Friday, June 30, 2006

70mm Goof

Meaning: A really big mistake that one can't hide even if one tries.
Pronunciation: Self explanatory.
Usage: George Bush's every tiny blooper is accorded the status of a 70mm goof.
Root: 70mm (Cinematic metaphor for larger than life) + Goof (blunder).

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Tantronyms

Meaning: The colourful expletives used when one throws a tantrum.
Pronunciation: Tan-tro-nyms.
Usage: Captain Haddock has a lovely repertoire of tantronyms.
Root: Tantrum (fit of anger) + Nyms (names)

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Aladdin Offer

Meaning: An unbelievably enticing sales scheme.
Pronunciation: Obvious.
Usage: The colour TV sop in the Tamil Nadu elections was an Aladdin Offer that zapped many.
Root: In the Aladdin fairy tale, the evil wizard offers a brand new lamp for the old one. The exchange offer seems so good, that Aladdin's princess takes it up without any thought.

Monday, June 26, 2006

Buffet Cheque

Meaning: A huge sum of money donated to a charitable organisation for an assortment of social causes.
Pronunciation: Obvious.
Usage: NGOs in India are still waiting for that buffet cheque from the Ambanis.
Root: Warren Buffet's plans to donate almost $35 billion to the Bill Gates foundation.

Warnography

Meaning: A series of particularly lewd text messages (a single one is referred to as a Warnograph)
Pronounciation; Warn-awe-graph-ee
Usage: At the end of the last Ashes series, a number of young English women had their cell phones filled with copious amounts of Warnography
Root: Shane Warne + pornography

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Pastel Journalism

Meaning: Reporting on softer fields like art, music, movies & literature.
Pronunciation: Self explanatory.
Usage: The New Yorker is a great advertisement for pastel journalism.
Root: Yellow Journalism is hard hitting & unscrupulous. Pastel journalism is at the opposite end of the spectrum. It's based on facts. Focuses on un-sensational topics. And doesn't try to run down anyone, without basis.

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Clingfisher

Meaning: A person who shamelessly latches on to a group or a friend for the sake of free beer.
Pronunciation: Obvious.
Usage: My booze bill ballooned the moment 3 clingfishers from my office gatecrashed into our private party.
Root: Cling (trait of a parasite) + Kingfisher (India's largest selling beer brand).

Friday, June 23, 2006

Leophilist

Meaning: A person obsessed with collecting Cannes Lions.
Pronunciation: Lee-yo-fill-list.
Usage: Brand building is a secondary pursuit for the leophilists.
Root: Leo (Latin for Lion ) + Philist (One who collects). The Cannes Lion is an award that every creative person craves for. This word aspires to describe such people.

Gentamoeba

Meaning: An unremarkable man whose presence you won't even notice.
Pronunciation: Gent-um-me-ba.
Plural: Gentamoebae.
Usage: Let's face it. 98% of men folk are gentamoebae.
Root: Gent + Entamoeba (formless, shapeless, almost invisible organism).

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Pecksuberant

Meaning: 1. Unrestrained in kissing. 2. Profuse kisser.
Pronunciation: Peck-soo-ber-runt.
Usage: Never show your cheek to a pecksuberant man.
Root: Peck + Exuberant.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Patlivation

Meaning: The low levels of motivation when you know you have a very slim chance of achieving your goal.
Pronunciation: Puth-lee-way-shun.
Usage: "The boys need to shed their patlivation if we have to win the world cup," said the captain of Zimbabwe cricket team.
Root: Moti in hindi is fat. Thin in Hindi is patli. Replace the 'moti' in motivation with 'patli' you get patlivation.

Monday, June 19, 2006

Maxiaturize

Meaning: To think, plan or design on a very large scale.
Pronunciation: Max-see-a-ch-er-rise
Usage: You need to maxiaturize to make a film like Antz, rivetting.
Root: The opposite of miniaturize.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Fadverb

Meaning: A new word that is suddenly in vogue.
Pronunciation: Rhymes with adverb.
Usage: Podcast is the fadverb of the year.
Root: Fad + Verb (Latin for word).

