporation

pervaporation (countable and uncountable, plural pervaporations)

(chemistry) A technique whereby the components of a mixture of two liquids are separated by selective permeation through a semipermeable membrane, the component that passes through the membrane being removed by evaporation


phallogocentric

en-adj

phallogocentric (comparative more phallogocentric, superlative most phallogocentric)

more phallogocentric (comparative)
most phallogocentric (superlative)

Blend of phallocentric + logocentric. By surface analysis, phallus + logo- + centric.

surf

Philosophers of language may wonder whether Latin was a phallogocentric language because of its use of gender to refer to non-gendered things such as water.

We men, at least in our standard phallogocentric mode of sexuality, even when we are doing it with the real women, we are effectively doing it with our fantasy.

2006, The Pervert's Guide to Cinema, Slavoj Žižek (actor):


gaffle

From Middle English gaffolle, a borrowing from Middle Dutch gaffel, gafel (“fork”), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *gabulu (“fork”), related to Old English gafol, ġeafel (“fork”).

(obsolete) A lever used to bend a crossbow.


gaffle

en-verb

gaffle (third-person singular simple present gaffles, present participle gaffling, simple past and past participle gaffled)

gaffles (present singular third-person)
gaffling (participle present)
gaffled (participle past)
gaffled (past)

They would grapple till they were tired, then stop; but as soon as one would start for the bears the other would gaffle him again.

1949, Chase Salmon Osborn, Stellanova Osborn, Northwoods Sketches, page 29:

Just as he was going to throw the plug into the box, Jimmy's huge paw reached out and gaffled it.

1951, Modern Power & Engineering - Volume 45, page 126:

The nurse kep cool enough, but the menfolks fretted some; and the two ole hairpins gaffled holt of one another and plumped down onto their knees, prayin' for “deliv'rance from desaster !"

1966, Will R. Davis, Zackary Adams, Village Down East, page 79:

Ye see, he knew there wasn't barely enough grazing for him on that oasis, and a short supply of dates for me, and he had gaffled onto that place and warn't going to let go for no black feller nor yet yeller.

1905, Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards, The Armstrongs, page 197:

"Clever of ye," said Scattergood. "Naow, about Marjie's money. How'd ye manage to gaffle onto that?"

1939, American Magazine - Volume 127, page 147:

"I gaffled onto Kate,” Mrs. Swain said. "Oh, wonderful! How ever did you find her ?”

1950, Detective Book Club Selections - Volume 57, page 110:

Anyone who would like to share your burdens or want to know more about Christ, you are welcome to come to our Tuesday and Friday, and Sunday night bible studies or just gaffle one of the brothers on the yard.

So I commenced to yell, And old man Pease he hugged his knees and gaffled to his pail.

1916, Holman Day, Up in Maine: Stories of Yankee Life Told in Verse, page 189:

The honey birds gaffle – I'm coming to you soon, I'm coming to you as they leave , and one insect starts to call, and will call all night, with the exact monotonous cheep-cheep of young English house-sparrows in June.

Leaving that to the rappers, it's their business But to be down or not to be down Is still debatable for plausible reasons For one seldom knows the directions others are traveling in Or if one-time wants to do some gaffling

2011, Hakim Askia, Compelling Thoughts, page 125:

To talk without a purpose, usually about inane or pointless topics; to babble.


sexile

sexile (third-person singular simple present sexiles, present participle sexiling, simple past and past participle sexiled)

sexiles (present singular third-person)
sexiling (participle present)
sexiled (participle past)
sexiled (past)

As a happening dude or lady with a happening roommate, you should be prepared to get "sexiled" from your bedroom while someone gets intimate.

2000, Harvard Lampoon, The Harvard Lampoon's guide to college admissions: the comprehensive, authoritative, and utterly useless source for where to go and how to get in, Warner Books, page 123

We promised to never "sexile" each other (kick your roommate out of the room for the purposes of hooking up).

a'''2004, unnamed college student, Heather Alexander, quoted in Sharing Spaces: Tips and Strategies on Being a Good College Roommate, Surviving a Bad One, and Dealing with Everything in Between, Simon and Schuster (2004), page 137

Charlotte arrives intent on doing just that, and at first asserts her lil' backwoods self against the bitchy Groton roommate who "sexiles" her from their dorm room the night before an exam.

2004 November 28, Jacob Weisberg, “'I Am Charlotte Simmons': Peeping Tom”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

I guess I was being sexiled all three times and didn't realize it.

2006, Teresa Botial Richardson, Am I Black Or Right, AuthorHouse, page 11

(US university slang) To banish somebody, usually one's roommate, from the room for the privacy to have sex.


DEFCON

activation and readiness level of the United States armed forces, as "DEFCON 4".


meperidine

en-noun

meperidine (countable and uncountable, plural meperidines)

(pharmacology) The United States Adopted Name of pethidine.


pethidine

pethidine (countable and uncountable, plural pethidines)

Inside was a clutter of prescription pads and a carton containing a collection of diamorphine syrettes and a dozen ampoules of pethidine.

2000, JG Ballard, Super-Cannes, Fourth Estate, published 2011, page 125:

(pharmacology) A synthetic compound used as a painkilling drug, especially for women in labor.


lesbionic

en-adj

lesbionic (comparative more lesbionic, superlative most lesbionic)

more lesbionic (comparative)
most lesbionic (superlative)

So I did the most cliché lesbionic thing a kid could possibly do, besides buy every Ani DiFranco album and become vegetarian: I cut off my dreadlocks.

