wholphin

Tursiops truncatus
Tursiops truncatus#Translingual

The fertile hybrid produced by cross-breeding a bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus (mother), and a false killer whale Pseudorca crassidens (father).


genographic

en-adj

genographic (comparative more genographic, superlative most genographic)

more genographic (comparative)
most genographic (superlative)

of the use of genetics to study human migration over time


Emacs

"Emacs was initially a text editor," says Stallman, explaining the getup. "Eventually it became a way of life for many and a religion for some. We call this religion the Church of Emacs."

2002, Sam Williams, quoting Richard Stallman, Free as in Freedom:

(computing) A particular visual or WYSIWYG text editor (first written by Richard Stallman in 1975 but since reimplemented by others in several distinct versions), distinguished by its use of control characters as editing commands, by its lack of distinct "insert" and "edit" modes, and by its featurefulness and extensibility.


spunk

en-noun

spunk (usually uncountable, plural spunks)

→ Irish: sponc

1530, blend of spark + funk (obsolete, “spark”). Also, merging with spunck, 1582, ultimately from Middle Irish sponc, from Latin spongia (“sponge”).
Funk (“spark, touchwood”) is from Middle English funke, fonke (“spark”), from Old English *funca (“spark”), from Proto-West Germanic *funkō, from Proto-Germanic *funkô (“spark”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peng- (“to shine”), and is akin to Middle Low German funke, fanke (“spark”), Middle Dutch vonke (“spark”), Old High German funcho, funko (“spark”), German Funke (“spark”).

der

Spunk, or Touch-wood prepared, might perhaps make it Russet: and some, as Beringuccio affirmeth, have promised to make it Red.

1650, Thomas Browne, chapter II, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC, 1st book, page 5:

A piece of Touch-wood (which is a kind of Jews-ear, or Mushrom, growing here in England also, on several sorts of Trees, such as Elders, Maples, Willows, &c. and is commonly call'd by the name of Spunk[…]).

1665, R[obert] Hooke, chapter XXII, in Micrographia: Or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses. […], London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC:

“I reckon I′m as good as a mule,” he declared. “Maria knows what that desert is as well as we do, but she′s got more spunk than either of us. I'm not going to let any mule show more spunk than me.”

1920 August, Edward Leonard, "Old Zeke′s Mule", Boys′ Life, p. 55

Douglas: You've got spunk. And balls. And I like that in a woman.

2007 September 28, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 2, Episode 6

(uncountable) Courage; spirit; mettle; determination.

We are welcomed by 20 year old spunks, as we make a last valiant attempt with our bodies - gasp, gasp - and try to get back in shape.

2005, Sue Austin, Women′s Aggressive Fantasies: A Post-Jungian Exploration of Self-Hatred, Love and Agency, UK: Routledge, page 166:

(countable, UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang) An attractive person (normally male).

Curse the blasted, jelly-boned swines[...] the sniveling, dribbling, dithering palsied pulse-less lot that make up England today. They've got white of egg in their veins, and their spunk is that watery it's a marvel they can breed.

1912, D.H. Lawrence, letter to Edward Garnett, 3 July 1912:

Between spunk-stained sheet and odorous whim / Camera eye-flick-shudder within

1980, “In the Flat Field”, in In the Flat Field, performed by Bauhaus:

It was runny stuff and, as she felt Brain loosen his hold on the drawstrings, Cackle's spunk dripped onto the shelf of her chin.

2007, Debra Hyde, “Kidnapped”, in Violet Blue, editor, Lust: Erotic Fantasies for Women, ReadHowYouWant, published 2010, page 188:

(uncountable, chiefly UK, vulgar, slang) Semen.


spunk

en-verb

spunk (third-person singular simple present spunks, present participle spunking, simple past and past participle spunked)

spunks (present singular third-person)
spunking (participle present)
spunked (participle past)
spunked (past)

(intransitive, obsolete) To catch fire; flame up.


Gmail

He has a Gmail account.

For now, it’s hard to conclude that Sunak will succeed in rebooting a government that’s been reset more times than most people’s Gmail passwords.

2023 June 30, Marina Hyde, “The tide is coming in fast on Rishi Sunak – and it’s full of sewage”, in The Guardian:

(trademark) A webbased e-mail system provided by Google (trademarked Gmail).


Gmail

Afterwards, when Alex had dozed off, I […] logged on to my Gmail. I sat, gazing at him sleeping and really didn’t know what to write.

2009, Lindsey Kelk, chapter 21, in I Heart New York, London: Harper, →ISBN, page 267:

[H]e saw an endless stack of Gmail accounts, one after the other. The tips of his fingers became cold as bone. He aimed at one of the Gmails and opened it, but he needed a user name and a password.

2013, Andre Dubus III, “Listen Carefully as Our Options Have Changed”, in Dirty Love, New York, N.Y.; London: W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 47:

Then I switched to my Gmail and found a heart-melting email from Rustem (Jordan), who was born in Kazakhstan and then adopted by an American family.

2022, Begaim Adilkhanova, “A Learning Journey by Being Far and Near: A Lesson Designed in the R2D2 Framework”, in Curtis J[ay] Bonk, Meina Zhu, editors, Transformative Teaching Around the World: Stories of Cultural Impact, Technology Integration, and Innovative Pedagogy, New York, N.Y.; Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, →ISBN, Section 3 (Teaching With Technology), Introduction:

Although the service was free, Google planned to make money. It would include ads, or “sponsored links,” with each Gmail. […] For example, if someone wrote about a planned vacation, the person receiving the Gmail might notice sponsored links for airlines, travel agencies, or car rentals. Did this mean someone at Google was reading the Gmails? No, but many users were uneasy and indignant.

2010, Stephanie Sammartino McPherson, “Branching Out in All Directions”, in Sergey Brin and Larry Page: Founders of Google (USA Today Lifeline Biographies), Minneapolis, Minn.: Twenty-First Century Books, →ISBN, page 69:

My wife, Betty, for helping me get through the Gmails and the computer know-how.

2023, Paul Nyberg, Willey’s I Wish I Were, New York, N.Y.: Austin Macauley Publishers, →ISBN:

Clearly he is alluding to the Gmails I sent parodying the well-known Dead Sea Scrolls pundit and distinguished department chairman Lawrence Schiffman of New York University—parodies that made him appear to be accusing himself of misconduct.

2024, Raphael Golb, “A Small Controversy in Lower Manhattan”, in The Qumran Con: A Dead Sea Scrolls Memoir, Bloomington, Ind.: Archway Publishing, →ISBN:


Gmail

Gmail (third-person singular simple present Gmails, present participle Gmailing, simple past and past participle Gmailed)

Gmails (present singular third-person)
Gmailing (participle present)
Gmailed (participle past)
Gmailed (past)

Gmail me!

I Googled my professor and found his home page . . . I Gmailed him my report.

2008, Greg Holden, “Learning from Google: A 21st-Century Model for Success”, in Go Google: 20 Ways to Reach More Customers and Build Revenue with Google Business Tools, New York, N.Y.: AMACOM, →ISBN, Part I (Getting Ready to Go Google), page 3:

(informal, ditransitive) To send (someone) an e-mail using Gmail.


infotainment

en-noun

infotainment (countable and uncountable, plural infotainments)

A form of programming (cinematic, television, live action, etc.) that provides both information and entertainment, consisting of mostly celebrity news and human drama.

asiaviihde

form of programming that provides both information and entertainment


rayon

rayon (countable and uncountable, plural rayons)

Name chosen by the National Retail Dry Goods Association of America, probably from French rayon (“beam of light, ray”) and so called because it is shiny; however, the Oxford English Dictionary states that it is apparently a blend of ray + cotton.

A manufactured regenerated cellulosic fiber.


wilco

Wilco, Bravo Six Three will take the north road. Bravo Six Four will take the south road, out.

(radio communications) Indicates agreement and compliance.


wilco

en-verb

wilco (third-person singular simple present wilcos, present participle wilcoing, simple past and past participle wilcoed)

wilcos (present singular third-person)
wilcoing (participle present)
wilcoed (participle past)
wilcoed (past)

(radio communications, rare) To give the "wilco" indication.


administrivia

en-noun

administrivia (countable and uncountable, plural administrivia)

Blend of administrative + trivia. First use appears c. 1937 in International Journal of Ethics.

Administrivia take up two hours of every day.

Administrivia takes up two hours of every day.

Administrative details that which take a significant amount of time to complete.


ruckus

Recorded since 1890; probably a blend of ruction (“disturbance”) + rumpus (“disturbance, fracas”).


snuba

This isn’t scuba, or even snuba, but simply underwater walking!

2001, Christie Stilson, Maui and Lanaʻi, Ninth Edition, Prima, page 400

One raft will support two snuba-divers. ¶ […] Orientation for the snuba activity is usually about 30 min, followed by a 30-min undersea experience.

2008, Charles Hammersley, “Snuba”, in Michael Lück, editor, The Encyclopedia of Tourism and Recreation in Marine Environments, CABI, →ISBN, page 439:

A fun alternative in the sea is a “snuba” tour, where snorkelers can go underwater tethered by a breathing tube to an air-supply float on the surface.

2010, Marcie and Rick Carroll, The Unofficial Guide to Hawaii, John Wiley and Sons, →ISBN, page 290:

(sports) A combination of snorkeling and scuba diving where the swimmer uses the fins, mask, and breathing apparatus commonly used in scuba diving, but the oxygen tanks usually strapped to the back are instead attached to floating rafts that remain on the water's surface.


vertiport

(aviation) An airport for VTOL aircraft.


animatronics

/ˌænɪməˈtɹɒnɪks/

Blend of animation + electronics, from the Disney trademark "Audio-Animatronics".

Claim that Armitage was not a real rat but an animatronics one that she had made in Science class.

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

A form of robotics used to create robots that produce preset moves and prerecorded sounds.

ShowBiz Pizza Place
animatronics
the Rock-afire Explosion


gaydar

en-noun

gaydar (countable and uncountable, plural gaydars)

Blend of gay + radar, equivalent to gay + -dar.

This is not your Hallmark in Ames, Iowa. And there is “family” working there … no radar like gaydar, I always say.

1982 July 15, Gloria Goodqueen, “What’s in a card”, in Bay Area Reporter, volume XII, number 28, San Francisco, Calif.: Benro Enterprises, →OCLC, page 7, column 1:

When you first come out, you might have an overactive gaydar. When I realized I was gay, I wanted everyone to be gay too, which led to a lot of wishful thinking. "Helen Hunt is gay!" Dream on, girl!

1996, Judy Carter, “Step 3: Find Another Homo”, in The Homo Handbook: Getting in Touch with Your Inner Homo, New York, N.Y.: Fireside Books, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 51:

"I dunno. He's carried this one on since Halloween. I'm starting to think the lie was actually the 'straight guy role'. I may have a crappy gaydar, but having faked heterosexuality before, I feel like I should be able to recognize it."

