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.