[extropy-chat] Word coinage (was: parallel universes)

[James]

On Thu, Dec 04, 2003 at 04:37:09AM -0800, Kevin Freels wrote:
> Why not coin an entirely new word like "Lomgakwoos" or maybe
> "smearniverses"? I a similar problem recently while referring to the event
> where you bite into a sandwich, pizza, or other multi-layered food and a
> pickel, pepperoni, or something slides out of the food, but is still between
> your teeth and it slops down onto your chin. In my household, this is now
> known as slerbeling. I slerbeled a pickel just today!
> Come to think of it, maybe "slerbelverse" would suffice.? :-)

Can I recommend /The Meaning of Liff/ by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd?
The premise is:

"In Life, there are many hundreds of common experiences, feelings,
situations and even objects which we all know and recognize, but for
which no words exist. 

On the other hand, the world is littered with thousands of spare words
which spend their time doing nothing but loafing about on signposts
pointing at places. 

Our job, as we see it, is to get these words down off the signposts and
into the mouths of babes and sucklings and so on, where they can start
earning their keep in everyday conversation and make a more positive
contribution to society."

I'm sure there's a synonym of slerbeling in there somewhere.
Particularly appropriate to mailing list culture is

"Sittingbourne (n.)

One of those conversations where both people are waiting for the other
one to shut up so they can get on with their bit"

:)

-- 
James <james at lab6.com> <http://james.lab6.com>