Monday, December 31, 2012

Terratypical

Meaning: Earth like.
Pronunciation: Ter-ra-tip-pee-cull.
Usage: Not all water containing exoplanets are terratypical.
Root: Self explanatory.

Exoplanetizens

Meaning: Citizens of planets outside our solar system.
Pronunciation: X-O-plan-net-tea-zens.
Usage: In a hundred years, we'll have a choice: either to be earthlings or exoplanetizens.
Root: Exoplanet + Citizens.

Friday, December 28, 2012

Ghoosberry

Meaning: The fruits of a bribe.
Pronunciation: Ghoos-bay-ree.
Usage: Among kleptocrats, the larger the ghoosberry, the bigger is your circle of influence.
Root: Ghoos (Hindi for bribe) + Berry (a fruit).

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Fastmati Rice

Meaning: Rice that can be cooked in an instant.
Pronunciation: Fast-mathi-ryze
Usage: If we can have instant noodles, why not fastmati rice?
Root: Fast + Basmati Rice.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Reinscarnation

Meaning: Reliving a painful experience.
Pronunciation: Re-in-scar-nation.
Usage: For many women in Delhi, taking a midnight bus ride will be an act of reinscarnation.
Root: Scar (remnants of an old wound) + Reincarnation.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Auwrath

Meaning: Angry woman.
Pronunciation: Ou-wrath.
Usage: Parliament will have to face the music from auwraths who are sick and tired of the daily harassment they have to put up with.
Root: Aurat (Hindi for woman) + Wrath (anger).

Monday, December 17, 2012

Sorry Gama

Meaning: Awfully offkey music.
Pronunciation: Saw-ree-ga-ma.
Usage: After subjecting the audience to some ear splitting sorry gama, the vidhwaan hopped to the next kutcheri.
Root: Sorry + Sare Gama (the first four notes in Carnatic music).

Sunday, December 02, 2012

Follygamous

Meaning: Having regretted the act of marriage more than once. Synonymous with multiple divorcees.
Pronunciation: Fall-lee-gam-us.
Usage: Follygamous folks make great story tellers.
Root: Self explanatory.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Flawgical

Meaning: Using logic illogically.
Pronunciation: Flaw-jick-cull.
Usage: Politicians are known to be immaculately flawgical when defending their ideology.
Root: Self explanatory.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Worrycane

Meaning: Overblown worries.
Pronunciation: War-ree-cane.
Usage: Obama's attempts to whip up a worrycane over Sandy will yield him good dividends.
Root: Self explanatory.

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Unscrewpulous

Meaning: Philanderer.
Pronunciation: Un-screw-pull-lus.
Usage: If you are a willing victim of the unscrewpulous, you have only yourself to blame.
Root: Doesn't need elaboration.

Monday, October 01, 2012

Tellyfluous

Meaning: Visually poetic and pleasing.
Pronunciation: Tell-lee-flew-us.
Usage: Gorgeous makes some really tellyfluous commercials.
Root: Telly (Television) + Mellifluous (pleasurable).

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Chupchap

Meaning: A man with no point of view.
Pronunciation: Choop-Chap.
Usage: Till the shit hits the ceiling, most of us are chupchaps.
Root: Chupchaap (Hindi for silence) + Chap (a man).

Thursday, September 06, 2012

Pinayata

Meaning: A rectangle with rounded corners.
Pronunciation: Peena-ya-tha.
Usage: The pinayata shape is the norm in the tablet and mobile phone industry today.
Root: Pina (Sanskrit for round) + Ayata (Sanskrit for rectangle).

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Psycheverse

Meaning: The mental plane or the universe of conscious and unconscious thoughts.
Pronunciation: Sigh-key-verse.
Usage: Sir Roger Penrose and Sri Aurobindo seem to allude to the existence of a psycheverse.
Root: Psyche (the mind as a whole) + Universe.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Kinflation

Meaning: The sudden expansion of your social circle when you become famous.
Pronunciation: Kin-flay-shun.
Usage: To manage the kinflationary pressures, most celebraties hire assholes as their managers.
Root: Kin (relatives) + Inflation (expansion).

