Monday, June 30, 2008

Scampaign

Meaning: An advertising campaign that doesn't have the nod of the client.
Pronunciation: Scam-pain.
Usage: The Alka Seltzer scampaign won a silver at the Cannes this year. It was withdrawn later, rather discreetly.
Root: Scam + Campaign.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Foealition

Meaning: An unprincipled alliance just to fight a common foe.
Pronunciation: Fo-uh-lee-shun.
Usage: The UPA & Left Parties' foealition will in all probability end this week.
Root: Foe + Coalition.

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Digital Cricketer

Meaning: A cricketer who scores a string of 1s and 0s.
Pronunciation: Di-ji-tull Crick-ket-tia.
Meaning: That run machine Ponting somehow morphs into a digital cricketer when he plays in India.
Root: Digital (a wave of 1s and 0s) + Cricketer.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Smalldives

Meaning: Tiny island resorts.
Pronunciation: Small-dee-ves.
Usage: The future of time share lies in developing thematic smalldives.
Root: Small + Maldives.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Shovezatt

Meaning: Showing the middle finger.
Pronunciation: Shuv-zat.
Usage: Greg Chappell was forced to shovezatt a pesky spectator who was sledging him.
Root: Shove + Zatt (that).

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Deja Woe

Meaning: That sinking feeling.
Pronunciation: De-jaa-woe.
Usage: Whenever the middle order starts to fail for Delhi Daredevils, I get this biting sense of Deja Woe.
Root: Deja vu + Woe.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Pursepire

Meaning: A severe drain on the wallet.
Pronunciation: Purs-pi-ire.
Usage: The dinner bill at Hip Asia made me pursepire.
Root: Purse + Perspire (to sweat it out).

Monday, May 19, 2008

Shequency

Meaning: Ability to think like a woman.
Pronunciation: Shee-kwen-see.
Usage: If you have the shequency, you'd be like Mel Gibson in What Women Want.
Root: She + Frequency.

Serendipati

Meaning: A husband, by accident.
Pronunciation: Ser-ren-dip-path-thee.
Usage: Sunil Dutt was Nargis's Serendipati.
Root: Serendipity + Pati (Hindi for husband).

Pressipitate

Meaning: Causing a crisis by sensationalizing an innocuous incident.
Pronunciation: Rhymes with precipitate.
Usage: The Aamir-Shah Rukh rift was pressipitated by a lead article in the Times of India.
Root: Obvious.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Freeconcile

Meaning: The mental adjustment (as in lowering of expectations) one makes, when something is dished out for free.
Pronunciation: Rhymes with reconcile.
Usage: When I began complaining about the picture quality of the TV given to me by the DMK government, my friend quipped, "Muft mein mil saale freeconcile kar le."
Root: Obvious.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Kevlar Presentation

Meaning: Verbose PowerPoint presentation.
Pronunciation: Kev-laa-present-tay-shun.
Usage: Authors of kevlar presentations have a habit of reading out the minutiae in every slide.
Root: Kevlar (Bullet-proof = sans bullet points = Without pithiness) + Presentation.

Zillobytes

Meaning: Mindbogglingly huge amounts of data.
Pronunciation: Rhymes with Kilobyte.
Usage: There are zillobytes of useless stuff on the internet.
Root: Kilobyte + Zillion.

Mandullisation

Meaning: The willful lowering of standards at elite institutions to help accommodate the educational aspirations of the under-privileged beneficiaries of the quota system perpetuated by the Government of India.
Pronunciation: Mun-dull-lie-say-shun.
Usage: The brand equity of the IITs will be the first casualty of the policy of Mandullisation.
Root: Mandalisation (the policy of reservation) + Dull.

Stemptation

Meaning: The lure of going in for a stem cell transplantation.
Pronunciation: Stem-tay-shun.
Usage: As new discoveries are made, cancer patients will be prone to stemptation.
Root: Stem Cell + Temptation.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Rickago

Meaning: An autorickshaw stand.
Pronunciation: Rick-ka-go.
Usage: If you want a straw poll on who's winning in the election, talk to your nearest Rickago.
Pronunciation: Rick (slang for auto-rickshaw) + Chicago.

Kissappointment

Meaning: A letdown.
Pronunciation: Rhymes with disappointment.
Usage: Kissapointment is a very prudish way of saying KLPD.
Root: Obvious.

Arachnerda

Meaning: Web designer.
Pronunciation: Uh-raakh-ner-da.
Usage: With the profusion of free widgets, anyone can dream of being an arachnerda.
Root: Arachnida (Greek for Spider) + Nerd.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Thudvertisement

Meaning: An ad that falls flat.
Pronunciation: Thud-vert-ties-ment.
Usage: Funny, no one blames research for approving thudvertisements.
Root: Thud (sound of a falling object) + Advertisement.

Flaggression

Meaning: The act of planting a country's flag in an alien territory.
Pronunciation: Flag-resh-shun.
Usage: China has got away with its policy of flagression for many, many years.
Root: Flag + Aggression.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Leftember

Meaning: The name of the 13th month in a new calendar that apportions the human year into 12 months of 30 days each. The reminding 5 or 6 days will fall under the month of Leftember. The idea behind this initiative is to give 12 months of the same duration.
Pronunciation: Left-tem-bur.
Usage: The whole planet deserves a break in Leftember.
Origin: Calendar proposed by Anantha. The word leftember is derived from 'month with left over days'. That's Left + -ember (the most used suffix to cue month).

Friday, March 21, 2008

Kidli

Meaning: A small idli.
Pronunciation: Kid-lee.
Usage: I ordered the 14-kidli course for lunch.
Root: Kid + Idli.

Kalkakana

Meaning: Old food worth re-heating and re-eating.
Pronunciation: Cull-ka-kaa-na.
Usage: When you're single and working, you make do with kalkakana.
Root: Kal ka khaana (Hindi for yesterday's food).

Schlocktogenarian

Meaning: A person who's spent a lifetime creating/peddling inferior stuff.
Pronunciation: Shh-lock-to-gen-nay-ri-yan.
Usage: The award jury had some seasoned schlocktogenarians.
Root: Schlock (inferior) + Octogenarian (synonymous with a veteran).

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Jangreed

Meaning: The lust to consume, more and more sweets.
Pronunciation: Jong-greed.
Usage: Bongs are known for their sweet tooth and legendary jangreed.
Root: Jangree (a sweet in South India) + Greed.