2002, Sarah O'Donnell, The Flow Chronicles, Microcosm, published 2002, page 136:

Jolene pulled off Kip's pants, exposing his quivering pink member to the lesbionic onlookers.

2003, Bett Williams, The Wrestling Party, Alyson Publishing, published 2003, page 141:


podcat

Blend of podcast + cat? Coined by Michael Capson on the radio program Good Morning Dude.

(slang) A person who is very fond of podcasts, or who listens to podcasts on a regular basis.


retcon

A blend of retroactive + continuity. The term retroactive continuity was popularized by comics writer Roy Thomas, who was known for writing superhero comic books set decades in the past such as All-Star Squadron, and attributes it to an anonymous source.

TLC: What do you say to the Legion fans who have become disenfranchised with the series due to its various retcons and reboots?

2003, Glen Cadigan, The Legion Companion, page 152:

Fans talk of retcon—retroactive continuity—giving information that explains an earlier event, especially seeming plot contradictions or lacunae.

2005, Rhonda Wilcox, Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, page 9:

It's a little trick called retcon, short for "retroactive continuity," […]
Yet I'm unsure even Millar is fully aware of the power given him by the retcon.

2006, Glenn Yeffeth, editor, The Man from Krypton: A Closer Look at Superman, page 155:

A situation, in a soap opera or other fiction, in which a new storyline explains or changes a previous event or attaches a new significance to it.


retcon

en-verb

retcon (third-person singular simple present retcons, present participle retconning, simple past and past participle retconned)

retcons (present singular third-person)
retconning (participle present)
retconned (participle past)
retconned (past)

While ‘retconning' the scripts, I came up with a number of theories that throw new light on the Doctor, his past, and various other elements[…]

2003, Jean-Marc Lofficier, The Nth Doctor, page 5:

A lot of people were like, "Oh, they just retconned their own continuity. They should have used Kyle. I don't like that." So we just threw Kyle in there to say, "No, no, Kyle's still there. He still exists in the animated universe; he's just not stationed on Earth at the moment, regularly."

2004, Eric Nolen-Weathington, Modern Masters Volume 3: Bruce Timm, page 79:

Retroactive continuity (aka retconning), would reveal that Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are also Magneto's children, showing that this was a guy who was really committed to his cause

2006, Len Wein, ed., The Unauthorized X-Men: SF and Comic Writers on Mutants, Prejudice, and Adamantium 92

Luthor appeared a handful of times, Gary "retconned" the Toyman and created Terra-Man, and Superman would get a worthy opponent whenever Len Wein did a fill-in.

2006, Michael Eury, Daniel (CON) Best, Glen (CON) Cadigan, Mike (CON) Esposito, David (CON) Mandel, The Krypton Companion, p. 157

There’s a note of wistful, wishful thinking in all this retconning of reality — would that we could write a time jump into our own scripts!

2022 January 7, James Poniewozik, “Wondering When the Pandemic Will End? On TV, It Already Has.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:


biopyribole

(mineralogy) Any of the rock-forming minerals pyroxene, amphibole, and mica.

biopyriboli

any of the rock-forming minerals pyroxene, amphibole, and mica


videographer

Videotaping by an experienced videographer can add so much life to your wedding memories that it is fast becoming a very popular wedding component.

2004, Teddy Lenderman, The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Perfect Wedding:

Any person involved in the production of video material, but especially a person who uses a video camera.


Paralympic Games

An international sports competition participated in by sportspeople with physical disabilities, which is held every four years as a counterpart of the Olympic Games and nowadays at the same venue.

أَلْعَاب بَارَالِمْبِيَّة

international sports competition participated in by sportspeople with physical disabilities — see also Paralympics


Jolene

A blend of the element Jo... in common anglicized forms of various Hebrew names and the ending ...lene shared by the German names Helene and Magdalene. Cognate with Charlene, Darlene, and Marlene, which were constructed in similar manner from the names Charles, darling, and Maria.

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I'm begging of you please don't take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
Please don't take him just because you can...

A female given name originating as a coinage.


systempunkt

The point in a system (either an infrastructure or a market), where a swarm of disruptions and attacks will cascade and collapse the system (resulting in e.g. financial loss, supply shortages, or destabilization).


PowerPointlessness

Blend of PowerPoint + pointlessness, coined by Jamie McKenzie in 2000

We do not have to subject ourselves or our students to 'death by PowerPoint' or 'PowerPointlessness' as Jamie McKenzie calls it

2005, David Clive Nettelbeck, Computers, Thinking and Learning: Inspiring Students with Technology, page 52:

Powerful PowerPoint: Tips for Ending PowerPointlessness ...

2007, Steven J. Bell, John D. Shank, Academic Librarianship by Design, page 139:

PowerPointlessness in higher education is an educational sin. I am rethinking.

2007, Glenn Rikowski, PowerPointlessness in Higher Education (Target page closed down by AOL)

Avoid 'PowerPointlessness!' A presentation should always be about your audience, not about you.