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Bidibub Test

Meaning: A simple test to determine if you have a stuffed nose or not. Basically read aloud the word 'minimum'. If you utter it as 'bidibub', chances are you have a blocked nose.
Pronunciation: Biddy-bub Test.
Usage: I was invited by an RJ to be the guest of his talk show on the same day I cleared the Bidibub Test. Burphy's law!
Root: Those with a stuffed nose tend to get their M's and N's mixed up with B's and D's.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Tryku

Meaning: Attempt at a haiku.
Pronunciation: Try-coo.
Usage: In a bid to impress myself, I penned a hundred trykus in 10 minutes flat.
Root: Self explanatory.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Slobbyist

Meaning: The wheeler dealer who will go to any sleazy length to get the job done.
Pronunciation: Slob-bee-ist.
Usage: The netaji sent his slobbyist to negotiate the terms for his kickback.
Root: Slobby (obnoxious) + Lobbyist

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Marshoepials

Meaning: Earthlings who've set foot on Mars with bag and baggage.
Pronunciation: Mar-shoo-pee-yells.
Usage: The Curiosity mission would inspire a new generation of Marshoepials to drop anchor on the red planet.
Root: Mars + Shoe (gear for walking) + Marsupials (mammals with pouches)

Funnadata

Meaning: One who adds humour to our lives without charging for it.
Pronunciation: Fun-na-daatha.
Usage: There should be a thanksgiving day for the invisible funnadatas who have minted all the jokes that are in circulation today.
Root: Fun + Annadata (Sanskrit for provider).

Thaalistan

Meaning: Any restaurant serving North Indian food.
Pronunciation: Tha-liz-thaan.
Usage: A decade ago, there were just a handful of thaalistans in Chennai. Now the story is very different.
Root: Thaali (the North Indian platter) + -stan (a place that is home to)

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Somberry

Meaning: The cell phone that never works.
Pronunciation: Soam (rhymes with foam) + Berry.
Usage: Me and my somberry are made for each other.
Root: Somberi (Tamil word for 'one who shuns work') + Blackberry (synonymous with a mobile phone).

Ballot Zombies

Meaning: Voters who exercise their democratic rights only during elections.
Pronunciation: Ballot-zom-bees.
Usage: 99% of us are ballot zombies. It's the other 1% who shape our future.
Root: Ballot (process of voting in a democracy) + Zombies (the dead and walking).

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Nymnastics

Meaning: The art of playing with names. Basically twisting it and contorting it to milk some humour.
Pronunciation: Nym-nast-ticks.
Usage: If there were an olympic medal for nymnastics, who wouldn't love to give it a shot?
Root: Nym (greek for name) + Gymnastics.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

ABUPA

Meaning: Anybody But UPA
Pronunciation: Uh-boo-pa.
Usage: In 2014, the BJP might be a default beneficiary of the ABUPA factor.
Root: ABUPA is an acronym derived from Anybody But United Progressive Alliance. The UPA is India's governing alliance headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Rollingual

Meaning: Languages with a retroflex approximant. Or simply put, languages with an 'R' spoken the American way.
Pronunciation: Roll-ling-gwull.
Usage: Tamil and Malayalam are rollingual by nature. They have the letter 'zha'.
Root: Lingua is tongue in Latin. So Rollingual is a language in which you have to roll your tongue.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Curine

Meaning: The practice of drinking urine for self healing.
Pronunciation: Kyoo-rin.
Usage: When Swami Agnivesh uses the phrase 'Swamootra Chikitsa' he's basically asking you to try curine.
Root: Cure + Urine.

Monday, July 09, 2012

Cholestroll

Meaning: The daily walk regimen to control cholesterol.
Pronunciation: Ko-less-stroll.
Usage: My precious morning is frittered away in a 45-minute cholestroll.
Root: Cholesterol + Stroll (leisurely walk).