2013 May 12, Jocelyn Samara DiDomenick, “Comic 368 – January Girls”, in Rain (webcomic), archived from the original on 2022-12-08:

The research, which went viral this week, used a sample of online dating photos, limited only to white users, to demonstrate that an algorithm could correctly distinguish between gay and straight men 81% of the time and 74% for women, suggesting machines can potentially have much better "gaydar" than humans.

2017 September 9, Sam Levin, “LGBT groups denounce ‘dangerous’ AI that uses your face to guess sexuality”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-04-29:

Dr. Lillihammer started to walk past her, but stopped directly in front of her. Inches apart, they stared at each other. Sizing the other woman up, doing a little consulting of their gaydars. Heather felt Lillian's breath on her cheek and tried not to visibly let the shiver go down her spine.

2024 February 25, Queerious, “The Deadname Meme”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 2024-09-02:

(LGBTQ slang) The supposed ability to detect whether or not a person is gay by observing that person's appearance, mannerisms, etc.


Microsoft

From Microsoft, name of the computing company; a blend of microcomputer + software. See -soft.


smirt

en-verb

smirt (third-person singular simple present smirts, present participle smirting, simple past and past participle smirted)

smirts (present singular third-person)
smirting (participle present)
smirted (participle past)
smirted (past)

Blend of smoke + flirt. Apparently coined in Ireland following ban on smoking in pubs.

Smirting - a cross between smoking and flirting - is already a huge hit in Dublin where the ban has been in place for two years

2006 March 25, “BURNING PASSION IN CIGGIE SHELTERS”, in The Scottish Daily Record:

I have dated three guys that I smirted with, and one of them is now my current boyfriend.

2007 July 2, Clover Stroud, “Smoke signals: new dating paths?”, in Daily Mail:

Smirting is believed to have started in Temple Bar, Dublin, in 2004

2008 July 1, “Unintended consequences of the smoking ban”, in BBC NEWS:

As a result, despite the ban, the smoking rate in Ireland has been stuck at around 28% and the expected decline in cigarette consumption never materialized. A new social practice quickly emerged called “smirting”, where young Dubliners smoke and flirt with members of the opposite sex

2012, GN Connolly, “How Society Treats Smoking”, in Israel Journal of Health Policy Research:

(intransitive, UK, Ireland) To chat up or flirt with (someone) while smoking outside a pub.


bork

bork (third-person singular simple present borks, present participle borking, simple past and past participle borked)

borks (present singular third-person)
borking (participle present)
borked (participle past)
borked (past)

It was Oscar Wilde who remarked on the phenomenon of Life imitating Art . What with the tabloid Press, and Princess Di borking her riding instructor in a high-life, contemporary update of Lady Chatterley's Lover, we may soon not need fiction […]

1994, The Book Review, volumes 18-19, page 34:

(vulgar, slang) To boink; to have sex with.


identikit

Blend of identification + kit, originally a trademark.

A picture of a person, reconstructed from strips showing facial features selected to match witnesses' descriptions; used by the police to build a likeness of a person sought for a crime.


vurp

BTW, dry toast is the rule for a major case of the "vurps " . <g>

1999 January 20, User455673, “Re: Jets set new post season record!”, in alt.sports.football.pro.ne-patriots (Usenet):

Gore can't even change the inflection in his voice without sounding like someone trying to talk and hold a vurp back at the same time.

2000 August 18, SilverBullet, “Al Gore: I Am My Own Man...”, in alt.current-events.clinton.whitewater (Usenet):

well i don't know. for instance, i'd rather smell a burp rather than a fart, unless, it happened to be a very bad burp (or even worse, a vurp).

2001 April 14, Mike Kim, “Re: 3 way component sets”, in rec.audio.car (Usenet):

Vannellope: And now... Now I think I'm going to puke, actually. I mean, I think I might puke. You know, like a "vurp."
Ralph: A what?
Vannellope: Vomit and a burp together, and you can taste it, and it's like just like rising up... Oh, this is so exciting!

2012 October 29, Wreck-It Ralph, spoken by Vanellope von Schweetz and Wreck-It Ralph (Sarah Silverman and John C. Reilly):

(slang) A belch where a small amount of stomach acid is brought up into the mouth, creating a taste similar to that of vomit.


vurp

vurp (third-person singular simple present vurps, present participle vurping, simple past and past participle vurped)

vurps (present singular third-person)
vurping (participle present)
vurped (participle past)
vurped (past)

“If Laurie gets two sundaes, then I get two,” Bonnie said. […] ¶ “You’ll vurp,” I said. ¶ “What’s vurp?” Her brows knotted suspiciously. ¶ “It’s when you burp, only you almost vomit.” ¶ […] ¶ “It’s a Celeste-ism,” I said.

2005, Nancy N. Rue, ’Nama Beach High Book 4: Totally Unfair, Zondervan, →ISBN, page 32:

She heads into the kitchen to pour a glass of the all-American drink [milk] for our all-American athlete. The scene is enough to make me want to vurp. How did I end up the lone monster in a family that belongs on a porcelain Christmas plate?

2007, Melissa Walker, Violet on the Runway, Berkley Books, →ISBN, page 26:

I took some meat loaf and mashed potatoes even though I wasn’t hungry. […] I’m regretting it now as I ride my mountain bike, vurping onions and garlic and hard-boiled egg.

2009, Don Calame, Swim the Fly, Candlewick Press, →ISBN, page 39:

(slang) To experience a combination of burping and vomiting.


Larry

No one gets named Larry anymore. It's had it as a name. Think of someone called Larry and you automatically conjure up a guy drinking beer in a sixties rec room.

1998, Carol Shields, Larry's Party, Penguin, →ISBN, page 254:

"Larry, name's Larry." I smiled, it was too ridiculous. He was worried about me calling him Lawrence instead of Larry with a rogue zombie climbing out of the dirt.

2002, Laurell K. Hamilton, Circus of the Damned, JOVE, →ISBN, page 149:

A diminutive of the male given name Laurence or Lawrence, popular as a male given name in the U.S. in the 1940s and the 1950s.


golliwog

Probably a blend of golly + polliwog Coined for the illustrations by Florence Kate Upton for her mother Bertha Upton′s 1895 children′s book, The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls — and a ‘Golliwogg’.

golliwogg

original spelling, dropped within nine years of publication


federast

... while chuckling over Lady Thatcher's reference to "federast Tory MEPS" and her reluctance to campaign for them last time round, in 1989.

I enjoyed the company of Jacques Delors, later to become a demon federast in the eyes of the Tory Right, rather more.

1999, George Walden, Lucky George: Memoirs of an Anti-politician, page 164:

... as stubborn and jingoistic for defending British sovereignty in Ulster, not giving in to the IRA hunger strike and for rejecting Federast Europe

2000 January 31, “Blame Britain first”, in Washington Times:

As the poison has gone out of the European wound, the Conservative Party should now be able to tolerate a Federast leader.

2005 June 20, Bruce Anderson, “Ken Clarke may appeal to Middle England - but he is...”, in Independent:

(derogatory) A federalist, especially in the EU.


frass

Although purists object to artificial turf or ‘frass’, it finds purchase as way to save water in parched Golden State

2015 May 30, Rob Kuznia, “California turns to fake grass in response to drought”, in The Guardian:


cuboctahedron

en-noun

cuboctahedron (plural cuboctahedrons or cuboctahedra)

cuboctahedrons (plural)
cuboctahedra (plural)

Blend of cube + octahedron, reflecting the fact that it can be regarded both as a rectified cube and a rectified octahedron.

There are just two polyhedra that will fulfill these conditions: the cuboctahedron and the icosidodecahedron (Diagram 3.3).

1976, Hugh Kenner, Geodesic Math and how to Use it, page 21:

In the case of perfect, symmetric L1₀ cuboctahedra, two of the (001)-surfaces have to be terminated completely with either iron or platinum.

2008, M. E. Gruner, Georg Rollmann, Alfred Hucht, Peter Entel, “Structural and Magnetic Proprties of Transition Metal Nanoparticles from First Principles”, in Rolf Haug, editor, Advances in Solid State Physics 47, page 124:

Octahedra are also needed to make the packing of square-sharing cuboctahedra space filling (Fig. 2.4(c)).

2009, Walter Steurer, Sofia Deloudi, Crystallography of Quasicrystals: Concepts, Methods and Structures, page 54:

2015, Ke Jiang, Antoliy O. Pinchuk, Chapter Two: Noble Metal Nanomaterials: Synthetic Routes, Fundamental Properties, and Promising Applications, Robert E. Camley, Robert L. Stamps (editors), Solid State Physics, Volume 66, Elsevier, page 151,
Yang and coworkers have prepared Pt cuboctahedrons and cubes by reducing K₂PtCl₄ with H₂ generated in situ from the hydrolysis of NaBH₄ in the presence of tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide as a surfactant [157,158].

(geometry) An Archimedean solid that has fourteen faces (eight triangular and six square) and is both isogonal and isotoxal.

kuboktaedri

polyhedron with 8 triangular and 6 square faces


transceiver

A combined radio transmitter and receiver.

(computing) A device that performs transmitting and receiving functions, especially if using common components.


brainiac

Blend of brain + maniac, with influence from ENIAC, the name of an early computer. The term was coined in the Superman comic book and first appeared in Action Comics #242 in July, 1958.

With all the brainiacs in the world ... you'd think somebody would come up with a sunblock for ice cream.

2009 July 18, Tom Armstrong, Marvin (comic):

With nearly 900,000 Twitter followers, Popova is a member of a rare pantheon of “influencers” for the brainiac crowd. Miraculously, she makes a living writing a blog about science, literature, philosophy, feminism and whatever else takes her voracious and generous fancy.

2019 February 8, Margaret Wertheim, “Minds that explore the beauty of math and the logic of art”, in Washington Post, →ISSN:

(slang, sometimes derogatory) A very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person.

nero

a very intelligent and usually studious, erudite person


gunk

gunk (countable and uncountable, plural gunks)

Apparently from Gunk, trademark name for a liquid soap; perhaps taken as a blend of grime + funk.

I washed all the gunk off the light fixture, and found that it was white, not brown.

Don't get gunk on me. I took a bath last Saturday and I'm all clean.

1989 May 18, Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes (comic):

(uncountable, informal) Dirt or grime; any vague, messy, or unknown substance.

лепкав отпадък

dirt or grime; any vague or unknown substance

(uncountable) A subculture of 21st century American males, combining elements of modern gothic culture with punk rock.

(countable) A member of the gunk subculture.


gunk

en-verb

gunk (third-person singular simple present gunks, present participle gunking, simple past and past participle gunked)

gunks (present singular third-person)
gunking (participle present)
gunked (participle past)
gunked (past)


emergy

(ecology) the total energy used in the life cycle of some product; the available energy of one kind that has to be used up directly and indirectly to make a product or service.


transduction

en-noun

transduction (countable and uncountable, plural transductions)

1650s, Latin transductionem, form of Latin trānsdūcō (“lead across”). By surface analysis, transduce + -tion.

(biology) The transfer of genetic material from one cell to another typically between bacterial cells, and typically via a bacteriophage or pilus.


blaxploitation

Blend of black + exploitation (from exploitation film) or blend of blax + exploitation.

