# New Phrases

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phrases/139947>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 2, 2002, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phrases/139947 "2002-12-02T12:53:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mckramer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mckramer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mckramer)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phrases/139947/1 "2002-12-02T12:53:32Z")

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I enjoy inventing new phrases to describe things we come across everyday.

For example, when you see a plastic grocery store bag drifting across the street (a la “American Beauty”) that is a  
“Ghetto Tumbleweed”  
Any one else?

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**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phrases/139947/2 "2002-12-02T16:23:29Z")

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When playing D&D, they’re not Thieves, or even Rogues. They’re “Urban Reconnaisance and Recovery Specialists.”

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**Author:** ![Orange\_Skinner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3be4f8/32.png) [@Orange\_Skinner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orange_Skinner)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phrases/139947/3 "2002-12-03T01:19:12Z")

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Last year I had to take a mandatory tech development course that renamed the fan the **wind generator** for no other reason than to make the horrible course more self important than it already was. In retaliation, some of us went about rechristening everything else in the room with uneccessarily elaborate names. Some of my favorites: the sink became **the basin of cleanliness** , window blinds were **anti-sun slats** and chairs became **individual student containment units.** Looking back, I really miss that class.

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**Author:** ![Orange\_Skinner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3be4f8/32.png) [@Orange\_Skinner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orange_Skinner)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2002, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phrases/139947/4 "2002-12-03T01:26:37Z")

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Oh, and in more recent times, **Mudshark** and I refer to everything as ‘sophisticated whatervering apparatus.’ It makes it more adult. For example…towels: **sophisticated drying apparatus**. The less sophisticated the thing is, the better.