Sunday, July 08, 2012

Turnquote

Meaning: He who doesn't practice what he preaches.
Pronunciation: Same as turncoat.
Usage: I know many turnquote CEOs. I am one myself.
Root: Turncoat (one who switches to an opposite side) + Quote (what one often paraphrases).

Thursday, July 05, 2012

Maytheism

Meaning: Belief in the existence of a higher force or a guiding spirit but not in a religious 'god'.
Pronunciation: May-thee-ism.
Usage: The difference between Maytheism and Agnosticism is that the Maytheist believes there is an order behind the chaos that we see.
Root: May (meaning possibility) + Theism (belief in the existence of god).

Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Snobriquet

Meaning: A pompous title overtly cueing a higher status.
Pronunciation: Snob-ree-kay.
Usage: 'Supreme Star' is actor Sarath Kumar's snobriquet.
Root: Snob + Sobriquet.

Tuesday, July 03, 2012

House of Yellders

Meaning: A very unruly and unparliamentary Upper House.
Pronunciation: House of Yell-ders.
Usage: The shouting brigade at the House of Yellders would make a great jeering squad at India-Pakistan matches.
Route: Yell + House of Elders (a sobriquet for the Rajya Sabha in India)

Monday, July 02, 2012

Glassimov

Meaning: Movies shot with Google Glass.
Pronunciation: Glassy-mao.
Usage: Sundance should consider having a separate Glassimov section for indie film makers.
Root: GLASSY + MOVie.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Pairents

Meaning: Two sets of parents. As in, biological and adopted or biological and surrogate parents.
Pronunication: Pair-rents.
Usage: Next generation children will have to learn to cope with the complexities of dealing with pairents.
Root: Pair + Parents.

Friday, June 08, 2012

Scrapling

Meaning: The act of crunching the appalam and mixing it with rice.
Pronunciation: Scrap-pling.
Usage: Podi rice tastes better when one resorts to scrapling.
Root: Scrap (small bits) + Mingling (mixing).
Credits: Coined by Ariman, the 3 1/2 year old boy wonder.

Green Gush

Meaning: Very appreciative on the outside. Envious inside.
Pronunciation: Self evident.
Usage: 'Good for you' is the first sign of a green gush.
Root: Green (the colour of envy) + Gush (to pour out praise).

Thursday, June 07, 2012

Gonecentration

Meaning: The inability to concentrate due to digital distractions.
Pronunciation: Gone-sen-tray-shun.
Usage: It's harder to come up with a good idea today as everyone in the ad agency is afflicted by facebook induced gonecentration.
Root: Derived from 'Concentration gone'.

Tuesday, June 05, 2012

Cupo di Kaapi

Meaning: The coffee of all coffees.
Pronunciation: Cup-po-the-kaap-pee.
Usage: If you are in Chennai, you should try the Kumbakonam Degree Cofee at Sangeetha's. That to me is the capo di kaapi.
Root: Italian expression 'Capo di capi' (meaning boss of all bosses) + Cup + Kaapi (South Indian Coffee).

Minusebo

Meaning: A medicine that's prescribed as a mild drug but ends up resulting in strong side effects.
Pronunciation: My-naseeb-bo.
Usage: My doctor underestimated my cholesterol drug. It turned out to be a minusebo.
Root: Antonym of a placebo (sounds like plus-sebo).

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Jurispewdence

Meaning: The penchant to spout legalese to complicate matters.
Pronunciation: Juris-spew-dense.
Usage: The panel discussions on tv channels have off late been unwatchable thanks to an overload of jurispewdence.
Root: Jurispudence (Law) + Spew.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Empoorment

Meaning: Depletion of wealth and economic health.
Pronunciation: Em-poor-ment.
Usage: The freebies doled out by political parties of Tamil Nadu has been singularly responsible for the empoorment of the state.
Root: Self explanatory.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Costerity