(film) A genre of exploitation films of the 1970s that starred black actors.


mechatronics

Advanced technology to create energy-saving, resorce-saving and highly intelligent systems by integrating mechanics, electronics and software is called mechatronics.

1989, Makoto Kajitani, A Concept of Mechatronics:

So what's this new hybrid called a Mechatronics Engineer? Simply stated, these pros apply mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering theory and techniques to create automated, intelligent products, smart devices, and industrial control systems--systems that can then be "taught" to improve their performance. This is where many future engineering jobs are headed.

2012, Alex A. Kecskes, The Rise of the Mechatronics Engineer:

mechanical engineering
mechanical engineering

software engineering
software engineering

The synergistic combination of mechanical engineering, electronic engineering and software engineering for the study of automata from an engineering perspective and the control of advanced hybrid systems.


transputer

One of the most intriguing advances has been the development of the transputer, a single-chip computer developed by Inmos Ltd.

1991, Ronald S. Cok, Parallel programs for the transputer:

(computing) A single chip with CPU, memory and communications capability, used in grids to form parallel processing computers.


transponder

A radar or radio transceiver that transmits some signal in response to receiving a predetermined signal.


snirt

We then have what we call ‘snirt’ storms.

1975, United States House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture and Related Agencies, Agriculture and Related Agencies Appropriations for 1976, page 175:

Snirt or a mixture of snow and dirt is the term popularly applied to the windrows of dirt along the roads during a Minnesota winter.

1985, United States House Committee on Agriculture, General Farm Bill of 1985: Hearings Before the Committee on Agriculture, page 924:

‘Snirt’ is a thing of the spring.

1997, William S. Burroughs, Last Words, Grove Press, →ISBN, page 73:

[…] it wasn't a hard winter. Only a couple of blizzards and snirt and snuss storms.

2004, Dean Norman, Studio Cards: Funny Greeting Cards and People Who Created Them, Trafford Publishing,, →ISBN, page 131:

(Canada, US) Snow that is dirty, often seen by the side of roads and parking lots that have been plowed.


applistructure

(computing) The amalgamation of applications and technological infrastructure.


hydrauger

A horizontal boring machine used to install pipelines etc. under roadways


Eurocrat

Blend of Euro- + bureaucrat, by surface analysis, Euro- + -crat.

(slang, derogatory) An employee or minister of the European Union, typically working in Brussels or Strasbourg.


transistor

Blend of transfer + resistor. Said to have been coined by American engineer John Robinson Pierce in 1947.

coinage

Turn your transistor on and let the music play


copyvio

en-noun

copyvio (countable and uncountable, plural copyvios)

My suggestion is to read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyright_violations to see our mechanism that deals with copyvios.

2005 January 3, ta bu shi da yu, “Re: Wikipedia - Check pages for copied articles”, in misc.transport.road (Usenet):

These are the edits made to this article before the deletion of versions that included copyvio.

2005 June 24, “TheoClarke” (username), in “Gun Quarter, Birmingham/Deleted history”, Wikipedia, quoted in Deleting: Webster's Quotations, Facts and Phrases, ICON Group International (2008), page 44

Despite gazillions of copyvios, there are still valid and legitimate groups there which are not harmed in the least by this.

2007 February 1, cpghost, “Re: FreeBSD Torrent Server”, in list.freebsd.questions (Usenet):

2009 June 19, Jon Dowland <[email removed]>, “new freedoom packages for stable and oldstable to fix copyvio”, in linux.debian.devel.release (Usenet):

copyright infringement
copyright infringement

(wiki jargon, originally Wikimedia jargon) A violation of copyright laws: copyright infringement.


radome

Blend of radar + dome, originating from the 1940s.

Radar antennas were distributed in large quantities throughout the base, half of them in white radomes that looked as if some gigantic bird had laid a clutch of eggs at random.
Translated from 超新星纪元 by Cixin Liu, 2004.

2019, Joel Martinsen (translator), Supernova Era, Tor, page 233


medicide

medicide (countable and uncountable, plural medicides)

Blend of medical + suicide. Compare -cide.

Medically assisted suicide; suicide accomplished with the assistance of a physician.


coydog

Canis latrans
Canis latrans#Translingual

Canis lupus familiaris
Canis lupus familiaris#Translingual

Any hybrid of a coyote (Canis latrans) and a (usually feral) dog (Canis lupus familiaris).

A hybrid between a male coyote and a female dog.


banoffee pie

banoffee pie (countable and uncountable, plural banoffee pies)

Many walkers who had never travelled this route before were hugely impressed by the scenic beauty of the line, which they enjoyed along with another excellent meal of lasagne with garlic bread, followed by banoffee pie.

2023 July 12, Paul Bigland, “Walkers and helpers play a 3 Peaks blinder”, in RAIL, number 987, page 60:

A dessert made from bananas, toffee and cream on a base of crushed biscuit or similar.


memetics

(philosophy) The study of memes and their social and cultural effects.


adultescent

1996, Precision Marketing 17 June 21/4 Consider the importance of adultescents to the music biz—they make up over a third of the audience at gigs, but have more cash to spend than teenagers.

First he was known as the ultimate adultescent, a thirty/fortysomething who admitted to being fixated with football and music and stuck at the mental/emotional age of 14.

2001, Andrew Calcutt, Brit Cult: An A-Z of British Pop Culture, page 237:

PlayStation2 and X-Box are all very well. But for die-hard video-game connoiseurs the Golden Age ended on 1 February, when Sega announced that the Dreamcast was to cease production after just three years. Stung by Sony's success since 1995 with PlayStation, the veteran video-game firm had put all its energies into a final charge on the hearts and minds of kids and adultescents with an affordable, technologically advanced new console.

2001 December 30, Peter Lyle, “Farewell 2001”, in Independent on Sunday:

This time his protagonist is not a gormless ‘adultescent’ but a middle-aged woman named Meg Riddoch.

2004, Australian Book Review, numbers 258-267, page 51:

For more than a year, the senator's "adultescent" campaign staffers have been swarming college campuses in beat-up cars with college logos, collecting names, building databases, and creating a social networking juggernaut […].

2008, Business Week, numbers 4065-4072, page 122:

An adult who continues to participate in and enjoy youth culture.


aquacise

en-verb

aquacise (third-person singular simple present aquacises, present participle aquacising, simple past and past participle aquacised)

aquacises (present singular third-person)
aquacising (participle present)
aquacised (participle past)
aquacised (past)

She aquacised the hippos in the zoo's pond before feeding them.


bonkbuster

However, there would certainly be no Insatiable without Jilly Cooper. The bonkbusters of the 80s were responsible for my sentimental sex education. Like millions of readers, I fell in love with every aspect of the universe Cooper created.

2021 March 31, Daisy Buchanan, “The return of the bonkbuster: how horny heroines are starting a new sexual revolution”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(colloquial, chiefly UK) A popular novel involving frequent explicit sexual encounters, normally in a contemporary setting.


vart

(vulgar, slang) An emission of air from the vagina, especially when audible; a queef.


vart

vart (third-person singular simple present varts, present participle varting, simple past and past participle varted)

varts (present singular third-person)
varting (participle present)
varted (participle past)
varted (past)


carjacking

The violent hijacking of a vehicle and sometimes its driver.


paratrooper

/ˈpɛɹətɹupɜɹ/

Upon receiving intelligence reports about the massing of enemy paratroopers, General Peng Dehuai posted a defence regiment at Yan'an airfield, and requested that Mao leave Yan'an as soon as possible.

1992, Yanchi (权延赤) Quan, “Mao Enjoys a Challenge”, in Wang Wenjiong, transl., edited by Gale Hadfield, 走下神坛的毛泽东 [Mao Zedong: Man, Not God], Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, published 1996, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 13:

A type of soldier who is trained to enter combat zones by parachuting from aircraft.


submarium

en-noun

submarium (plural submaria or submariums)


bleg

en-verb

bleg (third-person singular simple present blegs, present participle blegging, simple past and past participle blegged)

blegs (present singular third-person)
blegging (participle present)
blegged (participle past)
blegged (past)

Blend of blog + beg. British-born American far-right political commentator, writer, journalist and computer programmer John Derbyshire claims to have coined the verb in 2002, although earlier usage may have occurred.

coin

That guy will bleg on the most unusual topics.

The Freakonomics blog posted a "bleg" from "Yale Book of Quotations" editor Fred Shapiro, in which Shapiro blegged for modern proverbs.

2008 May 18, “Strange looks and funny lines from the past week”, in Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

About ten days ago, I blegged for comments about great conservative novels — NRO readers now have posted more than 200 entries here [hyperlink redacted].

2009 November 30, John J. Miller, “Novels of the Right, cont.”, in National Review Online:

Zimmer had "blegged" (that’s right, begged on his blog) his readers to help him compile a number of book and article titles for inclusion in that list, and they "did not disappoint."

2009 August 7, Curtis Brainard, “It’s Tanking; I’m Teaching…”, in Columbia Journalism Review:

Yesterday, I shamelessly blegged people to vote for my son in a Parents magazine cutest kid contest.

2010 April 15, Iain Murray, “Chicagoan Voting System!”, in National Review Online:

(Internet slang) To create an entry on a blog requesting information or contributions.


nitrofurantoin

(pharmacology) A synthetic nitrofuran drug, 1-(5-nitro-2-furfurylideneamino)hydantoin, that is a broad-spectrum antimicrobial agent used in the treatment on urinary tract infections such as cystitis.


animat

Coined by Scientist Stewart W. Wilson in 1985 as a blend of animal + material. Whether the coincidences with Latin animat and/or a nominalization of Middle English animat were intended is unclear.


twiddle

en-verb

twiddle (third-person singular simple present twiddles, present participle twiddling, simple past and past participle twiddled)

twiddles (present singular third-person)
twiddling (participle present)
twiddled (participle past)
twiddled (past)

Unknown. Perhaps a blend of twirl, twist, or twitch + fiddle.

blend

She sat and nervously twiddled her hair while she waited.

The harder Small sang, the harder the cow chewed and the faster she twiddled her ears around as if stirring the song into the food to be rechewed in cud along with her breakfast.

1942, Emily Carr, “Singing”, in The Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC:

(transitive) To wiggle, fidget or play with; to move around.

James Orchard Halliwell
w:James Halliwell-Phillipps

(intransitive) To play with anything; hence, to be busy about trifles.


twiddle

He put away the receiver with a twiddle of pudgy fingers.

2011, Edgar Pangborn, A Mirror for Observers:

The hero, who must have been only a very few years older than Tom himself, gave a cursory nod and a twiddle of his fingers, then turned to his left to address Daniel Lysons who did not answer but caught Tom’s eye and raised his own eyebrow at this rudeness.

2018, Corille Fraser, A Coloured Canvas:

Why should I agree that a twiddle of skirts from right to left and pointing a toe in one direction mean “He loves me,” while the reverse twiddle and the toe pointed in the opposite direction “He loves me not”?

