In the Race
Now, here, you see, it takes all the blogging I can do to keep in the same place.
If I want to get somewhere else, I must blog twice as fast as that!
You see, I'm in
the Red Queen's Race...
Neologism
By Janet Evans
Thursday, Oct 9 2008, 06:40 AM
Calling all 40-somethings or older. Do you remember comedian Rich Hall? Back in The 80s he was on a Saturday Night Live-type show called Not Necessarily The News. There, he did a bit where he created words called “Sniglets.” Do you remember those?
Yesterday this came to my mind while I was eating some cheese puffs : ) (Yeah, I like those). Well, you sometimes get an orange residue on your fingertips, same as with cheese popcorn. This, in Sniglet terms, would be known as “Cheedle.”
Another one? Someone who has trouble entering and maneuvering through a revolving door…is a “Revolvingdork.”
Yes, those are Rich Hall’s Sniglets, or neologisms (any word that doesn't appear in the dictionary, but should). People couldn’t wait to hear Hall’s next Sniglet. He even made numerous books of his collections.
Here are a few more:
- Foodgitives: The food on one side of a TV dinner tray that escapes to the other side. (Hall 1985a: 31)
- Furnidents: The indentations left in carpet after moving heavy furniture (Hall 1983)
- Glackett: The ball inside a can of spray paint (or other aerosol can) for stirring the contents inside the can. (Hall 1984: 38) (This object is known as a "pea" in the paint industry.)
- P-spot :The area directly above the urinal in public restrooms that men stare at, knowing a glance in any other direction would arouse suspicion
- Pediddel: A car with only one working headlight (Hall 1984: 59)
Premblememblemation: Whenever you drop a letter in the mailbox, you always re-check to make sure it's gone down. (Hall 1984: 66)
- Pyramonster: That thing with one big eye on the back of a dollar bill. (Hall 1986: 67) (The pyramid on the Great seal)
- Sniffleridge: The groove running between the nose and the mouth (Hall 1984: 92). (The real name for this structure is the philtrum.)
- Snackmosphere: The empty but explosive layer of air at the top of a potato chip bag
- Spirtle: The fine stream from a grapefruit that always lands right in your eye
- Timefoolery: Setting the alarm clock ahead of the real time in order to fool yourself into thinking you are not getting up so early.
- Yardribbons :The unmowed patches of grass discovered after one has put away the mower
- Zipcuffed : To be trapped in one's trousers by a faulty zipper
So, do you have any Sniglets?