2008, various authors, “Presentation Skill”, in Presentation Skill, Global Media, →ISBN:

The senseless use of PowerPoint to communicate with too many bells and whistles, animated transitions between slides, etc. and very little substance.


squizz

From British dialectal (Cornwall) squiz (“to look, examine critically”). Perhaps a blend of squint + quiz (“to peer at, eye suspiciously”).

blend

The building itself is worth a squizz; its modern metal forms and structures evoke maritime themes.

2002, Chris Rowthorn, Alex Landragin, Kate Daly, Victoria, Lonely Planet, page 297:

“That lot heard about the place and came in here on their way to an Antarctic research station. But mostly, it′s just curious folks that drop by for a squizz—like you, for instance.”

2009, William Efford, Picaroon, page 77:

“I'll get you to have a look at the paper work and just have a squizz through some patient′s case notes, so you get an idea of how we document our daily nursing units of care.[…]”

2012, Annette Evalyn Swain, Suicide Angels and the Silent Terrorists: A Story About Bullying, iUniverse, page 82:

I think it would be a good idea to have a squizz at Toowoomba′s place.

(West Country, Commonwealth, Ireland, colloquial) A look.


squizz

en-verb

squizz (third-person singular simple present squizzes, present participle squizzing, simple past and past participle squizzed)

squizzes (present singular third-person)
squizzing (participle present)
squizzed (participle past)
squizzed (past)

“That′s just according to how you bring them up, Jane,” Betsy replied ; “if they′d had porridge from the first, they′d have eaten it fast enough ; and it isn′t good to allow children to be squizzing (looking) into their food and picking it over.”

1885, Emily Cruwys Sharland, Ways and means in a Devonshire village, a book for mothers′ meetings, page 19:

He liked to see them laughing, enjoying themselves, squizzing at the antics of whitefellers in party mood.

1998, Patricia Shaw, A Cross of Stars, published 2011, unnumbered page:

1999, Lindsay Charman-Love, Top Hat and Taiaha, Huia Short Stories 3, Huia Publishers, New Zealand, page 44,
Others were off at the shops getting ice blocks or squizzing at the boats down at the wharf.

2010, Linzy Harris, Perdita, Paragon Publishing, UK, page 79,
She presented me with a bag, and when I squizzed inside I saw it contained five boxes of cigarettes.

(West Country, Commonwealth, Ireland, colloquial, usually with "at") To look, to examine.


Bremelo

Blend of Bremerton + buffalo. The word has been in use since the 1960s in Kitsap County.

(slang, US, derogatory, military) A young overweight woman in the area around Puget Sound Naval Station Bremerton, Washington, a major naval base, particularly one who seeks to partner with Navy personnel.


roadeo

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-roadeo.wav

(slang) A driving competition for the drivers of road vehicles, such as buses.


anaphylatoxin

(biochemistry) Any of several toxic substances that trigger anaphylaxis

anafilatoxina

any of several toxic substances that trigger anaphylaxis


Amerikkka

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Amerikkka.wav

In Amerikkka, this movement is evident from efforts to control the institutions serving and located within Black communities.

1970 July, “White Ethics and Black Power: The Emergence of the West Side Organization”, in Black World/Negro Digest, volume 19, number 9, page 83:

We have said […] that one of the greatest dangers of the continuance of the Vietnam war was that […] it would lead to an inevitable rise of fascism at home. Now that the U.S. is spreading the aggression in Indo-China the danger is coming icily close. The Black Panthers believe this is already a Fascist Amerikkka; we can understand this view from the black ghetto. We happen to hold that many Americans will resist, and there may be a Civil War in which thousands, if not millions, will die. Feeling thus, it is hard to get enthused about cleaning up the Hudson. There is a strong suspicion that Earth Day was a diversion, for at that very moment plans were being put in operation in Washington to spread death and destruction to Cambodia.

1970 June, Broadside, volume 107, page 7:

And get mad, mad 'cause I'm the nigga that flaunt it / AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted

1990, “AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted”, in AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, performed by Ice Cube:

[…] it's so obscene and Amerikkka and greedy, but pleasing to the eye […]

2002, Courtney X, Lasting Visions, page 202:

Ben Caldwell recalls the scene as follows:
Life as we know it is about to change
I smell it within the air the weather is getting strange
Drugged up sedated and numb from the pain
The sickness in Amerikkka has spread to her brain [...]

2009, Marcyliena H. Morgan, The real hiphop: battling for knowledge, power, and respect, page 161:

United States of America
United States of America

(derogatory slang) The United States of America. Generally used in depicting the country as fascist or racist.


shibilant

(phonology) A sibilant (fricative or affricate) pronounced further back in the mouth than [s] and [z]: [ʃ], [ʒ], [t͡ʃ], [d͡ʒ], etc.


cowhand

From cow + hand, or perhaps blend of cowboy + farmhand.

Though a first rate cow hand he very shortly proved himself to be wholly incapable of acting as head.

1886 April, Theodore Roosevelt, “Ranch Life and Game Shooting in the West”, in Outing, volume 8, number 1, page 3:

I'm an old cowhand from the Rio Grande / but my legs ain't bowed and my cheeks ain't tan […]

1936, “I'm an Old Cowhand (from the Rio Grande)”, Mercer, Johnny (music):

One who tends free-range cattle, especially in the American West.


secobarbital

en-noun

secobarbital (countable and uncountable, plural secobarbitals)

Blend of Seconal (trademark) + pentobarbital.

blend

(pharmacology) A barbiturate C₁₂H₁₈N₂O₃ that is used chiefly in the form of its bitter hygroscopic sodium salt as a hypnotic and sedative.


fourpeat

Blend of four + repeat. Compare threepeat (to rhyme with repeat).