Knowyali

Meaning: A person with a mental disorder.
Pronunciation: No-ya-lee.
Usage: If you really analyse, every man is a knowyali.
Root: Know (a measure of the mental faculty) + Noyali (tamil word for one who needs treatment).

Aishtray

Meaning: to lose direction in life and get indulged in proscribed pleasures.
Pronounciation: æsh-tray
Usage: Baby Mahajan went aishtray after his father's death.
Root: aish(Hindi for "to indulge oneself in forbidden activities") + astray

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Snort Circuit

Meaning: Shut down of the body when one snorts more than what one can take.
Pronunciation: Obvious.
Usage: What happened in Vivek Moitra's case was a snort circuit of sorts.
Root: Snort + Short Circuit.

Friday, June 16, 2006

Goonlighter

Meaning: One who freelances as a thug at night.
Pronunciation: Obvious.
Usage: I have a very Fight-Clubbish idea. What if we create an enterprise of goonlighters?
Root: Goon + Moonlighter.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Spatatatatat

Meaning: A series of unending petty quarrels.
Pronunciation: Spat-a-tat-a-tat.
Usage: Hubbies and wives who go spatatatatat invariably end up in family courts.
Root: Spat + Ratatatatat

Storist

Meaning: One who travels with the sole purpose of shopping
Pronounciation: Store-ist
Usage: The Great Singapore Annual Sale has seen thousands of storists coming in from abroad in the last few weeks to fill up malls.
Root: Store + tourist

Pieristalsis

Meaning: A popular Mafioso method of disposing of the unwanted, using a pier and a strong pair of hands.
Pronounciation: Peer-is-tall-sis
Usage: The Godfather wondered to himself whether a garrote or pieristalsis might be the best method of getting rid of a traitor in the Family.
Root: Pier + peristalsis

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Cinemotographer

Meaning: One who shoots films using cell phone cameras.
Pronunciation: Sinny-moto-grafer.
Usage: There's a scope for a television channel that just screens films made by cinemotographers.
Root: Cinematographer + Moto (short form for motorola, a name synonymous with cell phones).

Planetymology

Meaning: Study of the origin of planet names.
Pronunciation: Plan-netty-maul-la-jee.
Usage: Two millennia from now, trivia lovers in many galaxies will sign up for crash courses in planetymology.
Root: Planet + Etymology.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Cheesy Living

Meaning: Surviving on a junk diet of cheese filled pizzas, pastas and sandwiches.
Pronunciation: Obvious.
Usage: Cheesy living can make the skinny Somalians look pleasantly plump.
Root: A play on easy living.

Bellysai

Meaning: The embarrassing rumbles of the stomach.
Pronunciation: Bell-lis-sigh.
Usage: After lunch, my classmates were treated to a bout of Bellysai by me.
Root: Belly + Isai (music in tamil). Mellisai is supposed to mean light melodious music in Tamil. Bellysai is exactly the opposite. It's cacophonic. And is a result of a heavy stomach.
Known synonym: Borborygmi

Slurrogate Dad

Meaning: A man who is unfairly assumed to be the father of a new born child.
Pronunciation: Slur-row-gate-dad.
Usage: Tabloids have a field day creating slurrogate dads out of 'innocent' celebrities.
Root: Slur (to cast an aspersion) + Surrogate dad.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Bread Letter Day

Meaning: The all important day when salaries get disbursed.
Pronunciation: Obvious.
Usage: The charm of being a daily wager is every day is a bread letter day.
Root: The red letter day on which you earn your bread.

Wishoom Dishoom

Meaning: Itching to pick a fight.
Pronunciation: Wish-shoom Dish-shoom
Usage: I was all wishoom dishoom when I heard I had been demoted.
Root: Wish + Dishoom Dishoom (Sound Fx for a fight sequence in Indian films)

Wittylation

Meaning: Using humour to enhance sex appeal.
Pronunciation: Wit-tea-lay-shun.
Usage: Wittylation works. It can win you a date. But after that looks take over.
Root: Wit + Titillation.