Meaning: Mindless cost cutting in the name of austerity.
Pronunciation: Cost-terry-tea.
Usage: Buying second hand guns for the army is an example of costerity.
Root: Self explanatory.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Jimblify

Meaning: Speaking English with a stereotype Mallu accent.
Pronunciation: Gym-blee-fai.
Usage: Lola Kutty is the one who can teach you how to jimblify.
Root: Derived from the iconic word 'jimbly' which happens to be the mallu way of saying 'simply'.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Dinka Chicka

Meaning: A girl who loves to dance.
Pronunciation: Dink-ka-chick-ka
Usage: Ranu made the mistake of dating a dinka chicka. He ended up with a slipped disc.
Root: Dinka Chika (a foot tapping number from 'Ready') + Chicka (slang for hot chick).

Friday, May 11, 2012

Skillduggery

Meaning: Laying claim to skills without any basis.
Pronunciation: Skill-dug-ga-ri.
Usage: Our detective firm specialises in uncovering the skillduggery in CVs.
Root: Skill + Skullduggery.

Monday, May 07, 2012

Synodobs

Meaning: People with identical dates of birth.
Pronunciation: Sin-no-dobs.
Usage: I am looking for research papers on synodobs. I am very interested in knowing if their life paths are similar.
Root: Syno (greek for same) + DOBs (Dates of birth).

Friday, May 04, 2012

Triggertarianism

Meaning: The belief that one must have the right to carry arms for protecting one's liberty.
Pronunciation: Trigger-tay-ri-yen-nizm.
Usage: One of the core values of a Republican is triggertarianism.
Root: Trigger (denoting fire arms) + Libertarianism (the doctrine of liberty).

Thursday, May 03, 2012

Baaptism

Meaning: The act of inventing a name for the unknown father.
Pronunciation: Baap-tizm.
Usage: The bastards of the world have to resort to baaptism to gain acceptance from us miserable sods.
Root: Baptism (the name giving formality) + Baap (Hindi word for father).

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Revenews Paper

Meaning: A publication full of paid news and advertorial content.
Pronunciation: Rev-when-news.
Usage: Every media house is today facing one dilemma: To convert the newspaper into a revenews paper or not.
Root: Revenues + News Paper.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Paatisserie

Meaning: A South Indian shop that sells traditional sweets.
Pronunciation: Paati-seri.
Usage: Adyar Grand Sweets & Snacks is the finest paatisserie in town.
Root: Paati (tamil for grand mother) + Patisserie (a maker of cakes & chocolates).

Friday, April 13, 2012

Venture Crapitalist

Meaning: A funder, who treats the management of the venture he's funded, like shit.
Pronunciation: When-cher-crappy-tull-list.
Usage: My friend kissed his idea goodbye, when the venture crapitalist started getting hands-on on a day to day level.
Root: Self explanatory.

Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Delta X-Men

Meaning: Folks who cannot look beyond the incremental.
Pronunciation: Dell-ta-ex-men.
Usage: Ambition is not a word you associate with Delta X-Men.
Root: Derived from Delta X (mathematical term for incremental movement) + X-Men (A breed known for doing extraordinary things). Delta X-Men is the antonym for X-Men.

Monday, April 02, 2012

Cheesenophilia

Meaning: An intense craving to be photographed.
Pronunciation: Cheese-no-fill-lee-ya.
Usage: Most good looking women suffer from cheesenophilia.
Root: Cheese (as in 'Say Cheese') + No (deprivation) + Philia (liking) = The disorder where a person feels photograph-deprived all the time and hence nurtures a desire to be clicked.

Sunday, April 01, 2012

Hurryjans

Meaning: Those who are perpetually in haste.
Pronunciation: Hurry-juns.
Usage: Bosses are hurryjans. They somehow seem to entertain the erroneous notion that things get done faster by setting impossible deadlines.
Root: Hurry + Jan (Hindi for 'people').