Bovril

A valuable if seldom-employed restorative is made with Bovril as one of the ingredients.

The conversation had turned to pictures, and some of those on the walls were being admired by the guests, most of whom showed by their remarks that they saw little difference between a water colour and an advertisement for Bovril.

1930 August, Shaugh Courtenay, “Red Hair and Yellow Curtains”, in The Cornhill Magazine, page 233:

We mix up at the stainless steel kitchen sink under the shelves with all the jars of jam and bottles of Bovril and butter and stuff this infinitesimal minute wee tiny quantity of ammonium nitrate with about a snuff pinch of aluminium powder […]

2005, Harold Strachan, Make a Skyf, Man!:

(trademark) A brand of beef extract made in the UK.


micropolitan

Blend of micro- (prefix meaning ‘very small’) + metropolitan.

The government has created a new label for these communities, which increasingly fill the gaps on the map between major cities. The new term – Micropolitan Statistical Areas – recognizes that even small places far from metro areas are economic hubs that draw workers and shoppers from miles around. […] The largest micropolitan areas have more people than many metro areas. The Torrington, Conn., micropolitan area is the largest, with a population of 183,000 – bigger than the population of 103 metropolitan areas. Torrington is a micro, not a metro, because the central city has fewer than 50,000 people, the threshold for a city anchoring a metro area. Cities at the centers of micropolitan areas have at least 10,000 people but no more than 49,999.

2004 June 27, Haya El Nasser, “Small-town USA goes ‘micropolitan’”, in USA Today, McLean, Va.: Gannett Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-04-06:

(US) Of or pertaining to a city or twin cities having at least 10,000 but fewer than 50,000 inhabitants; of a city: less populated than a metropolitan area but more than a rural one.

micropolitano

of or pertaining to a city or twin cities having at least 10,000 but fewer than 50,000 inhabitants


micropolitan

For marketing experts who help companies decide where to expand, the "micropolitans" represent potentially lucrative – and untapped – markets. More than 28 million people, or one in 10 Americans, live in such areas.

(US) A city or twin cities having at least 10,000 but fewer than 50,000 inhabitants; a city which is less populated than a metropolitan area but more than a rural one.

小城市 (xiǎochéngshì, literally “small city”)

小都市 (xiǎodūshì, literally “small metropolis”)


vinylogous

Aldrichimica Acta Volume 30 No 4 (pdf) from Sigma-Aldrich
Bulky electron-withdrawing groups can cause the vinylogous portion of the vinylcarbenoid to become the active electrophilic site, but usually the use of nonpolar solvents can minimize this type of reactivity.

(organic chemistry) Of, pertaining to or containing a vinyl group, specifically used to describe functional groups in which the standard moieties of the group are separated by a carbon–carbon double bond.


Calexico

A city in Imperial County, California, United States.


ecotopia

From the name of an ecological utopia in a novel ("Ecotopia") by Ernest Callenbach. Blend of eco- + utopia.

Any ecologically ideal place or situation


Cantopop

Earlier, a venerable British guitarist in wonderful tweeds had opined as how they hadn't really expected the next Hendrix to emerge from Taiwanese Canto-pop, but then again they hadn't actually been expecting the first one, had they?

1996, William Gibson, Idoru (Bridge trilogy; book 2), New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN, page 131:

Mandopop and its Cantonese equivalent, Cantopop, are subsets of Chinese pop, or C-pop, whose roots stretch back almost 100 years.

2024 January 20, Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, “An Asian megastar who fills arenas in Europe–so who is he?”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 14:

(music) Cantonese pop music, originating from Guangdong and Hong Kong.


spigger

(slang, offensive, ethnic slur) A person of mixed Hispanic and African-American heritage.


heelies

Blend of heel + wheelie. Heelys, the original, are a branded version.

Trainers with one or more wheels fitted to the heel, allowing the wearer to walk normally then skate by shifting the weight to the rear.


heng

The character ꜧ, combining an h and an eng, which stands for the hypothetical phoneme in English that includes both [h] and [ŋ] as its allophones.


queerious

en-adj

queerious (comparative more queerious, superlative most queerious)

more queerious (comparative)
most queerious (superlative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-queerious.wav

Some said it was Aquarius,so queerious he'd get;
But he declar'd no soda-hack should ever share his whet;
His burnish'd sun was sol-o, soul-heart'ning was his cheer,
 And quaffing of good porter long kept him from his bier,
 As draughtsman he'd no equal,[…]

1825, Stephen Jones, Charles Molloy Westmacott, The Spirit of the Public Journals ...: Being an Impartial Selection of the Most Exquisite Essays and Jeux D'esprits ... that Appear in the Newspapers and Other Publications. With Explanatory Notes and Anecdotes of Many of the Persons Alluded to, page 44:

... queerious but very cozy corners , we assure you , and really it is a delightful place to be in , and it is growing bigger every day. ' "But the King does not want us to come back. We hear that he has become quite as grave as the[…]

1882, Jessie Margaret E. Saxby, Snow Dreams, Or, Funny Fancies for Little Folks, Edinburgh : Johnstone, Hunter, page 37:

Queer, curious: weird, odd, strange, bizarre.


blidget

Widgetbox also gives you the tools to create your own widgets— either by turning your blog into a "blidget" that others can subscribe to or by coding something unique and adding it to the Widgetbox collection.

