More New Words

The American Dialect Society has opened nominations for its 2008 Word of the Year.

The word - or it could be a phrase - needs to be one that "best characterizes the year 2008."

I'm thinking that maybe the phrase needs to go retro this year and adopt the slogan from Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign: "It's the economy, stupid."

What do you think?

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MORE NEW WORDS

Abdicake - Giving up the last piece of cake so someone else can eat it.

Blimple - A really large pimple.

Camouflush - The act of unnecessarily flushing a public toilet to mask embarrassing body sounds.

Dignitude - A dignified attitude.

Flabbygast - Overcome with astonishment that you haven't lost a pound despite rigorous dieting.

Hobnoblin - An overbearing or obnoxious person who insists on chatting idly with you.

Menuspect - To look closely at what other people in the restaurant have on their table while you're being escorted to your seat.

Petrifood - Food that's been ignored for so long it's become rock hard.

Scadink - That annoying build-up of ink at the end of a ballpoint pen.

Treeware - A hardback or soft cover book; written on paper. A paper document vs. an electronic document.

Waspafarian - A white male or female in dreadlocks.

[selected from Unwords]

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WORDS for YOUR WEEK: "Language is the means of getting an idea from my brain into yours without surgery." (Mark Amidon)

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