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Nico ([personal profile] vilakins) wrote2005-01-07 12:38 pm
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Annual redefinition contest winners

Some of you have probably seen these already, but they're so worth a post. I'd call them redefinitions rather than neologisms, but they're very clever.

ANNUAL NEOLOGISM CONTEST

The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its annual contest in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. And the winners are:

  1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.
  2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.
  3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
  4. Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.
  5. Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.
  6. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown.
  7. Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.
  8. Gargoyle (n.), olive-flavored mouthwash.
  9. Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.
  10. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.
  11. Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.
  12. Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
  13. Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist.
  14. Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
  15. Circumvent (n.), an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

[identity profile] astrogirl2.livejournal.com 2005-01-06 03:56 pm (UTC)(link)
*giggle* Some of those are really clever! (Definitely not neologisms, though...)

[identity profile] executrix.livejournal.com 2005-01-06 04:57 pm (UTC)(link)
LOL! Re #13:
HAILE LIKELY: Person worshipped by Rastafarian investment bankers

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2005-01-06 05:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Hee. Pokemon was my favourite too.

[identity profile] hafren.livejournal.com 2005-01-06 10:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh my, can I pass those on? "Abdicate" was my fave.

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2005-01-07 01:31 am (UTC)(link)
Of course! They're not mine; I found them somewhere else myself.

[identity profile] altariel.livejournal.com 2005-01-06 11:34 pm (UTC)(link)
I think 'lymph' was my favourite.

[identity profile] mistraltoes.livejournal.com 2005-01-07 01:48 am (UTC)(link)
Re #11, I have a true story: At my high-school there was a history teacher who was fond of giving what he called "quizzies". One day he passed out the first (rather difficult) "quizzie" to a new class, and one of the girls said without thinking: "If these are his quizzies, I'd hate to see his testies!"

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2005-01-07 01:54 am (UTC)(link)
LOL! That's great!

[identity profile] matildabj.livejournal.com 2005-01-07 04:26 am (UTC)(link)
These are brilliant! Thank you.