2007 October, Robert Strohmeyer, “The 15 Best Web Apps You've Never Heard Of”, in Maximum PC:

In particular, a "blidget" allows users to display a section of their blog on other web sites.

2008 April 30, Diana Ransom, “Starting Up: Small Biz Tech Speak”, in The Wall Street Journal:

Figure 9.22 on Page 235 shows the finished blidget for Social Media Power. Widgetbox blidgets like the one we just created are free, but they also offer a pro version for around $30 a year that allows you to design custom themes for you blidget, among other features.

2009, Deltina Hay, A Survival Guide to Social Media and Web 2.0 Optimization: Strategies, Tactics, and Tools for Succeeding in the Social Web, Dalton Publishing, →ISBN, page 236:

(slang, Internet) In the context of blogging, a widget featuring a blog feed, which can be installed on another blog or website.


orangequat

Citrus aurantium
Citrus aurantium#Translingual

A citrus tree, a cross between an orange and a kumquat

Citrus unshiu
Citrus unshiu#Translingual

Citrus unshiu × (Fortunella japonica × Fortunella margarita)


Maxonian

Coined to identify a group of alumni of King's School, Macclesfield at Oxford University as a blend of Macclesfield + Oxonian, which was then applied to residents of the town in general.

As a fellow Macclesfieldian — or Maxonian as one was inexplicably called — I was fascinated to read the whole factual story of St Peter's Working Men's Institute, whose weekly affairs I used to report, all unknowing, in the days of bicycle clips and wet macs.

1967, New Society, volume 9, numbers 236-248, page 892:

My thanks to my friends Clifford and Pauline Baillie, true Maxonians both, who helped me with local colour and phrases.

1992, Jan Webster, Bluebell Blue, page viii:

One born-and-bred Maxonian, now living around High Street, proffered a cognate observation about the plight of those 'stuck' on Moss Rose

2005, Evi Girling, Crime and Social Change in Middle England: Questions of Order in an English Town:


agritainment

Blend of agriculture + entertainment. By surface analysis, agri- + [enter]tainment.

surf

(US) The promotion of farms as places to visit for entertainment (e.g. tractor rides, corn mazes).


mathlete

Blend of mathematics + athlete. The term is a registered trademark of the MathCounts organization. The term entered pop culture from the movies American Pie (1999) and Mean Girls (2004), as well as being featured in the short-lived cult TV series Freaks and Geeks.
Mathletes was the name of a US national organization in the 1970s that sponsored high school mathematics competitions ("Mathletes") and junior high school competitions ("Junior Mathletes") between school teams known as "Math Teams". A team's news and results could be covered either under Sports (because it was a team competition) or Activities.

Yo Yo Yo! All you sucka MCs ain't got nothin' on me! From my grades, to my lines you can't touch Kevin G! I'm a mathlete, so nerd is inferred, but forget what you heard […]

2004, Tina Fey, Mean Girls, spoken by Kevin G (Rajiv Surendra):

(US) A member of the math team of a primary school or secondary school.


hyote

(US) A cryptid sighted in Baltimore County, Maryland, that turned out to be a mangy fox.


sortation

en-noun

sortation (countable and uncountable, plural sortations)

(uncountable) The use of any process of sorting.

(countable) A process or instance of sorting.


sortation

The automated sorting of things, especially the use of barcodes to sort and route items.


voluntourism

As summer looms, many Americans — college students, retirees and others who stand at the cusp of life changes — will make similar choices in search of transformational experiences. An industry exists to make these easier to make: the voluntourism business. A voluntourist is someone like Jack, who wishes to combine exotic vacation travel with volunteer work.

2014 April 21, Rafia Zakaria, “The white tourist’s burden”, in Al Jazeera America:

A type of tourism which combines traditional travel and tourism with volunteer work. Travelers are given opportunities to contribute money and/or time to causes related to their destinations.


Euronesian

en-adj

Euronesian (comparative more Euronesian, superlative most Euronesian)

more Euronesian (comparative)
most Euronesian (superlative)

Blend of European + Polynesian (from 1938 proposal on Pacific Monthly)

Of mixed European and Pacific Islander ancestry, regardless of the continent of origin.


Euronesian

An individual of mixed European and Pacific Islander ancestry, regardless of continent of origin.


clickprint

(computing) The unique pattern of a person’s Internet browsing activity.


intervising

The act of broadcasting something on the Internet.


milab

1996, Helmut Lammer Ph.D. Preliminary Findings Of Project MILAB: Evidence For Military Kidnappings Of Alleged UFO Abductees published at The Alien Jigsaw, Mind Control Forums and on many other web sites.
Recently, some UFO abductees have reported that they have also been kidnapped by military intelligence personnel (MILAB) and taken to hospitals and/or military facilities, some of which are described as being underground.

1999, A letter from Dr. Helmut Lammer of the Austrian Space Agency to Dr. Steven Greer of the Disclosure Project, published in Greer, Steven M. Extraterrestrial Contact: The Evidence and Implications. Crossing Point Inc, →ISBN, page 8.
I will send you today a copy of the MILAB (Military Abductions) manuscript for review.