1945, James Agate, A Shorter Ego, page 144:

Instead, flagellar motion causes the bacterium to swim smoothly (called a run), then stop and tumble (a twiddle), followed by another period of smooth swimming

1998, James D. Mauseth, Botany: An Introduction to Plant Biology, page 522:

A raised white brow in my direction, and a twiddle of the pipe stem toward the trail indicated that his wife was at our house, if that's who I was looking for.

2011, Diana Gabaldon, A Breath Of Snow And Ashes, page 223:

“Oh, auntie,” she exclaims, “these great Goths of Englishmen put a twiddle into the last bar of the ‘Minstrel Boy,’ just fancy that!”

That opening little flutter down the scale evokes an atmosphere when played by the flute; on the pianoforte it is a mere twiddle.

1925, The Musical Times and Singing-class Circular, page 59:

With a toot on the flute and a twiddle on the fiddle, O!

1939, The Nineteenth Century and After, volume CXXVI, page 76:

The band came in with a basic rock arrangement, Cropper’s triplets stamped by Jackson’s metronomic snare and cymbal, and Jenkins added neat little twiddle flourishes.

2015, Mark Ribowsky, Dreams to Remember:


surfactant

(chemistry) A surface-active agent, or wetting agent, capable of reducing the surface tension of a liquid; typically organic compounds having a hydrophilic “head” and a hydrophobic “tail”.


Beatles

Originally spelled Beatals, punningly referencing the expression beat all (“surpass everything”), then later altered to Beatles, blend of beat + beetles, with beat referring to "beat music" or the "beat" of a drum, and beetles inspired by the contemporaneous band name The Crickets.

Don't tell me to play goddamn Beatles in my house. We're in America, I swear to God.

2023, Priscilla Presley, Sandra Harmon, Sofia Coppola, Priscilla, spoken by Elvis (Jacob Elordi):

An extremely successful and influential British rock music quartet that operated primarily in the 1960s.


Fortran

A variant capitalization of FORTRAN (formally adopted with Fortran 90 in 1991), a blend of formula + translator or formula + translation.

He was the defiant homesteader, the crusty senior member of a research team who understood Algol and Fortran but couldn't read the secrets of his own heart.

In addition to the Fortran operators that are intrinsic (built in), there may be user-defined operators in expressions.

1997, Jeanne C. Adams, Walter S. Brainerd, Jeanne T. Martin, Brian T. Smith, Jerrold L. Wagener, Fortran 95 Handbook: Complete ISO/ANSI Reference, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 192:

programming language
programming language

(computer languages) A high-level programming language first developed in the 1950s for scientific, engineering, and numerical computation.


Intel

Intel Corporation, a US-based multinational corporation that is best known for designing and manufacturing microprocessors and specialized integrated circuits.


Lintel

(computing) The computing environment of the Linux operating system running on an Intel CPU; mostly in a server.


Muppet

Diane Sawyer
Elmo
Jim Henson
Kevin Clash
Muppet

Coined by Jim Henson as an alteration of puppet. Henson had claimed the word was a blend of marionette + puppet, but later recanted.

A type of puppet created by Jim Henson or his studio, typically operated with one hand of the puppeteer inside the head and a rod or glove to move one arm of the puppet.

One of a group of established puppet characters acting as a sort of repertory company on The Muppet Show, and/or appearing on Sesame Street.

'I'll come, if you like,' Paul says. 'I'm not asking you, Muppet,' Kit snaps.

English version: I'm A Cockney Geezer, You Muppet. No, you are an upper middle class, public school educated wanker (it takes one to know one) and I feel I must apologize to everyone on behalf of the land of my birth for the many crimes to cinema committed in the wake of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998).

2011, Julian Hoxter, Write What You Don't Know, page 45:

She tilts her head towards him, and whispers in his ear, “Of course I do, you Muppet. I keep telling you to trust The Source and our guides; don't I?"

2013, Guy Dance, Soul Brigade: The Mission of Light, page 245:

What's your fucking name you Muppet? I won't ask you again.

2018, Peter D. Bull, Undercover, page 13:

Not that kind of atmosphere, you Muppet. A cut it with a knife atmosphere.

2021, Margaret de Rohan, The Icarus Affair:

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Eastern US, South Africa, slang, derogatory) Alternative form of muppet (fool).


Snark

Coined by Lewis Carroll as a nonce word in The Hunting of the Snark (1874). According to Beatrice Hatch, Carroll created this word as a blend of snail + shark.

A ketch built by Jack London named after Lewis Carroll's poem The Hunting of the Snark


Telex

Central Telegraph Office
General Post Office
Telex (input method)
Western Union

From Telex Printergram, a service offered beginning 15 Aug. 1932 by the British General Post Office's Central Telegraph Office, derived as a blend of tele- (“telegraph, teletype, teleprinter, etc.”) + exchange. Subsequently branded in the United States by Western Union and then similarly genericized. In reference to the Vietnamese conventions, a borrowing of Vietnamese Telex, from French télex, from the English term.

(computing) Input method for Vietnamese text based on this convention.


Tux

Coined by James Hughes as a short form of Torvalds Unix (after Linus Torvalds), perhaps also influenced by tux, referring to the tuxedo that penguins are sometimes humorously said to be wearing.

A cuddly cartoon penguin, the official Linux mascot.


scrummy

en-adj

scrummy (comparative scrummier, superlative scrummiest)

scrummier (comparative)
scrummiest (superlative)

Of course one did get some scrummy things to eat abroad, that cook did not, somehow, produce at home; and the people looked different […]

1930, Ralph Hale Mottram, The English Miss:

There's an all day menu, with lots of fish dishes such as fish soup, tuna, and monkfish. Pudding might include a scrummy rosemary panacotta.

After mopping up the last bits with my scrummy nan breads we settled down to watch the DVD of "The Two Towers" from "Lord of the Rings" […]

2006, Julie Wilson, Our Spanish Winters:


Freecycle

An Internet-based community where people can freely give unwanted items to others.


gription

The pad is covered with the same Gription Mesh as the belt

1984 Colin Fletcher - The Complete Walker III - Page 138

1996, “Lego Gription?” [message subject] Scott, in rec.toys.lego <4seh6l$i6e@news.interlog.com>

2001, The Straight Dope Staff Report https://web.archive.org/web/20051104023242/http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/msurfwax.html
The wax is for gription, which is a word I invented. You rub it on top of the board to keep your feet and hands from slipping off.

...I was up and out in no time, with only a few 'moves' on a steep stretch of slickrock, mostly trusting my shoes for gription.

2003, Jim Beard, Sandstone Way, Virtualbookworm Publishing, p60

2004, Gription [film title] http://www.griptionmovie.com/

The property of gripping and providing traction.


Reaganomics

Blend of Reagan + economics, equivalent to Reagan + -nomics.

Many opponents of Reaganomics, in fact, don't contend that the program can't work over the long run. But they argue that the program can not work the way the President promised and that the resulting social cost isn't worth it.

1982 January 3, Jonathan Fuerbringer, “Reaganomics: The Report Card for 1981, and the Prospects”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

However, until the wheels came off the wagon in 2008, no doubt existed as to the efficacy of Bush's Reaganomics redux in feathering the nests of his wealthy “base.”

supply-side economics
supply-side economics

trickle-down hypothesis
trickle-down hypothesis

The neoliberal, free market economic ideas and policies of the American president Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) and his two administrations (1981–1989), with a focus on reduced government spending, taxation, and regulations (supply-side economics) and granting potential benefits and encouragement to wealthy people and businesses in particular to drive the rest of the economy (trickle-down hypothesis).


popsicle

From the trade name Popsicle, a blend of (soda) pop or lollipop + Epsicle (original trade name), itself a blend of Epperson (surname of the inventor) + icicle.

blend

(chiefly US, Canada) Frozen fruit juice, flavored sugar water, or the like, on a stick, of a size to be one serving.


beefalo

en-noun

beefalo (plural beefalo or beefalos or beefaloes)

beefalo (plural)
beefalos (plural)
beefaloes (plural)

A cross between a domestic cow and an American buffalo or bison.


banoffee

A British cream filling made from banana and toffee.


tangelo

/ˈtænd͡ʒələʊ/

A citrus fruit that is a cross between a tangerine and a pomelo or a grapefruit.

Citrus aurantium Tangelo Group [= Citrus ×paradisi × Citrus reticulata]

tangelo:

A red-orange colour, like that of a tangelo.


mochaccino

(US) The coffee drink cappuccino made with chocolate.


frappuccino

frappuccino (plural frappuccinos or (rare) frappuccini)

frappuccinos (plural)
frappuccini (plural rare)

French: frappuccino

Spanish: frappuccino

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

Blend of frappe + cappuccino.
Genericization of Frappuccino.
From a Starbucks tradename (Frappuccino), from frappe (“a sort of milkshake”) and cappuccino.


cruft

Circa 1959, MIT Tech Model Railroad Club. Unknown origin; possibly from Cruft Hall, built in 1915 as a gift from a donor named Harriet Otis Cruft. Cruft Hall was the radar laboratory of Harvard's physics department during the Second World War, which contained much old and unused technical equipment. Possibly blend of crust + fluff, both of which may form on old abandoned things, or influenced by crud.

The PEB includes the list of loaded modules (i.e., the EXE and DLLs), the memory containing environment strings, the current working directory, and data for managing the process’ heaps—as well as lots of special-case Win32 cruft that has been added over time.

2015 [1992], Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems, 4th edition, →ISBN, page 908:

Best developer practices run the gamut from keeping the cruft out of your code to ensuring your code is accessible to all your application or site’s users.

2015, Shelley Powers, JavaScript Cookbook, Sebastopol: O'Reilly, →ISBN, page 143:

Sawyer cites responses to a message saying "there is cruft in [Perl]" as the excuse some Perl community members used to "push him into a corner" until he deactivated his Twitter account.

2021 August 14, Jim Salter, quoting Sawyer X, “The Perl Foundation is fragmenting over Code of Conduct enforcement”, in Ars Technica:

(computing, slang) Redundant, old or improperly written code, especially that which accumulates over time.


osmolarity

(chemistry) The osmotic concentration of a solution, normally expressed as osmoles of solute per litre of solution.


spamvertising

(Internet) The practice of sending spam email, or of posting similar material on a wiki, blog or notice board, in order to advertise or attract search engines to a website.


fug

fug (countable and uncountable, plural fugs)

Unknown. Compare British slang fogo (“stench”) and English fog, or possibly a blend of funk + fog.

'Made one quite thankful to get back to the fug, though as a rule I think the way these trains are overheated is something scandalous'.

1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 8, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 131:

On certain days, when hot currents shimmered off Oyster's Reef, we would detect the chalk-dust of the mullock heaps, acrid; or, from the opal mines themselves, the ghastly fug of the tunnels and shafts.

1996, Janette Turner Hospital, Oyster, paperback edition, Virago Press, page 4:

The gym teacher left that year, his successors had no interest in boxing, and society soon passed into a zone where the idea of thirteen-year-old boys punching each other's faces for educational purposes became as unthinkable as the dense fug of tobacco smoke in our school's staff room.