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Pranamayamaha

Meaning: A vehicle that runs on oxygen.
Pronunciation: Pra-na-ya-maa-ha.
Usage: If we can run the human body with breath, I can't figure out why we haven't yet built a pranayamaha.
Root: Prana (life force) + Yamaha (maker of automobiles).

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Shockahari

Meaning: A pure veggie at home but one who pigs on non veg outside.
Pronunciation: Shock-ka-haari.
Usage: Years of fish deprivation is the reason why many chaste brahmins are turning into shockaharis.
Root: Shock (an unexpectedly jarring behaviour) + Shakahari (Hindi for vegetarian).

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Chumma cum laude

Meaning: Claiming falsely that one bagged a diploma or degree with honours.
Pronunciation: Chooma-cum-lauday.
Usage: He was talking so knowledgeably that I never quite figured out that he graduated from Harvard chummma cum laude.
Root: Chumma (Tamil for sham) + Summa cum laude (latin for 'with highest honour')

Arracknids

Meaning: Those who get by life with country made liquor.
Pronunciation: Ar-rack-nee-da.
Usage: The villages of India are infested with the arracknids.
Root: Arrack (a strong alcoholic drink) + -nida (species).

Monday, March 26, 2012

Scarnation

Meaning: The pale pink hue of a scar.
Pronunciation: Scar-nay-shun.
Usage: After the accident, my friend's feet looked like a canvas sprinkled with splotches of scarnation.
Root: Scar (wound) + Carnation (rosy pink)

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Makelavya

Meaning: Self learnt, self made.
Pronunciation: Make-luv-ya.
Usage: No one goes to film school these days. Every new director is a makelavya.
Root: Make (to create) + Eklavya (the hindu mythological character who's supposed to have learnt archery all by himself).

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Gablet

Meaning: A talking tablet.
Pronunciation: Gab-let.
Usage: A gablet is a tablet with a mind and voice of its own.
Root: Gab (chatter) + Tablet (a smart computing device).

Friday, March 09, 2012

Kameaney

Meaning: The meanest one.
Pronunciation: Ka-mean-nay.
Usage: The late night stand up comedians are the real kameaneys of television.
Root: Kaminey (Hindi for 'scoundrel') + Mean (Wicked).

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Neckrosis

Meaning: Death by strangulation.
Pronunciation: Neck-ros-sis.
Usage: The easy access to firearms has made neckrosis rather unfashionable.
Root: Necrosis (Greek for death of living cells) + Neck.

Sunday, March 04, 2012

Fettucheeni

Meaning: The pasta version of the the tamil dessert 'semiya payasam'.
Pronunciation: Feth-thoo-chee-nee.
Usage: On my birthday, I plan to glug many kinnams of fettucheeni.
Root: Fettuccini (a ribbon like pasta) + Cheeni (Hindi for sugar).

Saturday, March 03, 2012

Spantone

Meaning: The spectrum of colours.
Pronunciation: Span-tone.
Usage: When I first ventured into art direction, silly me deployed the entire spantone in one ad.
Root: Span (the extent between extremities) + Pantone (the set of colours used for printing).

Thursday, March 01, 2012

Rhinoderm

Meaning: One with a thick hide.
Pronunciation: Ry-no-hide.
Usage: When the whole world wants you to retire, you must be a rhinoderm to carry on.
Root: Rhino (from Rhinoceros - the animal renowned for a thick hide) + Derm (derived from derma - greek for skin).

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Glucourse

Meaning: A short burst of sugar for diabetics to boost up the glucose level during times of a carb crash.
Pronunciation: Gloo-course.
Usage: After years of binging on ladoos and halwas, now I am having to make do with a glucourse of Marie biscuits.
Root: Glucose (a type of sugar, the body uses for energy) + Course (part of a meal).

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Dressonance

Meaning: Having similar tastes in picking clothes and accessories.
Pronunciation: Dress-so-nuns.
Usage: If a flunky and a boss were in dressonance, it can create problems for the boss.
Root: Dress (to deck up) + Resonance (a physics term describing the state of two systems having similar frequencies).