Military Abductions (MILABS)
Abductions conducted by members of the U.S. military for the purposes of either learning what happened to real alien abductees or as part of a military or CIA "mind control" program.

2004, Encyclopedic entry in William J. Birnes The UFO Magazine UFO Encyclopedia: The Most Comprehensive Single-Volume UFO Reference in Print, Pocket Books, page 215

Whatever the answer might be, the idea of military involvement in abductions became a standard feature of the abduction scenario by the mid-1990s and, like the subject of implants, became a specialized focus for an on-going study by a small group of ufologists who formed Project MILAB.

2003, Brenda Denzler, The Lure of the Edge: Scientific Passions, Religious Beliefs, and the Pursuit of UFOs, University of California Press, →ISBN, page 62:

A deceitful military operation performed to convince the targets of the operation that they have had an encounter with extraterrestrial beings, though it is actually a staged ploy.


guesstimation

en-noun

guesstimation (countable and uncountable, plural guesstimations)

The following analysis will allow future critical commentary, both academic and popular, to move away from speculation, guestimation, hedging, generalisation, and erroneous statements.

2018, James Lambert, “Setting the Record Straight: An In-depth Examination of Hobson-Jobson”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 31, number 4, →DOI, page 487:

Estimation based on guesses, usually for expedience or because no better method is available.


feebate

(economics, taxation) A tax or user charge imposed by government that charges users of socially undesirable items and applies the money to payments for users of socially desirable items.


lysergic

en-adj

lysergic (not generally comparable, comparative more lysergic, superlative most lysergic)

more lysergic (comparative)
most lysergic (superlative)

Blend of (hydro)lys(is) + erg(ot) + -ic (adjective-forming suffix). Sense 2 (“psychedelic, trippy”) refers to the effects of taking the drug lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).

Much more soluble in water than ergotoxine, ergotamine, sensibamine or ergoclavine, and is thought to be the hydroxyisopropylamide of lysergic acid.

1936, Thomas Lathrop Stedman, “ergostetrine”, in A Practical Medical Dictionary [...], 13th revised edition, Baltimore, Md.: William Wood and Company, →OCLC, page 368, column 2:

In a series of papers during the past few years Jacobs and [Lyman C.] Craig have shown that the ergot alkaloids are derivatives of a unique acid base, lysergic acid, in which the latter or an isomer is conjugated with certain amino acids or substances which can be derived from them, such as 2-aminopropanol-1, pyruvic acid, and isobutyrylformic acid. Since lysergic acid is thus the common characteristic constituent of these alkaloids, the determination of its structure became at once a major issue in the ergot alkaloid problem.

1937 August, Walter A[braham] Jacobs, R. Gordon Gould, Jr., “The Ergot Alkaloids: XII. The Synthesis of Substances Related to Lysergic Acid”, in The Journal of Biological Chemistry, volume 120, number 1, Baltimore, Md.: Published at Yale University for The Journal of Biological Chemistry, Inc. […], page 141:

In 1938, while experimenting with derivatives of ergot, a Swiss chemist named Hoffman^([sic – meaning [Albert] Hofmann]) first produced the drug, Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, by adding a diethylamide group onto lysergic acid.

1968, Charles Milton Fischer, The Effect of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide on the Carbohydrate Metabolism of the Brain (unpublished B.S. in Dentistry dissertation), San Francisco, Calif.: University of California, San Francisco, →OCLC, page 1:

We have used lysergic acid which is available commercially, and we have found that the conversion of lysergic acid to LSD can be accomplished in a relatively simple manner by procedures that can be followed by experienced chemists. In fact, we believe a crude form of LSD could be produced by a college chemistry student who had access to the equipment in a college chemistry laboratory.

1966 May 23, James L. Goddard (interviewee), The Narcotic Rehabilitation Act of 1966: Hearings before a Special Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-ninth Congress, Second Session, Pursuant to S. Res. 199 Eighty-ninth Congress and S. 2113, S. 2114, S. 2152 and LSD and Marihuana Use on College Campuses …, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 330:

The ergot alkaloids in general are classified into four main structural groups: 1. the simple amide group such as LSD and the methyl carbinolamide; 2. more complex peptide complex viz. ergotamine, where the lysergic acid moiety is linked with cyclic tri-pepide via an amide bond 3. lysergic acids and 4. clavine alkaloids[…].

2007, K. G. Ramawat, J. M. Merillon, editors, Biotechnology: Secondary Metabolites: Plants and Microbes, 2nd edition, Enfield, N.H.: Science Publishers; Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, →ISBN, page 375:

lysergic acid diethylamide
lysergic acid diethylamide#English

(not comparable, organic chemistry) Used in the designation of lysergic acid and lysergic acid diethylamide: produced by hydrolysis from ergot.


beeramid

en-noun

beeramid (countable and uncountable, plural beeramids)

(uncountable) A drinking game that involves laying fifteen playing cards out in a pyramid, and drinking based on the cards laid out.


intrapreneurial

en-adj

intrapreneurial (comparative more intrapreneurial, superlative most intrapreneurial)

more intrapreneurial (comparative)
most intrapreneurial (superlative)

Sixth, an organization that wants to become more intrapreneurial must learn to be more productive with fewer resources. Top-heavy organizations are out of date in today's hypercompetitive environment.