Friday, June 09, 2006

Liecence

Meaning: licence to lie
Usage: Seems our politicians were born with a liecence
Pronunciation: lye-sense
Root: lie + licence

Dievorce

Meaning: A divorce that doesn't leave you enough money to live with
Usage: Harry went hand-to-mouth after his dievorce
Pronunciation: die-vorce
Root: die (in a figurative sense) + divorce
Note: divorce is pronounced di'e'vorce (with a squeaky 'e') by a good proportion of Indians

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Chabacchus

Meaning: A chewable intoxicant.
Pronunciation: Cha-back-cuss.
Usage: Salvia Divinorum is a mild type of chabacchus.
Root: Chaba (To chew in Hindi) + Bacchus (Roman god of intoxication).

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Petroller Coaster

Meaning: An economy characterised by extreme changes in petrol prices.
Pronunciation: Pet-rolla-coasta.
Usage: Any state with no oil resources or Arab allies is bound to be a petroller coaster.
Root: Petrol + Roller Coaster.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Habsentee

Meaning: Chronic leave taker.
Pronunciation: Hab-senti.
Usage: The Soccer World Cup will spawn a thousand habsentees.
Root: Habitual absentee.

Intellacktual

Meaning: An intellectually challenged person.
Pronounciation: inta-lack-chual
Usage: "They misunderestimated me", said the intellacktual.
Root: obvious

Pyasage

Meaning: Period of time when there is water scarcity in urban areas, generally, Metropolises. (Note: I do not wish to extend this to droughts in villages as I feel it is too flippant for such use.)
Pronunciation: Refer to the Root
Usage: Water from Veeranam may alleviate the pyasages of the past in Chennai.
Root: Pyas (thirst in Hindi) + Age (period of time)

Monday, June 05, 2006

Transearlyator

Meaning: One who can decode the original from a translation.
Pronunciation: Tranz-early-ate-er.
Usage: By some stroke of misfortune if all our sanskrit epics get destroyed, we may need the services of a transearlyator to salvage the classics using his craft.
Root: Transearlyator is a play on trans-late-or. The idea being a translator decodes A to create B. A transearlyator can decipher A from B. That is he can recreate the earlier form from a later form.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Skillusionist

Meaning: One who can make you believe that he or she is proficient in whatever he or she does.
Pronunciation: Obvious.
Usage: I wear the skillusionist's hat during job interviews.
Root: Skill + Illusionist.

Wishkanya

Meaning: A girl boys/men yearn for
Pronounciation: vish-kanya
Usage: Despite her age, Aishwarya still is a wishkanya.
Root: Wish (as in 'Desire') + Kanya(Hindi for 'girl')

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Kiduciary

Meaning: The legal guardian of a parentless child.
Pronunciation: Kid-do-sheary.
Usage: The villain of many Hindi films of yore was the unscrupulous kiduciary.
Root: Kid + Fiduciary.

Shakolade

Meaning: A dubious award, prize or trophy.
Pronunciation: Shuck-co-laid.
Usage: Management Guru Arindam Chaudhari has quite a few shakolades to his credit.
Root: Shak (Hindi for suspicion) + Accolades.

Jaamboree

Meaning: Drunken celebration.
Pronunciation: Jaam-bo-ree.
Usage: Let's plan for a jaamboree after the conference.
Root: Jaam (Wine in urdu) + Jamboree (noisy revelry).

Friday, June 02, 2006

Blueshua

Meaning: The born rich.
Pronunciation: Blew-shoe-wah.
Usage: The blueshua is not as lazy as you think.
Root: Blue blooded bourgeoisie.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Gympressive

Meaning: A sculpted body that arouses admiration or envy.
Pronunciation: Jim-pressive.
Usage: Is there a way to look gympressive without stepping into a gym?
Root: Gym + Impressive.