Sunday, April 30, 2006

Glampaign

Meaning: A campaign that's propped on glamour
Pronunciation: Glam-pain
Usage: Glampaigns are naturally relying on actors to pull in mass votes.
Root: Glamour + Campaign

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Spoilport

Meaning: Food imports / exports that don't adhere to regulations.
Pronunciation: Spoil-port
Usage: India is usually a victim of spoilports from developed countries.
Root: Spoil + import / export

Callera

Meaning: The disease spread by the call center bug.
Pronunciation: Cholera
Usage: Callera is going to land the country in deep trouble some years from now.
Root: Cholera

Elecshot

Meaning:A shot in the arm for candidates in an election
Pronunciation: Elek-shot
usage: Maran's supposed involvement in the DTH issue is an elecshot for JJ
Root: Election + shot that gives a high

Grimbo

Meaning: A grim bimbo
Pronunciation: Grim-bow
Usage: He prefers a happy nebbish to a grimbo.
Roots: Grim + bimbo

Blooker

Meaning: A book that's got a stupid blunder
Pronunciation: Blue + ker
Usage: Kaavya's blooker is a perfect showcase for her plagiarising skills.
Root: Book+ Bloomer

Friday, April 28, 2006

Bald Letter

Meaning: An undated letter from an anonymous person.
Pronunciation: Obvious.
Usage: Bald letters are often used by ethical terrorists to warn people about an impending attack.
Root: Literal translation of the tamil expression 'Mottai Kadidasu'. Logic being a letter with no 'from address and date' looks bald.
Related coinage: Anonymissive (anonymous + missive).

Schlepson

Meaning: A clumsy printer.
Pronunciation: Sh-lep-sun.
Usage: I wrote a nice short story. My schlepson made it look like software code.
Root: Schlep (slang for clumsy person) + Epson (a brand name synonymous with printers)

Shoutsourcing

Meaning: Hiring crowds for cheering.
Pronunciation: Obvious.
Usage: Every leader in Tamil Nadu is attracting huge crowds. One wonders if it's shoutsourcing at work.
Root: Obvious.

Errorberation

Meaning: Repeated errors
Pronunciation: Error-ber-a-shun
Usage:His errorberation costed him his job
Root: Error + Reverberation

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Mongrolia

Meaning: A mix-breed dog from Central Asia
Pronunciation: Mon-gro-leah
Usage: I just gifted her a pet. A mongrolia
Root: Mongrel + Mongolia

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Vexplosive

Meaning: Shatteringly frustrating.
Pronunciation: Obvious.
Usage: Kaif has been remarkably vexplosive in the last 12 months.
Root: Vex + Explosive.
Related expression: KLPD.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Elecshun

Meaning: An election that is not well attended by the voters
Pronunciation: Same as election
Usage: The poor voter turnout is the first sign of an elecshun.
Root: Election + shun

Lingua franka

Meaning: A particularly frank way of speaking.
Pronunciation: as is what is.
Usage: Her brand of lingua franka always sets me thinking.
Root: lingua = language + franka, for frankness

Trichoculturist

Meaning: One who lets hair grow.
Pronunciation: Try-co-culture-wrist.
Usage: On a lazy Sunday, every male is a trichoculturist.
Root: Trikh (Greek for hair) + Culturist (One who farms).

Monday, April 24, 2006

Lifterature

Meaning: Plagiarised printed work(s).
Pronunciation: Lift-ra-cha
Usage: I am not sure if one can classify Da Vinci Code as lifterature.
Root: Lift (as in steal) + Literature.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Hurrygen

Meaning: A patronising term for the internet generation renowned for little or no patience for reading, listening and thinking.
Pronunciation: Hurry-gen.
Usage: The hurrygen prefer blogs over books.
Root: HURRY + GENeration.
Inspiration: Harijan, the patronising Indian label for the underprivileged.

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Meandertaal

Meaning: An experimental musician who believes in scoring music the good old way - spontaneously.
Pronunciation: Me-under-taal.
Usage: Meandertaals try not to stick to a set rhythm, lyric or melody.
Root: Neanderthal (synonymous with primal) + Meander (one who wanders aimlessly) + Taal (Hindi for beat).

Telepati

Meaning: A long distance husband. As in, a hubby who rarely gets to be with his wife at home.
Pronunciation: Same as telepathy.
Usage: Having a telepati may not be such a bad idea. The wifey gets money to splurge and a lot of space for herself.
Root: Tele (Greek for long distance) + Pati (Hindi for husband).
Related Coinage: Telepati may also be used to connote a couch potato. Logic - one who's married to the television.

Metal Magnet

Meaning: Prolific award winner.
Pronunciation: Duh.
Usage: The metal magnet David Droga will chair the jury at the Cannes Lions festival.
Root: One who attracts golds, silvers and bronzes by the dozens.

Drapidation

Meaning: A fear of billowing drapes
Usage: Every horror movie heroine has experienced drapidation
Pronunciation : drap+id+ay+shun
Root: Drape+ trepidation
Related coinage : indrapid

Layman brooder

Meaning: A layman who spends time brooding.
Pronunciation: obvious.
Usage: LehmanBrothers is no place for layman brooders.
Root: obvious.

Eye-banker

Meaning: An organ stanley who deals in eyes.
Pronunciation: I-ban-kar
Usage: Everyone wants to be an eye-banker these days.
Root: Investment banking

Friday, April 21, 2006

Communishta

Meaning: Unshakeable faith in communism.
Pronunciation: Commune-nishta
Usage: EMS Namboodripad was renowned for his communishta.
Root: Communism + Nishta (Sanskrit for absolute faith).
Related coinage: Saffronishta - Unshakeable faith in Hindutva.
Note: The difference between Saffronista and Saffronishta is the former describes an idealogue while the latter is about the extent of faith in the ideology.

Fluffoon

Meaning: A comically goofy character.
Pronunciation: Fluff-foon.
Usage: Jim Carey's made millions playing fluffoon.
Root: Fluff (To botch up) + Buffoon