2004, Robert D. Hisrich, Small Business Solutions: How to Fix and Prevent the Thirteen Biggest Problems That Derail Business:

Entrepreneurial within an existing business; describing entrepreneurship within an existing business.


booboisie

A social class made up of ignorant and uncultured people.


shortalls

An overall, particularly with short-cut legs, like a pair of shorts.


forevermore

/fəˈɹɛv.ə.mɔː/

/fɔːɹˈɛv.ɚ.mɔːɹ/

Poor Pope; and I am told he is fast growing bankrupt too; and will, in a measurable term of years (a great way within the ‘three hundred’), not have a penny to make his pot boil! His old rheumatic back will then get to rest; and himself and his stage-properties sleep well in Chaos forevermore.

1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. I, Phenomena”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book III (The Modern Worker):

A frozen sun forevermore the same.

At any or all times in the future; forever

ikuisesti

at any or all times in the future; forever


ignorati

(title)

2011 October 28, Joseph Romm, “The New York Times joins the energy and climate ignorati”, in Grist Magazine:

First, we'll show you why you want to erase every piece of misinformation with which the wellness ignorati have indoctrinated you.

2013, Tom Emerick, Al Lewis, Cracking Health Costs: How to Cut Your Company's Health Costs and Provide Employees Better Care, →ISBN:

Amazon didn't patent the white cyc or the white background as the ignorati have claimed; they only patented a clever method to get the reflecting floor to blend seamlessly into the background, as-shot in-camera.

2014 June 2, Steve Schuler, “DIY Photo Light Box: Did Amazon Patent Photography Against A White Background”, in Science 2.0:

Carly has to appease the Ignorati (as I dub the right-wing base), so she touts a nonexistent fetus-harvesting video.

2015 September 23, Richard J. Rosendall, “Appeasing the Ignorati”, in Washington Blade:

The Islamic State group is doing well recruiting thousands from Europe and America, mainly young ignorati, with its pitch that they are defending Muslims against the crusaders bent on extermination of their religion.

2015 December 14, Mortimer B. Zuckerman, “To Defeat the Islamic State Group, Fight Smarter”, in U.S. News & World Report:

(slang, derogatory) The wilfully ignorant; those who choose to ignore inconvenient facts or make public claims based on falsehoods.


net-raising

Conducting marketing, advocacy, community organization and other awareness or consensus-building campaigns, through the internet.


memeplex

“Whenever you have tribes, you have shamans. So in a sense, you can see those same aggressive spokesmen for Pepe end up being that tribal shaman. Enough people will gather around their teachings, and carry them forward offline. Our empathetic connections with other people get completely overwritten by the sort of "memeplex" that's overwriting our world.”

2021 August 15, Hayley Garrigus, 38:30 from the start, in You Can't Kill Meme, spoken by self (Hayley Garrigus):

A set of memes which interact to reinforce each other.


Masshole

This damn Masshole cut in front of my car!

You're a typical Massachusetts driver, known affectionately as a "Masshole." Bit of advice: Don't ever go to Ohio, or you will get arrested within five miles of the border.

2002, John Sheirer, Free Chairs, →ISBN, page 132:

(Canada, US, derogatory, slang) A contemptible or obnoxious person from Massachusetts.

(derogatory, slang) Especially, an obnoxious or irresponsible automobile driver from Massachusetts.

OK massholes it is pouring rain, possibly all day. It is going to be more of a pain to get out and vote.

(Massachusetts, slang, usually self-referential) Any resident of Massachusetts.

Massachusetts; usually self-referential; Massachusetts; usually self-referential

God-damned Masshole trespasser who maybe ought to have his arrogant ass kicked for the hell of it.


Manipogo

The creature was dubbed Manipogo in 1957, from a blend of Manitoba + Ogopogo.

(Canada, cryptozoology) A large aquatic creature, similar to the Loch Ness monster, which supposedly lives in Lake Manitoba, Canada.


penam

(organic chemistry) A bicyclic ring system containing a beta-lactam moiety fused with a five-member thiazolidine ring; the common core skeleton of the penicillin subclass of beta-lactam antibiotics.


WiTricity

The Relay Effect on Wireless Power Transfer Using WiTricity

Highly resonant wireless power transfer, especially as developed by the WiTricity company.


stiction

en-noun

stiction (countable and uncountable, plural stictions)

(physics) The static friction that needs to be overcome to enable relative motion of stationary objects in contact.


wholetail

Sorry, Willy Loman, but the Internet's disintermediation is squeezing it all down to wholetail.

1999 November 18, “Believe Your Eyes, The New Economy Is Real”, in Wall Street Journal Online:

It has established many branches of retail and wholetail in Eastern China.

2003 July 23, “Sanjiu Group Sets Up New Branch in Shanghai”, in AsiaInfo Services:

ABC leverages the MD's web catalog for all 10000 items in their cash-n-carry, "wholetail" store just as Grainger and REI have done.

2008, Sanitary Supply Wholesaling Association, Understanding Jan-San Redistribution, page 23:

The sale of products to end user at wholesale prices.


Vietraq

Blend of Vietnam + Iraq; coined shortly before the Iraq War that began in 2003.