Mobiognomy

Meaning: Judging a person by his choice of mobile phone.
Pronunciation: Mo-bee-yo-nomy.
Usage: Just like handwriting analysts, don't be surprised if we soon have experts in mobiognomy.
Root: Mobio (related to Mobile phones) + -gnomy (act of evaluating).

Monday, February 20, 2012

Humlaw

Meaning: A legally sanctioned act of aggression.
Pronunciation: Hum-law.
Usage: The Abbotabad mission to find and finish Osama is a celebrated act of humlaw.
Root: Humla (Hindi for attach) + Law (that which is legal).

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Rumkeen

Meaning: The side eats served as accompaniments at pubs.
Pronunciation: Rum-keen.
Usage: Teetotalers can get their money's worth during drinking binges by focusing their undivided attention on polishing off the rumkeen.
Root: Rum (a commonly consumed spirit in Indian bars) + Namkeen (Hindi for snacks & savories)

Skincineration

Meaning: Third degree skin burns.
Pronunciation: Skin-sin-na-ray-shun.
Usage: We still await the plastic surgeons who can provide some aesthetic relief to victims of skincineration.
Root: Skin + Incineration (on fire)

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Shamtorum

Meaning: A poser rightist with all the wrong ideas.
Pronunciation: Sham-toe-rum.
Usage: Right wing politics sorely needs a reboot. The shamtorums of the world make rightists look anachronistic.
Root: Derived from the politician who believes theology, home schooling and gay bigotry is the way to the future.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Cholesstroll

Meaning: A leisurely paced walk with an intent to reduce cholesterol.
Pronunciation: Coal-lest-role.
Usage: I would have never moved my butt had the doctor not insisted on a 30-minute cholestroll.
Root: Self explanatory.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Spellinquent

Meaning: A person prone to commiting spelling errors.
Pronunciation: Spell-link-kwent.
Usage: The point to note is every spellinquent is not dyslexic.
Root: Spelling + -linquent (derived from latin for 'to leave out').

Monday, February 13, 2012

Vocabhoolary

Meaning: Your lexicon of forgotten words.
Pronunciation: Woke-cab-bool-lurry.
Usage: All the words that I learnt from the Baron's GRE Guide are now a part of my vocabhoolary.
Root: Vocabulary + Bhoolna (Hindi for 'to forget).

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Dubacure

Meaning: Quack medicines that claim the moon and the sky.
Pronunciation: Do-ba-kyoor.
Usage: The claim of a 'secret formula' is the first sign of a snake oil type of dubacure.
Root: Dubakur (Tamil for anything dubious) + Cure (medicine).

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Dwitajis

Meaning: Two fathers.
Pronunciation: Dwith-tha-jeez.
Usage: 'Open adoption' kids have the privilege of having dwitajis.
Root: Dwi (Sanskrit for two) + Pitaji (Hindi for father) + -s (English suffix to cue plural).

Monday, February 06, 2012

Lipi Hippie

Meaning: One who trips on Indian fonts.
Pronunciation: Li-pee-hip-pee.
Usage: Art directors in India are too westernised. We don't have enough lipi hippies.
Root: Lipi (Hindi for letter) + Hippie (a free thinker who rejects the conventional).

Thursday, February 02, 2012

Quantificating

Meaning: Trying to appropriate the aura of righteousness by throwing facts and figures during an argument.
Pronunciation: Kwanty-fi-cate-ting.
Usage: In TV debates, the person who's quantificating the most is invariably seen as making sense.
Root: Quantify (to enumerate) + Pontificating (expressing opinion in a dogmatic way).

