Well, I hope I’m obeying the rules on game posting. There didn’t seem to be too many, but I’ll understand if this thread is too big a drain on your resources. At any rate, I’ve got an idea for a game and I’d like to see what the Straight Dope’s brightest can do with it.
Here’s the idea: I’ll start out with a word, for example, botulism. The task is then to make up a false origin and thus, meaning for that word. You then leave another word for the next poster to play off.
Keep in mind that words such as “Orange” or “Run” will be nearly impossible to play, so maybe there’ll be a two syllable rule or something. But, let’s just see how it goes:
Botulism - From the prefix “bot-”, meaning “like a robot” and the suffix “-ism”, meaning “belief in.” Botulism is the quasi-religious belief that people can become robots. Related words: Trekkies.
Magnetic - from the Greek word Mugnum meaning very large or powerful and the root word net meaning to capture. Magnetic means a person or object able to attract a large number of followers for reasons not readily apparent i.e. Jennifer Aniston.
Ergonomic : As you well know erg is a vast dessert ares of sand dunes, whilst ono is related to the sin of Onan and needs no further explanation. Ergonomics is thus the art of masturbation using sand or sandpaper instead of lubricant.
So what prey tell is the origin of the word pontification ?
Chiropodist, is North Yorkshire dielect form of Cheer-up-odist, which is a member of such professions as Clown, Prostitute or comedian, whose job involves cheering up otherwise sad people.
Ins: comes from ‘Insurance’
ouc: from ‘ouch’
iance: in a state of being
Hence, ‘insouciance’ refers to the shocked expression on the face of a person receiving a bill for medical or financial services and realizing how little of this is covered by their insurance.
“Extra” meaning “a substantial and possibly overlarge helping of” and “Neo” as in the character played by Keanu Reeves, this word essentially means “Keanu Reeves overexposure.” Usage: “Matrix:Revolutions was an extraneous movie.”
Transubstantiation.
hot – from the “very attractive” slang sense of the word
omy – from the phrase Oh my!, used to express wonderment
From these components, we derive two related but somewhat contradictory meanings: dichotomy can refer either to a penis that excites admiration, or a stimulus (such as a beautiful nude woman) that causes the penis to become erect.
Oops, on preview I see that Ace309 has given dichotomy an alternate meaning, so I’ll define mortification as “the feeling of stunned disbelief elicited by the realization that Mort Walker’s Beetle Bailey is still being granted a place on hundreds of daily newspapers’ comic pages”.