2004 November 8, John Derbyshire, “Boxing Day”, in National Review:

The misty fug his breath had left on the window sparkled in the orange glare of the streetlamp outside.

2005 July 16, J. K. Rowling [pseudonym; Joanne Rowling], Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter; 6), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

That's what a fug was. You could have cut cubes out of the air and sold it for cheap building material.

2008, Terry Pratchett, Going Postal, →ISBN, page 288:

Inside, though, the little café was warm and bright, with a comforting fug of tea and baked bread and cakes.

2013, Benjamin Black, Elegy for April, →ISBN:

A heavy, musty, stuffy or unpleasant atmosphere, usually in a poorly-ventilated area.


horsiculture

(chiefly British, slang) the commercial development of the countryside for pasturing or exercising horses


happenstance

happenstance (countable and uncountable, plural happenstances)

by happenstance

Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action.

1964, Goldfinger, spoken by James Bond (Sean Connery):

Dammit, man this is the gift from God / This ain't happenstance

2001, “People Talkin'”, in MTV Unplugged, performed by Jay-Z:

(uncountable) The chance or random quality of an event or circumstance.


Japanimation

Japanimation (countable and uncountable, plural Japanimations)

(anime, dated) Synonym of anime; Japanese animated cartoons.


uprighteous

en-adj

uprighteous (comparative more uprighteous, superlative most uprighteous)

more uprighteous (comparative)
most uprighteous (superlative)


vlog

Blend of video + blog, itself a blend of web log.

When you create this kind of videoless vlog, where you don't have the video recorded on a camcorder, you have to be more conscious of the story you want to tell.

2006, Stephanie Cottrell Bryant, Videoblogging for Dummies, page 83:

(Internet) A weblog using video as its primary presentation format.


vlog

en-verb

vlog (third-person singular simple present vlogs, present participle vlogging, simple past and past participle vlogged)

vlogs (present singular third-person)
vlogging (participle present)
vlogged (participle past)
vlogged (past)

I like to take walks when I'm having my breaks at work, and then I vlog my walks and put them online. I can just ramble on about philosophy, or whatever.

2005 September 10, “Vloggers get political in Norway”, in BBC Online:

(Internet, intransitive) To contribute to a video weblog.

(Internet, transitive) To post (something) to a video weblog.


cankle

Hey, all l’m saying is she’s got cankles, for God’s sake. What? Cankles! She’s got no ankles. It’s like the calf merged with the foot, cut out the middleman.

2001, Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly, Shallow Hal:

The “cankle” (or the appearance of not having an ankle, but the calf of the leg just connecting to the foot) is a look that many women have and most could live without.

2004, Jeff Smith, Posing for Portrait Photography: A Head-to-Toe Guide:

They’d pass me magazines and ask how my cankle recovery was progressing. They’re ankles, not cankles. I don’t have cankles!

2005, Franz Wisner, Honeymoon with my Brother:

Now that's a cankle! Where does the calf fat end and the ankle fat begin? Who knows, that's the fun!

2007, “Bill & Peter's Bogus Journey”, in Family Guy, season 5, episode 13:

Stop saying I have cankles!

2008 September 13, Saturday Night Live, spoken by Hillary Clinton (Amy Poehler):

Laserassisted lipolysis for cankle remodelling: A prospective study in 30 patients. Lasers Med Sci 2014; 29:131–136. Leclère FM, Trelles M, MorenoMoraga J, Servell P, Unglaub F, Mordon SR. 980nm laser lipolysis (LAL): About 674[…]

2017 January 27, Pierre Andre, Eckart Haneke, Leonardo Marini, Christopher Rowland Payne, Cosmetic Medicine and Surgery, CRC Press, →ISBN:

(originally slang, usually derogatory) An obese or otherwise swollen ankle that blends into the calf without clear demarcation.


feminazi

en-adj

feminazi (comparative more feminazi, superlative most feminazi)

more feminazi (comparative)
most feminazi (superlative)

Reason (magazine)
Rush Limbaugh
Thomas Hazlett
feminazi

Blend of feminist + Nazi, popularized in 1992 by conservative radio personality Rush Limbaugh, who credited his friend Thomas Hazlett, a professor of law and economics at George Mason University, with coining the term (1987).

(derogatory, potentially offensive) Relating to a radical or militant feminist who is intolerant of opposing views, or a female chauvinist.

ֆեմինացիստ

relating to a radical or militant feminist


avionics

(aviation) The devices used in avionics.


fictionary

en-noun

fictionary (countable and uncountable, plural fictionaries)

/ˈfɪkʃəˌnɛɹi/

I generally hate playing games, but recently I was introduced to one that I think is actually fun: fictionary.

2001, Susannah Seton, 365 Simple Pleasures, page 14:

One of our favorites is Fictionary, which we play on holidays or during storms.

2007, David Elkind, The Power of Play: Learning What Comes Naturally, page 190:

Turns out, it's reminiscent of the game of Fictionary that was the hit of a recent Thanksgiving at my home (see below).

2010, Wanda Urbanska, The Heart of Simple Living: 7 Paths to a Better Life, page 223:

A parlor game in which participants invent definitions for an unfamiliar word found in a dictionary, and as one person reads them out, the others try to guess which one is the correct definition.


squiggle

Even the cold ashes where a gipsy's fire had been sent little squiggles of fear down Laura's spine, for how could she know that they were not still lurking near with designs upon her own person?

A short twisting or wiggling line or mark.

завъртулка

a short twisting or wiggling line or mark


squiggle

en-verb

squiggle (third-person singular simple present squiggles, present participle squiggling, simple past and past participle squiggled)

squiggles (present singular third-person)
squiggling (participle present)
squiggled (participle past)
squiggled (past)

When I was coming of age in the '60s, I squirmed and squiggled not to be pinned down by that great transfixer "the homosexual" which American psychiatry had made into such a weighty implement.

1980 August 30, Tim Walton, “Queer Rights Strategy Argued in Quirky Dictionary”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 6, page 9:

шкря́бати (škrjábaty, literally “to scratch”)


druthers

From the expression I'd rather (“I would prefer to”), often pronounced "I druther" in some dialects.

"If I had my druthers, I would not be a king. I'd druther be just what I am than any other thing."

1929, Harry McClintock, "If I Had My Druthers":

"If you had your druthers—" Old Lew was always saying, "If I had my druthers, gimme one of them there Shevrolics."

1950, Alice Walworth Graham, The Natchez Woman:

"If I had my druthers," he informs us, "I'druther be myself — not because I'm anythin' special, just because it's convenient."

1957, Society of Arts and Crafts, Theatre Arts, volume 41, page 29:

If I'd had my "druthers," our engagement would not have been two and one half years long. But schooling made our druthers invalid.

1977, Carole Mayhall, From the Heart of a Woman:

If I had my "druthers," I'd screw a chimpanzee. Call it, pointless.

(US, informal, often humorous) Wishes, preferences.


sportscaster

At the beginning of the all-star game, the sportscaster always says that the players just want to have fun today; at halftime, or in the bottom of the fifth inning, the sportscaster always says that the players' competitive spirit has taken over and now they all really want to win.

2003, David Shields, Remote: Reflections on Life in the Shadow of Celebrity, Univ of Wisconsin Press, →ISBN, page 49:

(chiefly Canada, US) One who reports sporting events on television or radio.


FedEx

⇒ Translingual: Fedexia

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

Blend of federal + express; abbreviated from the company’s former name, Federal Express.

(business) FedEx Corporation, a package express company.


FedEx

FedEx (third-person singular simple present FedExes, present participle FedExing, simple past and past participle FedExed)

FedExes (present singular third-person)
FedExing (participle present)
FedExed (participle past)
FedExed (past)

Has he considered disconnecting his modem and Fedexing it to himself overnight, as some digital addicts say they have done?

2011 March 10, Jim Holt, London Review of Books, page 11:

(transitive) To send a package or letter by FedEx, or a competitor.


scanlate

scanlate (third-person singular simple present scanlates, present participle scanlating, simple past and past participle scanlated)

scanlates (present singular third-person)
scanlating (participle present)
scanlated (participle past)
scanlated (past)

(transitive) To scan and translate (a Korean or Japanese manga) in order to distribute it to speakers of other (usually Western) languages.


podcatcher

(Internet) A podcast client; a device, or software, that can receive a podcast.


Scarlem

(derogatory, slang) An area in eastern Toronto, Canada, with certain poor neighbourhoods and youth gangs, loosely likened to Harlem in New York.


mockney

en-noun

mockney (countable and uncountable, plural mockneys)

Blend of mock + Cockney.
First published use in 1967, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

(UK, countable) A person who speaks in this way.


malware

malware (usually uncountable, plural malwares)

→ Amharic: ማልዌር (malwer)

→ Bengali: মালওয়্যার (malōẇyar)

→ Czech: malware

→ Danish: malware

→ Dutch: malware

→ French: malware; → maliciel (calque)

→ German: Malware

→ Hindi: मैलवेयर m (mailveyar)

→ Italian: malware

→ Japanese: マルウェア (maruwea)

→ Korean: 맬웨어 (maerweeo)

→ Macedonian: малвер m (malver)

→ Portuguese: malware

→ Romanian: malware

→ Serbo-Croatian: malver m

→ Slovak: malvér m

→ Spanish: malware

→ Tagalog: malware

→ Thai: มัลแวร์ (mal-wɛɛ)

Blend of malicious + software or from mal- + -ware.

In a follow-up attack that hit Kyiv’s power grid a year later, the suspects used a second piece of malware, called Industroyer, to cut power for an hour, the indictment said. The malware, according to experts, posed one of the greatest digital threats to critical infrastructure since Stuxnet, the computer attack by the United States and Israel that took out Iran’s uranium centrifuges in 2009.

2020 October 19, “U.S. Charges Russian Intelligence Officers in Major Cyberattacks”, in New York Times:

(computing) Software which has been designed to operate in a malicious, undesirable manner.

skadelike programmatuur

software developed to cause harm to a computer system


pescetarian

/ˌpɛsɪˈtɛəɹi.ən/

Blend of Italian pesce (“fish”) + vegetarian.

blend

I'm curious what you do when you encounter a friend, family member, whoever who claims to be a "vegetarian who eats fish". It *really* bothers me when this happens because it contributes to the assumption that I eat fish and I don't, because I am a vegetarian. I feel like it gives all vegetarians a bad name. Do you correct them? Do you not bother? And how do you correct them? I was thinking that saying something like "oh, you mean your^([sic]) a pescetarian" would be ok and give them the appropriate term. Speaking of which, how is "pescetarian" pronounced?

1999 March 26, Jessica R. Shawl, “‘Vegetarians’???”, in rec.food.veg (Usenet), message-ID <36FBD2DB.8237C15@scdt.intel.com>:

Eat for Immunity follows a plant-based approach to improving immunity that is relevant to every style of eating—carnivore, pescetarian, vegetarian and vegan.