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Pajama Veshti

Meaning: The panchakacham style veshti that's tucked in between the legs to give it the appearance of a solemn pajama.
Pronunciation: Obvious.
Usage: Ram from Kansas was looking his Kumbakonam self in the pajama veshti that he was forced to wear during the wedding ceremonies.
Root: Self explanatory.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Bibliobanophobia

Meaning: The fear of the consequences of reading or writing a proscribed book.
Pronunciation: Bib-leo-ban-no-fo-be-yeah.
Usage: The UPA has stoked the fires of Bibliobanophobia in the Jaipur Literature Festival, all for some votes in Uttar Pradesh.
Root: Self explanatory.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Missguise

Meaning: To dress up like a woman.
Pronunciation: Miss-guys.
Usage: Every Indian actor loves a role where there's scope to wear a missguise.
Root: Miss (a lady) + Guise (external appearance)

Gluteus Flammeus

Meaning: Euphemism for arse of fire.
Pronunciation: Glue-tea-yes-flame-me-yes.
Usage: After the Adelaide debacle, Viru needs to worry about his gluteus flammeus.
Root: Gluteus (short for Butt) + Flammeus (latin for fiery).

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Twinyear Day

Meaning: When DD-MM matches YYYY of the year, that day is called Twinyear Day.
Pronunciation: Twin-year-day.
Usage: 20/12/2012 is going to be the last Twinyear Day of this century.
Root: Self explanatory.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Eisoptrography

Meaning: The art of mirror writing.
Pronunciation: Esop-tro-graf-fee.
Usage: Leonardo da Vinci was a master of painting, science, mathematics, engineering, botany, geology, cartography and eisoptrography.
Root: Eisoptro- (Greek for mirror) + Graphos (greek for writing).

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Balliloquy

Meaning: Making the cricket ball talk with an awesome display of movement and bounce.
Pronunciation: Ball-li-lock-kwi.
Usage: Peter Siddle's balliloquy was in full display at WACA.
Root: Ball + Solliloquy (an artistic expression of self using monologue).

Truegality

Meaning: Economy of truth.
Pronunciation: Tru-gal-lit-tee.
Usage: PC's truegality will be his undoing in February.
Root: Frugality (miserliness) + True (factual).

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Flabrication

Meaning: The act of making a thing/person appear fatter.
Pronunciation: Flab-brick-kay-shun.
Usage: Vidya Balan is playing a pregnant woman in Kahaani. Her look needs plenty of flabrication.
Root: Flab (fat) + Fabrication (manufacturing).
Other derivations: Flabricate, Flabricated, Flabricating.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Claymason

Meaning: One who can create magic with claymation.
Pronunciation: Klay-may-sun.
Usage: The claymasons at Vaibhav Studios deserve all praise for the Amaron batteries work that won a lot of acclaim.
Root: Masons (builders) who work with clay.

Dieman

Meaning: One who has lost the will to live.
Pronunciation: Die-man.
Usage: When you're stuck between life and death, you become a dieman.
Root: Self explanatory.
Coinage: Word coined by my 7-year old nephew Adit Pushan.

Jaathbreaker

Meaning: One who renounces caste.
Pronunciation: Rhymes with pathbreaker.
Usage: We need more jaathbreakers for Hinduism to reinvent itself.
Root: Jaath (Hindi for caste) + Breaker (an iconoclast).

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Slackberry

Meaning: Delayed transmitter of information.
Pronunciation: Slack-ber-ree.
Usage: The world was a happier place in the times of the postal slackberry.
Root: Slack (slow) + Blackberry (an instant message device).

Saturday, January 14, 2012

KeyLPD

Meaning: The disappointment of discovering that you've used the wrong key for the right lock. Basically, KeyLPD is Key Lock Pairing Dissonance.
Pronunciation: Kee-El-Pee-Dee.
Usage: After the drinking binge, we headed to the car. I tried to open the door, several times. Unfortunately we couldn't, as KeyLPD happened.
Root: KeyLPD = Key + KLPD (a campus slang for frustration).

Friday, January 13, 2012

-ha

Meaning: Suffix notating 'and a half'. Represents the same value as the decimal 'point 5'.
Pronunciation: Ha.
Usage: Two and a half can be shortened to twoha and seven and a half to sevenha with the new -ha suffix.
Root: Ha is the phonetically useful half of the word 'half'.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Neatpicker

Meaning: A tidiness freak who keeps badgering people about their hygienic peccadilloes.
Pronunciation: Neat-pick-kar.
Usage: In all of my 40 years, I haven't yet come across a male neatpicker.
Pronunciation: Neat(clean & orderly)+ Nitpicker (fault finder).

