Monday, November 30, 2009

Bumsadhwani

Meaning: Euphemism for sound of the fart.
Pronunciation: Bum-sudh-wun-nee.
Usage: Every morning, GNB used to regale his wife with his own bumsadhwani composition.
Root: Hamsadhwani (a raga) + Bum (the buttocks) = the raga from the rear.

Arrack Obama

Meaning: One who's eloquent after glugging down many bottles of alcohol.
Pronunciation: Ur-rack-o-ba-ma.
Usage: Near every TASMAC bar, there's an arrack obama waiting for an audience.
Root: Arrack (cheap liquor) + Barack Obama.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Pressbyterian

Meaning: A rent-a-quote celeb always on the look out for ways and means of appearing in a TV show or newspaper.
Pronunciation: Press-byte-tay-rian.
Usage: Alyque Padamsee and Suhel Seth are legendary pressbyterians.
Root: Press (Media) + Byte (Sound byte)+ -arian (suffix that refers to a person)

Serendipithy

Meaning: A punchline or good repartee that pops up out of your mouth, almost accidentally.
Pronunciation: Seren-dip-pithy.
Usage: Sometimes the most funny lines come from the most unfunny people. I attribute it to serendipithy.
Root: Serendipity + Pithy.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Tikkalodeon

Meaning: Any Indian cookery show.
Pronunciation: Tick-ka-load-deon.
Usage: Madhur Jaffrey, the queen of tikkalodeon, is said to have introduced James Ivory to Ismail Merchant.
Root: Tikka (means bits or pieces) + Nickelodeon (a TV channel). Tikka is often used as a suffix of sorts with many Indian dishes.

Fairanoia

Meaning: Anxiety about not being fair skinned.
Pronunciation: Rhymes with paranoia.
Usage: How long will ad agencies continue to whip up fairanoia to build market shares for fairness creams?
Root: Fair (skin tone) + Paranoia.
Related coinage: Fairanoid - one who is anxious about not being fair skinned.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Panch Hum

Meaning: Raspy caterwauling used as musical interlude in songs.
Pronunciation: Punch-hum.
Usage: The punch hum in 'duniya mein logon ko' is more memorable than 'pyaar hamein kis mod pe le aaya'.
Root: Dedicated to Pancham (nickname of RD Burman). He had this quirk of lacing his songs with guttural interludes.

Lackberry

Meaning: One without a mobile device.
Pronunciation: Lack-beri
Usage: If you're a lackberry you're answerable to no one.
Root: Derived from Blackberry (the quick-replying, quick-connect mobile device).

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Coochie Coouming

Meaning: Getting dirty and intimate in public.
Pronunciation: Kootchy-coo-vum-ming.
Usage: I am no prude. But it does feel odd when coochie coouming happens in offices.
Root: Coochie Cooing + Cooum (a dirty river and a synonym for filth in Chennai).

Uppercat

Meaning: A highly overrated person or group, expected to win any race or contest.
Pronunciation: Up-per-cat.
Usage: South Africa is the uppercat in any cricket tournament. But somehow they always end up choking.
Root: Opposite of underdog.

Pugriculture

Meaning: The act of rearing a pug to cultivate popularity.
Pronunciation: Rhymes with agriculture.
Usage: To Hutch goes the credit of injecting pugriculture into our nation's vocabulary.
Root: Self explanatory.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Chillusionist

Meaning: Someone who's good at creating an image of being nonchalant.
Pronunciation: Chill-lew-shun-ist.
Usage: Don't be fooled by the many chillusionists you meet at the IITs. They are all closet sloggers and maggus who are all armed to max the test, next day.
Root: Chill (to relax) + Illusionist (one who creates an illusion).

Panchahafta

Meaning: 5-day week.
Pronunciation: Punch-cha-huff-tha.
Usage: Panchahafta is the norm on paper. Most ad agencies squeeze the juice out of creative even on weekends.
Root: Pancha (Sanskrit for five) + Hafta (Hindi for week).

Monday, November 23, 2009

Blissterical

Meaning: Being uncontrollably happy.
Pronunciation: Bliss-teri-cull.
Usage: Disneyland makes children go blissterical.
Root: Bliss + Hysterical.

Fivegery

Meaning: The hoax of a hoax or a cheap copy of a cheap copy.
Pronunciation: 5-jerry.
Usage: Nallinikanth was a good fivegery of Vijaykant.
Root: One step more than a 4gery.

Bragiography

Meaning: An article, piece or book that is so full of unabashed self-praise.
Pronunciation: Brag-gia-gra-fee.
Usage: His blog is unadulterated bragiography.
Root: Brag + hagiography.