2004, Pierre Jean Cousin, Kirsten Hartvig, The Complete Guide to Nutritional Health: More Than 600 Foods and Recipes for Overcoming Illness and Boosting your Immunity, London: Duncan Baird Publishers, →ISBN, page 149:

"Why don't you just tell people you're a pescetarian?" a vegetarian I met recently asked, cutting me off midapologia for my beat-up leather jacket and my callow habit of behaving as if fish are neurologically no more complex than eggplants.

2006, Ayun Halliday, Dirty Sugar Cookies: Culinary Observations, Questionable Taste, Emeryville, Calif.: Seal Press, →ISBN, page 151:

A person who consumes no animal flesh with the exception of fish or seafood.


petronoia

Coined by Ben Brockwell, editor-in-chief of the Oil Price Information Service. Blend of petroleum + paranoia.

Last week, as Americans were hit the hardest by record crude oil prices, the LA Times reported, in a piece entitled "Supply Fears, Fuel Speculators Pumping up Oil Prices." It goes on in the article. It says, "In an energy futures market wracked with concern that oil demand might outstrip supplies, traders call it petronoia, threats alone were enough to ignite prices."

2006, World crude-oil pricing: hearing before the Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives, One Hundred Ninth Congress, second session:

(rare) Fear and/or paranoia due to the economics of oil and petroleum.


parkway

→ Japanese: パークウェイ (pākuwei)

This street, transferred to the West Side park system in 1879, was extended and changed into a parkway passing through that pretty and well-improved urban space, Union Park

1891, Clarence Pullen, “The Parks and Parkways of Chicago”, in John Bonner, George William Curtis, Henry Mills Alden, editors, Harper's Weekly, volume 35, page 418:

Where the boundary roads are the only roads, the whole strip is properly called a parkway; and this name is retained even when the space between the boundary roads is reduced to lowest terms and becomes nothing more than a shaded green ribbon, devoted perhaps to the separate use of the otherwise dangerous electric cars. In other words, parkways, like parks, may be absolutely formal or strikingly picturesque, according to circumstances.

1895, Engineering Magazine, volume 9, page 256:

This would give eight trees at each street intersection, which would finally grow into groups, over-arching and emphasizing these intersections, the blocks between these groups to be planted with smaller and more ornamental trees and forming, as it were, a section of a parkway.

1896, F. H. Nutter, “The Landscape Gardener in the Country”, in The Minnesota Horticulturalist, volume 24, number 9, page 358:

In the case of offensive advertising in the neighborhood of a parkway, it is evident that such advertising is displayed to attract the attention of the people that frequent a public pleasure-ground.

1897, “The Advertising Nuisance [Editorial Article]”, in Charles Sprague Sargent, editor, Garden and Forest: A Journal of Horticulture, Landscape Art, page 409:

As this scheme cannot be carried out without further legislation, application will have to be made to the General Court for authority to construct a way which will serve the purposes of a parkway and for ordinary travel.

1897, “Annual Report of the Park Department for the Year 1896”, in Documents, Boston (Mass.):

A parkway, so far as it can be discriminated from a boulevard, includes more breadth of turf or planted ground and includes, usually, narrow passages of natural scenery of varying width, giving it a somewhat park-like character

1919, Liberty Hyde Bailey, The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, page 1806:

Thus a parkway might vary in width from 100 to 1000 feet. An average width of 300 feet should provide a pleasing setting for the roadway in addition to a bridle path and hiking trail.

1926, “The Cornell Civil Engineer”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volumes 35-36, page 198:

This highway, which is virtually a parkway and designed primarily for pleasure traffic, begins at Wilmington and extends northward along the Brandywine Creek to its junction with Valley Creek […]

Mr. Moses: Of course, the word "parkways" would have to be defined, as it has been to some extent by the courts, but what we intended by scenic highway is a highway like Storm King. That is not a parkway, but is a scenic highway […]

1938, Revised Record of the Constitutional Convention of the State of New York, page 2691:

A parkway is a combined park and road. Strictly speaking, it is a road through a park and is indistinguishable from the park areas which it traverses.

1943, Master Recreation Plan, Marin County, California, number 13, page 9:

Natchez Trace is a parkway. It is not a freeway nor a throughway nor a speedway

1959, Mississippi Highways, volumes 28-29, page 30:

(dated) A path, carriage-way, or road through a park or a landscaped right of way.

طريق مشجر

(US) A divided highway with a landscaped median.


parkway

Bristol Parkway railway station
M32 motorway
Stoke Park, Bristol

By surface analysis, a blend of car park + railway. However, it is possible that the term originally derived from Bristol Parkway railway station built in the early 1970s, which appears to have been named after the M32 motorway, also called Parkway because it runs through Stoke Park.

(rail transport, British, Australia) A railway station built on the edge of a town, typically with a large car park to function as a park and ride interchange.


triticale

en-noun

triticale (countable and uncountable, plural triticales)

Blend of Latin trīticum (“wheat”) + Latin sēcale (“rye”).

blend

(uncountable) A grain crop, a hybrid of wheat and rye, that gives a high yield.


sext

Blend of sex + text. As a verb, a back-formation from earlier sexting, formed from the noun.

Embarrassed by a ‘Sext’ Message

2001 November 22, Baltimore Sun, page 37:

An electronic message, especially one sent by cell phone, involving sexual language or images.


Spansule

Blend of span + capsule, originally a proprietary name.

1971: Huge white spansules. I went into the men's room to eat mine. — Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Harper Perennial 2005, p. 66)

(medicine) A capsule designed to release drugs at a steady rate over a period of hours; a sustained-release capsule.


squander

en-verb

squander (third-person singular simple present squanders, present participle squandering, simple past and past participle squandered)

squanders (present singular third-person)
squandering (participle present)
squandered (participle past)
squandered (past)

Earliest uses (late 16th c.) "to spend recklessly or prodigiously", also "to scatter over a wide area". Of unknown origin. Perhaps a blend of scatter + wander.
Compare Danish skvætte (rare)/skvatte (“to splash”) (nominalised: skvæt), Icelandic skvetta (“to squirt”), Swedish skvätta (“to splash”), Norwegian Bokmål skvette.

unk

unknown origin

[…]The Wiſe-mans folly is anathomiz’d / Euen by ſquandring glances of the foole.

c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii], page 193, column 1:

(obsolete) To wander at random; to scatter.


netizen

The netizen posted their question on the forum.

Do we have to learn a new kind of language — ‘Netspeak’, as I shall call it — in order to be a netizen?

2001, David Crystal, “A linguistic perspective”, in Language and the Internet, Cambridge: The Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, published 2002, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 17:

It appeared by Wednesday evening that Congress would follow Bank of America, Netflix and Verizon as the latest institution to change course in the face of a netizen revolt.

2012 January 19, Johnathan Weisman, “Web Rises Up To Deflect Bills Seen as Threat”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 2012-01-19, page A1:

A $25,000 (£19,000) prize pool was established to reward the best solutions, and the competition was hosted on Kaggle – a Google-owned platform used by more than a million netizens to build AI models, find and share datasets, and collaborate with fellow Kagglers.

2020 January 21, Katyanna Quach, “How a Kaggle Grandmaster cheated in $25,000 AI contest with hidden code – and was fired from dream SV job”, in The Register, archived from the original on 2020-01-23:

The use of the term "West Taiwan" (西台灣) to mock China has steadily grown in popularity since January 2020 when President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said that Beijing needs to face the reality that Taiwan is already an independent country. At the time, netizens conjured terms such as "Mainland Taiwan," "Taiwanese Beijing," and "West Taiwan" to agitate Chinese nationalists, censors, and trolls.

2021 December 9, Keoni Everington, “German video game ad labels China 'West Taiwan'”, in Taiwan News, archived from the original on 2021-12-09:

(Internet) A member of the community of Internet users.


Terylene

British brand name. Blend of terephthalate + polyethylene

polyethylene terephthalate
polyethylene terephthalate

A polyester fabric, polyethylene terephthalate.


nonomino

(geometry) A polyomino made up of nine squares.


jetliner

From jet + liner; Blend of turbojet + airliner.


polyabolo

en-noun

polyabolo (plural polyabolos or polyaboloes)

polyabolos (plural)
polyaboloes (plural)

Blend of poly- + diabolo, from the resemblance of a diabolo in cross-section to two right isosceles triangles joined at the vertices of their right angles.

(geometry) A polyform made by joining right isosceles triangles edge to edge in various arrangements.


polyiamond

Blend of poly- + diamond, the polyiamond made up of two triangles being a diamond or rhombus.

equilateral triangle
equilateral triangle

(geometry) A polyform made by joining one or more equilateral triangles edge to edge in various arrangements. Every polyiamond corresponds to a polyhex,


Bronx

Blend of Bronck + -'s. After immigrant settler Jonas Bronck (1600–1643) of New Netherlands onto the peninsula north of Manhattan Island.
* (region): Originally Bronck's Land, the land in the region settled by Jonas Bronck.
* (river): Originally Bronck's River, a river bordering the region settled by Jonas Bronck.

Ellipsis of The Bronx: a borough of New York City, New York, United States.


greenwash

Blend of green (“environmentally friendly”) + whitewash (or green + -wash), coined by Jay Westerveld in 1986.

blend

People can be cynical about companies hiding behind green ideals, their radars finely tuned to detect a greenwash.

2010, Meegan Jones, Sustainable Event Management: A Practical Guide, →ISBN, page 38:

Greta Thunberg has blasted politicians as hypocrites and international climate summits as empty words and greenwash.

2020 November 9, Damian Carrington, “‘Hypocrites and greenwash’: Greta Thunberg blasts leaders over climate crisis”, in the Guardian, retrieved 2020-11-09:

A false or misleading picture of environmental friendliness used to conceal or obscure damaging activities.


greenwash

en-verb

greenwash (third-person singular simple present greenwashes, present participle greenwashing, simple past and past participle greenwashed)

greenwashes (present singular third-person)
greenwashing (participle present)
greenwashed (participle past)
greenwashed (past)

But what happens more often is that media “greenwashes” dirty energy sources (coal, gas, nuclear power) as “clean”—a particularly dangerous notion because it belies the threat they pose to our planet and human health.

2011, Elaine Wellin, Kristen Seraphin, Project Censored, Censored 2012: The Top 25 Censored Stories of 2010-11, →ISBN, Health and the Environment:

The commercials were very effective – in 1990, they won an Effie advertising award, and subsequently became a case study at Harvard Business school. They also became notorious among environmentalists, who have proclaimed them the gold standard of greenwashing – the corporate practice of making diverting sustainability claims to cover a questionable environmental record.

2016 August 20, Bruce Watson, “The troubling evolution of corporate greenwashing”, in The Guardian:

WWF recommends including the following Clauses in the Bill to avoid potential loopholes: […] Provide clear and comprehensive definitions of “disposable” and “single-use” to avoid greenwashing and false claims for products designed to be disposable but falsely marketed otherwise to circumvent the ban.

2023, WWF—Hong Kong, “Submission on Product Eco-responsibility (Amendment) Bill 2023 (LC Paper No. CB(1)398/2023(09))”, in Documents of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, page 2:

(transitive, intransitive) To disseminate such information about (something). Most often used to tout technologies, products, or ways of doing things that seem environmentally friendly but are actually not.