Sareegar

Meaning: A saree smith.
Pronunciation: Sa-re-gur.
Usage: It's indeed strange that none of our traditional sareegars have chosen to make a brand out of themselves.
Root: Saree (the attire of women in India) + Karigar (Hindi for craftsman)

Pluggage

Meaning: All the additional plug-ins, downloads and apps on your machine.
Pronunciation: Plug-age.
Usage: My hard disk is full. Now I have no other choice but to let go of my pluggage.
Root: Plug-in (add on software) + Luggage (a hold all for personal belongings).

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Phenyl Glugger

Meaning: Sucker for freebies.
Pronunciation: Fin-nyle-glug-ga
Usage: Pork barrel politics will be the norm as long as voters are phenyl gluggers.
Root: From the colourful tamil expression: "Avan free-ya kudutha phenyl-ayum kudipaan (if it's for free, he'll even drink phenyl).

Monday, January 09, 2012

Geomartians

Meaning: Earthlings who've moved to Mars.
Pronunciation: Jiyo-marshy-yens.
Usage: In fifty to hundred years, the first Geomartians would hopefully set foot on the red planet.
Root: Geo (Earth) + Martian (residents of Mars)

Sunday, January 08, 2012

Reallygion

Meaning: A school of thought that believes Earth is the only heaven and the only path for reaching this goal is to create a happy reality through good old hard work, persistence, beauty, humour and sincerity.
Pronunciation: Really-jun.
Usage: Groucho Marx, Isaac Newton, Kishore Kumar, Don Bradman, Madonna & Marilyn Monroe are some of the gods and goddesses of Reallygion.
Root: Derived from the 'religion of reality'.

Saturday, January 07, 2012

Squad Erat Demonstrandum

Meaning: The Logic Nazis.
Note: Squad Erat Demonstrandum is to be used in the abbreviated form. As in, SED.
Usage: The SED revel in score debating points. The only way to beat them is to be irrational.
Root: Squad (a clique)+ QED (a term used at the end of a carefully constructed proof based on logic).

Friday, January 06, 2012

Twinsitu

Meaning: Being in two states at the same time.
Pronunciation: Twin-sit-too.
Usage: Heisenberg was the first to pinpoint the twinsitu nature of beings.
Root: Twin (two of the same origin) + in situ (Latin for on site) = one identical being in two different sites.

Thursday, January 05, 2012

Paytheist

Meaning: One who believes that bribing gods can work wonders.
Pronunciation: Pay-thee-yist.
Usage: Students in India turn paythiests before exams and atheists after the results.
Root: Self explanatory.

Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Samakatti

Meaning: Cube.
Pronunciation: Sa-ma-cut-tee.
Usage: Gana Sadhuram is the tamil term for a cube. Literally, that means 3-dimensional square. But not all 3-dimensional squares are cubes. So I am proposing Samakatti as it at least captures the soul of a cube.
Root: Sama (Tamil for symmetric) + Katti (Tamil for block)

Monday, January 02, 2012

Billfering

Meaning: To steal in small amounts by overcharging a bit.
Pronunciation: Bil-fur.
Usage: In bars and pubs, where no one's in a position to remember what they consumed, the management might be tempted to indulge in some harmless billfering.
Root: Bill + Pilfer.

Sunday, January 01, 2012

Whohickey

Meaning: A person whose name the speaker cannot remember.
Pronunciation: Who-hic-kee.
Usage: Some whohickey came up to me and asked for my car keys. I assumed he was the chauffeur. How am I supposed to know that he was a car thief?
Root: Doohickey (a thing whose name the speaker cannot remember) + Who (a person).
Note: Whohickey is synonymous with Whatshisname.