Or for some of the unlucky things, like Enron et al that went nuts stealing on his watch, or Vietraq that lacks enough troops according to three out of four multi-starred generals but not Rumsfeld, or the falling dollar that hasn't created sales, or the collapse of US respect which might see some recovery if we ever send troops to a country that doesn't have oil.

2003 July 9, Hobdbcgv, “The Prez - 2 wars, depression, lies, jail w/o trial ?”, in alt.politics.bush (Usenet):

Who knows, he may just hit the jackpot with the US style legal system they are installing in Vietraq.

2005 June 22, Kevin V. Russell, “Re: Ten's exclusive with Wood.”, in aus.tv (Usenet):

They know when they are paying record prices and can't afford the energy to pump water to irrigate wilting crops. They know whodunnit. Bush on bended knee has to go to China to borrow money to keep up the Vietraq War and mother hubbard's^([sic]) cupboard is bare in washington^([sic]) and getting bare in the heartland.

2006 August 2, Righturds Doing More than Al Qaeda in Gutting America, “Re: Heat wave cooks local Jersey farmers' crops”, in alt.global-warming (Usenet):

(US, slang, derogatory) The Iraq War, implying similarity with the Vietnam War where an earlier cessation of conflict might have avoided needless casualties.


tween

Because the results of a shape tween can be unpredictable, you can set shape hints to let Flash know how to proceed with the tween.

2004, Andy Anderson, Mark Del Lima, Steve Johnson, Show Me Macromedia Flash MX 2004, page 237:

A tween is a method of creating animation, where you tell Flash where to start and where to end, and Flash does all the work in the middle. There are three types of tweens: Classic, Shape, and Motion.

2009, Keith Butters, Teach Yourself VISUALLY Flash CS4 Professional, page 186:

If you select the frames first, they will be replaced by the copied tween.

2009, Rich Shupe, Learning Flash CS4 Professional, page 129:

(animation) An action of tweening (inserting frames for continuity); a sequence of frames generated by tweening.


tween

en-verb

tween (third-person singular simple present tweens, present participle tweening, simple past and past participle tweened)

tweens (present singular third-person)
tweening (participle present)
tweened (participle past)
tweened (past)

The two most important and advanced ingredients of today's animation are tweening and morphing.

2004, D. P. Mukherjee, Fundamentals of Computer Graphics and Multimedia, page 117:

Simple motion tweening moves your objects in a straight line from here to there.[…]You can also combine frame-by-frame animation with tweened animation.

2005, Ellen Finkelstein, Gurdy Leete, Macromedia Flash 8 For Dummies, page 191:

The first parameter is the object that you want to tween, and the second parameter is the amount of time you want it to take in seconds.

2012, Christopher Griffith, Real-World Flash Game Development, 2nd edition, page 113:

(cinematography) To generate intermediate frames in an animated sequence so as to give the appearance of smooth movement.


tween

Blend of teen + between in the sense of "between childhood and adolescence"

When Play Along — the holder of the Care Bears master toy license — placed Care Bears plushes in Spencer Gifts last year, tweens and teenage girls bought the toys.

2002 March 2, Billboard, volume 114, number 9, page 70:

This grade school thinking forgets that tweens are one of the most sophisticated groups of consumers in the marketplace, and that kids this age have zero tolerance for being treated like children.

2004, Lisa Johnson, Andrea Learned, Don't Think Pink: What Really Makes Women Buy--And How to Increase Your Share of This Crucial Market, page 5:

Next stop on the worthless train is the tweens who range from ages ten to thirteen years old. The tweens are so damn annoying, they make me want to jump off a cliff.

2006 Twenty Something Essays by Twenty Something Writers page 113

However, if we worry too much about feeding our tweens, and if we show them we're worried, we could be passing on some unhealthy messages.

2011, Hollie Smith, You and Your Tween: Managing the years from 9 to 13, Netmums, unnumbered page:

America's tweens (ages eight to twelve) are a population of more than twenty million.

But in this variation on Superbad’s wild night of transgression, downshifting the age of the protagonists from teen to tween actually only enhances the stealth, wide-eyed innocence that secretly drives this genre of pre-college hedonism.

2019 August 14, A. A. Dowd, “Good Boys Puts a Tween Spin on the R-rated Teen Comedy, to Mostly Funny Effect”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2021-03-04:

A child, especially a girl, in the age range between middle childhood and adolescence, normally between eight and thirteen years of age.


tween

en-adj

tween (comparative more tween, superlative most tween)

more tween (comparative)
most tween (superlative)

I am going to describe a video that threw me into a pit of despair. It begins with a woman running into the aisle of a big-box store and telling a tween boy that she needs phone chargers.

2020 January 29, Dan Brooks, “Comedy Written for the Machines”, in New York Times Magazine:


tween

At that time Frodo was still in his tweens, as the hobbits called the irresponsible twenties between childhood and coming of age at thirty-three.

1954, J.R.R. Tolkien, “2, The Shadow of the Past”, in Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring:

And although Mums don't always control the purse strings of the tweens (the younger set in their twenties), they are not entirely a forgotten influence.

(rare) A number or age in the twenties (plural only), or a person of that age.


interzine

(rare) An online publication whose onscreen appearance simulates that of a printed magazine.


agflation

/æɡˈfleɪʃən/

Blend of agricultural + inflation; compare stagflation.

(informal) An increase in the price of food crops, especially due to increased demand, and to diversification into the production of biomass