(dezinformációval) zöldnek/környezettudatosnak állít be

zöld/környezettudatos látszatot kelt (ve dezinformál)


pharm

pharm (third-person singular simple present pharms, present participle pharming, simple past and past participle pharmed)

pharms (present singular third-person)
pharming (participle present)
pharmed (participle past)
pharmed (past)

[…] the public concerns center on the underlying technology, which is the same for both germ line gene therapy and the production of pharmed animals.

2012, T. A. Brown, Introduction to Genetics: A Molecular Approach, page 486:

genetically modified
genetically modified

To raise genetically modified animals or plants for the production of pharmaceuticals.


anilingus

/ˌeɪnɪˈlɪŋɡəs/

Allegedly coined by sexologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing who had already used cunnilingus in such a sense of denoting the practice instead of its actor and spread by the tenth edition of Psychopathia sexualis of 1898 (English edition page 185, German edition page 124, referencing a description of his in Centralblatt für die Krankheiten der Harn- und Sexual-Organe Vol. VI of 1895 pages 355–357). However that usage of this word is just one incidental one and such an etymology may be transferred from the observation of other sexological term having spread by Krafft-Ebing’s book. Likely independently coined at various occasions by analogy to cunnilingus as more frequently known, that is a translingual blend of anus + cunnilingus.

The stimulation of the anus using the mouth as a sexual act.


agitprop

en-noun

agitprop (countable and uncountable, plural agitprops)

/ˈædʒɪtpɹɒp/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-agitprop.wav

/ˈæd͡ʒətˌpɹɑp/

The noun is borrowed from Russian агитпро́п (agitpróp, “agitprop”), Агитпро́п (Agitpróp, “Agitprop (Department for Agitation and Propaganda of the Soviet Union)”), short for отде́л агитации и пропаганды (otdél agitacii i propagandy, “Department for Agitation and Propaganda”); analysable as a blend of agitation + propaganda.
The verb is derived from the noun.

bor

The letter was pure puffery, probably written by some clerk in North Korea's agitprop bureau, but [Donald] Trump loved it.

2020 June 23, John Bolton, “The Singapore Sling”, in The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 96:

Like most pieces of agitprop, the Lucas and Sargent paper vastly overstated the deficiencies of the old order.

2024, Jeremy B. Rudd, A Practical Guide to Macroeconomics, p. 2

(uncountable, also attributively) Political propaganda disseminated through art, drama, literature, etc., especially communist propaganda; (specifically, communism, historical) such propaganda formerly disseminated by the Department for Agitation and Propaganda of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

агітпро́п

political propaganda disseminated through art, etc.


thyristor

Blend of thyratron (1930) + transistor (1947). First attested c. 1965, as an alternative name for the Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR) developed in the late 1950s.

blend

In calling it a "Thyristor", Mr. Warder was following a growing practice which takes account of the fact that in years to come the controlled rectifier may be made of other materials than silicon.

1963 November, “A "Second Generation" in traction”, in Modern Railways, page 290:

(electronics) A semiconductor diode having an extra "gate" terminal to switch it on.


iBook

A trademark, apparently a blend of iMac + notebook computer, and by surface analysis, i- + book.

(laptops) A computer of a line of lower-end laptop computers formerly manufactured by Apple Computer.


varistor

/vɛəˈɹɪstə(ɹ)/

(electronics) An electronic component having a variable resistance; used to protect circuits against power surges.

varistori

electronic component with variable resistance


plagiarhythm

(slang, neologism) The act of taking illegitimately-obtained (typically downloaded) musical content and using it in new works.


phreaking

The cracking or exploring of a telephone system, e.g. trying to obtain free calls or to discover special service numbers or other internal technical information.


cockerpoo

A mixed bag of Cockerpoo, shih tzu, and Lhasa apso, a breed which Charmaine's little sister called a "lapsed abscess."

2003, John Farris, The Fury and the Power, page 276:

I remember my dog December — a little black-and-white cockerpoo named for the month I got her — following closely at my heels as she always did, [...].

2005, Carole Fletcher, Healed by Horses: A Memoir, page 37:

The Cockapoo or Cockerpoo (Cocker Spaniel + Poodle) was developed in the US in the 1960s.

2006, Iain Zaczek, Dogs Facts, Figures & Fun, page 52:


cockapoo

Blend of cocker spaniel + poodle with influence from cockatoo.

A cross between an American cocker spaniel and a miniature poodle.


commie

Blend of communist + -ie (diminutive suffix).

Hell, I'd rather talk with a commie than ever meet Catherine in a café.

“Jack Kennedy′s one commie,” he said, “and tonight maybe they′ll elect him President, and we′ll all get killed. You know.”

1960, Mira Rothenberg, Peter Levine, Children with Emerald Eyes: Histories of Extraordinary Boys and Girls, published 2003, page 49:

1966 June, Jack Burris, Fiction: Judah′s a Two-Way Street Running Out, Black World: Negro Digest, page 67,
“Why, them dirty commies, of course. They′re the ones startin′ all this fuss anyway. Them cotton-pickin′ niggers wasn′t causin′ no trouble until them Yankee commies started in.”

The commies claim they are helping the blacks.

2004, Robert W. Cherny, William Issel, Kieran Walsh Taylor, American Labor and the Cold War: Grassroots Politics and Postwar Political Culture, page 48:

"I heard Winnie the Pooh was like garlic to a vampire to the Chinese commies," he said. "Popular arts and music, poetry, dancing and singing is a threat to those in power, and I'm really trying to bring back that rock-and-roll rebellious spirit into music, you know."

2024 January 29 [2024 January 26], Tim Lee, Ray Chung, quoting Brendan Kavanagh, “London YouTuber hid in van, received death threats after piano face-off”, in Luisetta Mudie, transl., Radio Free Asia, archived from the original on 2024-01-29:

(derogatory, slang) A communist; a person with communist sympathies; a supposed communist infiltrator.


teme

Blend of technological + meme; introduced by Susan Blackmore in 2008.

A meme which lives in a technological artifact rather than the human mind.


ribozyme

Coordinate term: enzyme

A fragment of RNA that can act as an enzyme.


Laurasia

A diverse collection of ankylosaurs once roamed in great numbers across Laurasia — the northern supercontinent that once contained North America and Asia.

2021 December 1, Asher Elbein, “This Dinosaur Found in Chile Had a Battle Ax for a Tail”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(geology) A supercontinent which included most of the landmasses which make up today's continents of the Northern Hemisphere.


genrelization

(rare, nonstandard) The pigeonholing of people as a result of the genre of music, fashion or lifestyle that they adhere to.

(rare, nonstandard) The over-categorization of existing genres into subgenres.


blook

2006: "'Blooks are the new books, a hybrid literary form at the cutting edge of both literature and technology,' said Bob Young, founder of self-publishing site Lulu which organised and sponsored the prize." US cook wins blogging book prize BBC Online, 3 April 2006.

A printed book containing content which first appeared on a blog.


slore

1997, Mr. Luvseoul, in alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.fetish.feet, alt.sex.fetish.feet, and alt.barefoothttp://groups.google.com/group/alt.sex.fetish.feet/msg/0227f655d685a427?dmode=source&hl=en
Gorgeous Bare Slore ~ALERT

2001, Maevele S.A. Straw, in alt.music.tool http://groups.google.com/group/alt.music.tool/msg/70cf69ed135da328?dmode=source&hl=en
I believe I did hear something to that effect on tv a year or so ago, when I hardly knew who this christina slore was.

2002, ATP, in misc.fitness.weights http://groups.google.com/group/misc.fitness.weights/msg/56ebf72f193c7571?dmode=source&hl=en
The girl did not look like a slore, she looked fairly wholesome in every other regard.

2003, John Henry, quoted in http://groups.google.com/group/alt.usenet.kooks/msg/3de4dfc767d019f9?dmode=source&hl=en
I'm sitting here wondering why alt.games.morrowind isn't propagating and Google isn't carrying it, and suddenly I download the control message and see this idiot fuckwit slore has rmgrouped it - because "2 days is not long enough for a proper discussion in alt.config."

2004, Morgan Vening, in rec.sport.pro-wrestling http://groups.google.com/group/rec.sport.pro-wrestling/msg/23ecf7a8f2ebeaba?dmode=source&hl=en
But you don't often hear about Nicky. Whereas locally, the slore gets pasted across the media constantly.

2005, Yersinia Pestis, in alt.skate-board http://groups.google.com/group/alt.skate-board/msg/10daa6d1b12e945b?dmode=source
Raven - "Hmm, sounds like my kinda slore."

(Internet slang, derogatory) A very sexually promiscuous person.


webinar

I just got an email invitation to a webinar on the value of primary sources.

Web conferences or Webinars are a great way to learn about products or subjects of interest.

2002, Ann Rockley, Managing Enterprise Content:

Webinars are often painfully short on exposure to the actual product, devoting half of the typical one-hour length to an “expert” disserting on some lofty topic, another fifteen minutes to a fluffy presentation about the company and its strategic direction, and a scant five minutes to a quick demo.

2003, Francoise Tourniaire, Just Enough CRM:

It's not that all women aren't interested in learning to download files or take Webinars, it's that their “why bother” factor may well kick in.

2003, Andrea Learned, quoted in Martha Barletta's Marketing to Women http://print.google.com/print?id=hQKnE5aIu5IC&pg=PA93&lpg=PA93&sig=0Xj5El2z1UkcFVD8xg5WN74mMZQ

Register today for our informative webinar and executive book offer.

2006, Selling Power, Volume 26, Issues 1-9, page 44

One other point: An impressive site design can never rescue poorly written copy, sloppy videos, or boring webinar recordings.

2011, Jon Wuebben, Content is Currency: Developing Powerful Content for Web and Mobile, page 28:

Although there are many other tools that are available in a webinar tool, these are the ones you'll find yourself using most often.

2013, Kristin Kipp, Teaching on the Education Frontier, page 82:

An interactive seminar conducted via Internet. Usually a live presentation, lecture or workshop that happens in real time, as users participate through text-based chat, voice, video, or file-sharing.


Squarial

(British) A flat, diamond-shaped aerial (antenna) for receiving satellite television signals; it became obsolete in the 1990s.


ketamine

en-noun

ketamine (countable and uncountable, plural ketamines)

Blend of ketone + amine. First use appears c. 1966.

He was riding high that night, with a brick of Wage's ketamine on its way to Yokohama and the money already in his pocket.

1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 8:

(pharmacology) A synthetic compound used as an anesthetic and analgesic drug and also (illicitly) as a hallucinogen.


smexy

en-adj

smexy (comparative smexier, superlative smexiest)

smexier (comparative)
smexiest (superlative)

"Does Spencer Ridgely think I'm smexy?"

2010, Risa Green, The Secret Society of the Pink Crystal Ball, page 58:

"I've felt attracted to both of you guys too. I think our whole group, really. I just have some smexy friends, you know."

2014 June 15, Jocelyn Samara D., Rain (webcomic), Comic 550 - Smexy:

“You're not my mother, Amelia,” Erin groused and tried to get her hand free. “And he's smexy as hell... […]

2020, Felicity Heaton, Her Demonic Angel:

(colloquial, slang) Embodying the qualities of sex appeal and intelligence.


blurse

Something that has both very good and very bad points.


splurge

Possibly from a blend of splash + surge, originally US. According to the OED, onomatopoeic.

An extravagant indulgence; a spending spree.


fantabulous

fantabulous (comparative more fantabulous, superlative most fantabulous)

more fantabulous (comparative)
most fantabulous (superlative)

(slang) Wonderful, marvelous, outstanding. Both fantastic and fabulous.


voxel

(computer graphics) The three-dimensional analogue of a pixel; a volume element representing some numerical quantity, such as the colour, of a point in three-dimensional space, used in the visualisation and analysis of three-dimensional (especially scientific and medical) data.


merm

(hairdressing, informal) A permanent for a man.


toonie

(Canada, informal) A Canadian two-dollar coin.


eddress

They've been dropping electronic tracts on anyone they can get an eddress for.

The extraordinary growth of the global Internet makes it essential to have more addresses (or “eddresses”) available to accommodate everyone who will be on the Internet in just a few years. IPv4 allowed for 4 billion eddresses—but there are 6 billion people, and many more computers, appliances, vehicles, and other devices that will soon be assigned IP eddresses as well!

2001, Joan Van Tassel, Digital TV Over Broadband:

The Wine Dark Sea
by Alex Epstein
[my address]
[my phone number]
[my eddress]

2002, Alex Epstein, Crafty Screenwriting:

In college I use my eddress more then [sic] my regular address.

2004, Xin-An Lu, editor, Concise Collection of College Students' Slang:

(dated) An electronic address; in particular, an e-mail address.


schtick

(sports, games) The stick used to play schlockey.


EpiPen

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

Originally a trademark; a marketing coinage, presumably a blend of epinephrine + pen.

Alternative form of epipen (genericized term)


camcorder

Blend of camera + recorder. Appears to be a borrowing from Japanese カムコーダー (kamukōdā), an original registered trademark filed for by Sony in 1981.
First cited in English to 1982.

ja-r

カムコーダー (kamukōdā)

You know where you never see a camcorder? At a funeral. Wouldn't that be fun? Especially if you didn't know any of the people there. Why not go to a stranger's funeral, and bring your camcorder? Have a little fun! Zoom in on the corpse's nose hairs. Then pull back, and pan over to the widow's tears. Get a tight shot of that. Do a montage of people wracked with grief. Then go home and put a laugh track on it! Smoke a joint and show it to your friends. That would be a lot of fun.

1997, George Carlin, Brain Droppings, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 173:

A camera recorder: a portable electronic device for recording images and audio on to a storage device, hence functioning as a camera and a recorder in a single unit.


al desko

Lunches usually consist of cold sandwiches consumed al desko.

1981 January 30, Stephanie Mansfield, “The Last Memo”, in The Washington Post:

The number of folks who have taken to dining al desko is causing some new problems in the workplace.

1994 March 29, “Workers Are Increasingly In To Lunch”, in Philadelphia Daily News:

A recent study published in a British daily claimed that dining ‘al desko’ was fast becoming the new norm for office workers.

2004 November 12, Alex Elgar, “Dining 'Al desko'”, in The CB Friday:

We need to encourage our children to ask the child sitting alone at lunch whether they'd like company, and we need to do the same for that work colleague who always eats their lunch alone al desko, even when we'd rather dine on our own.

2020, Noreena Hertz, chapter 11, in The Lonely Century, Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN:

(humorous) At a desk (typically used of eating).


frenemy

Blend of friend + enemy. Likely to have been invented independently multiple times.

So, we're definitely not going to be friends with Ferguson? Maybe we can be frenemies. A love-hate relationship's the next best thing.

2008 April 6, Erin Ehrlich, Six Characters in Search of a House (King of the Hill), season 12, episode 17, spoken by Bill Dauterive (Stephen Root):

A fair-weather friend who is also a rival.


spreading

en-noun

spreading (countable and uncountable, plural spreadings)

Small numbers [of meadowlarks] remain on farms in the southern counties throughout the winter, usually relying on fresh manure spreadings for food when snow covers the fields.

1991, Samuel D. Robbins, Wisconsin Birdlife: Population & Distribution Past & Present, page 579:


spreading

Chief among the strategies exploiting this rule was "spreading" (a combination of "speed" and "reading"), where debaters would rattle off arguments at a blistering pace. Their speeches often exceeded 300 words per minute. (A conversational pace is about 60 per minute.)

2017 September 26, Jack McCordick, “The Corrosion of High School Debate—And How It Mirrors American Politics”, in America, New York, N.Y.: America Press Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-06-21:

The NSDA currently boasts more than one hundred and fifty thousand student participants (per affiliated team rosters), many of whom compete in Lincoln–Douglas or policy. The activities are distinct in structure—policy is two-on-two—but they operate similarly on the national circuit, and involve spreading and other experimental tactics.

2022 September, Tess McNulty, “Both Sides Now”, in Harper's Magazine, New York, N.Y.: Harper's Magazine Foundation, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-03-23:

(debating slang) The act of spreading (speedreading).


voice lift

Alteration of the vocal cords by surgery, intended to give the recipient a more youthful-sounding voice.


shopgrift

en-verb

shopgrift (third-person singular simple present shopgrifts, present participle shopgrifting, simple past and past participle shopgrifted)

shopgrifts (present singular third-person)
shopgrifting (participle present)
shopgrifted (participle past)
shopgrifted (past)

To make use of a purchased item and then return it to where it was bought within the refund period so as to get one's money back.


homeshoring

A migration of service employees from the office to the home, where such homes have proper communications equipment


preheritance

Transfer of property to relatives or other beneficiaries prior to death.


chuman

The chuman had been sheer fantasy. Oliver was an unusual chimp, yet a chimp just the same. But what really stands in the way of a chuman? Did chumans ever exist?

2016, Itai Yanai, Lercher Martin, The Society of Genes, Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 151:

A hypothetical hybrid of a male chimpanzee and a female human.


humanzee

The archetypal hybrid is the humanzee, as it has appeared in popular culture and in policy discussions. The being would be a humanzee (if the father is human) or chimphuman (if the mother is human).

2009, Andrea L. Bonnicksen, Chimeras, Hybrids, and Interspecies Research: Politics and Policymaking, Georgetown University Press, →ISBN, page 66:

A hypothetical hybrid of a human and a chimpanzee.

scimpanzuomo

a hypothetical hybrid of a human and a chimpanzee


himbo

Blend of him + bimbo, first recorded in 1988 and likely influenced by sex scandals in the US politics around the time.

‘Himbo’ Flexes His Pecs in U.K. Ads [title]

1991 August 12, Stuart Emmrich, “‘Himbo’ Flexes His Pecs in U.K. Ads”, in Adweek, volume 41, page 16:

[…] a reboot in which a cryptocurrency billionaire, maybe the son of Luke Ward, whose series arc traces an evolution from villain to beloved himbo, moves to Newport Beach and takes control of the local real estate market.

2022 March 31, David Yaffe-Bellany, “Ben McKenzie Would Like a Word With the Crypto Bros”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(sometimes derogatory, slang) A physically attractive man who lacks intelligence; the male equivalent of a bimbo.


blahg

(Internet slang, derogatory) A dull, uninteresting weblog.


alcolock

Various international studies have shown that alcolock users had 65% to 95% fewer repeat offences than drivers whose driving licence was suspended or revoked. The previous Government conducted a trial programme in 2005, but there was never any follow-up.

2013 December 10, Rehman Chishti, “Road Safety”, in parliamentary debates (House of Commons):

A mechanism that prevents a car from starting if the driver has exceeded the legal limits of alcohol consumption.


aprium

A three-quarter apricot is an aprium, which is very apricotlike in tree type and fruit. Plumcots are extremely flavorful fruits that tend to bear poorly for the first few years.

2007, The home orchard: growing your own deciduous fruit and nut trees (ISBN-10: 1-879906-72-4), page 33

For an excellent plain Aprium jam, you may omit the almonds.

2010, Rachel Saunders, Sara Remington, The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook, page 140:

When the puppet is finished, we wander through the farmer's market and stop at the local foods booth, where our friend Aaron lets us sample farm-direct apriums. Amy spots a bevy of belly dancers and says she wants to watch.

2010, Michael Perry, Coop: A Family, a Farm, and the Pursuit of One Good Egg, page 216:

(neologism) A plum-apricot cross, with characteristics of both fruits.


broccoflower

en-noun

broccoflower (countable and uncountable, plural broccoflowers)

Coordinate term: Romanesco

This colorful combo is just the thing for a busy weeknight. If you have never tasted broccoflower, its flavor is a blend of, you guessed it, broccoli and cauliflower.

2003, Christy Rost, The Family Table: Where Great Food, Friends, and Family Gather Together, Capital Books, →ISBN:

Have you met the broccoflower? Some mad scientist has crossed the cauliflower with broccoli and created an incredible veggie. Hence, the broccoflower.

2011, Jan McCracken, Healthy Carb Cookbook For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 101:

Brassica oleracea
Brassica oleracea#Translingual

Either of two edible plants of the species Brassica oleracea with light green heads.


pluot

A portmanteau from blend of plum + apricot. Compare earlier plumcot.

A fruit which is a cross between a Japanese plum and an apricot, featuring more characteristics of plums than those of apricots.


diazonium

(organic chemistry) any univalent cation, of general formula R-N₂⁺; diazonium salts are used to manufacture azo dyes, and take part in the Sandmeyer reaction


cellevision

I became bored while waiting in the airport so I watched a little cellevision.

An electronic communication medium that allows the transmission of visual images, and often sound, to wireless handheld electronic devices.


Zuchon

A breed of dog, a cross between a bichon and a Shih Tzu.


microserf

Blend of Microsoft + serf. Probably coined by Douglas Coupland in his 1995 novel Microserfs, which chronicles the lives of coders who work for Microsoft.

information technologies
information technology

A person working in a low-paid service industry position using information technologies, usually with only basic qualifications, unable to move to a higher-paid position.


barbell

Blend of bar + dumbbell. The piercing is named after the exercise equipment, because of the visual resemblance.

A wide steel bar with premeasured weights affixed to either end, with the central span open for the hands of the weightlifter.

A piece of jewellery composed of a straight bar with a bead on each end, used as a piercing.


dumbo

"Stupid person," by 1951, American English, from dumb. The Disney musical cartoon is from 1941; in it the elephant's name is a mocking nickname based on Jumbo.


infiniverse

Theoretically, everything that exists, seen or unseen; the infinite multiverse.


conformer

(physical chemistry) Any of a set of stereoisomers characterized by a conformation that corresponds to a distinct potential energy minimum.

(physical chemistry, biochemistry) A particular folded state or conformation of a protein, especially an abnormal conformation of a prion


chuckey

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-chuckey.wav