Style Conversational Week 1296: Use your zoodle
The Style Invitational Empress discusses this week’s new contest and
results
Zoodles: a pile of shredded zuke. (Goran Kosanovic/For The Washington Post)
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Pat Myers
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Pat Myers
Editor and judge of The Style Invitational since December 2003
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September 6, 2018 at 3:19 p.m. EDT
We first did a Style Invitational contest linked to M-W.com,
Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, last October, after I’d discovered
a tool on the website
that let you see a list of words and phrases first used in any given
year. In that contest, Week 1250, you chose a year and wrote a poem
using some of those “first known use” words. Great results.
And so when M-W’s Meghan Lunghi wrote me again a couple of weeks ago,
asking if I’d want to run a contest coinciding with the announcement of
new terms being added, I figured: Sure. Poems.
The 35 terms I list this in Week 1296 are
just some of the new words newly added to M-W.com; more than 800 entries
have been either added or modified, according to Meghan, who told me,
“We never disclose the full list of words.”
The ones she linked to for me — first a list of 35, then another list
from which I substituted a few words for some in that first group —
clearly reflect the millennial world, along with the restaurant trend of
truncating words into cutesy abbrevs: marg[arita], avo[cado],
guac[amole]. “App” wasn’t on the list Meghan gave me, but I see that the
listing was updated on Aug. 25 — maybe to mean “appetizer” as well as
“application”?
Then there are portmanteau words that could have been plucked from an
Invite neologism contest: “hangry” (hungry/angry), “zoodle” (zucchini
noodle), “hacktivism,” ‘mocktail.”
Anyway, here’s a list of definitions for this week’s terms. You may use
plurals and different parts of speech in your poems. Click on the links
for fuller definitions as well as sample sentences.
I’m seeing this as an annual contest, no?
Adorbs: (adorable)
extremely charming or appealing : adorable
Airplane mode
(British:
aeroplane mode): an operating mode for an electronic device (such as a
mobile phone) in which the device does not connect to wireless networks
and cannot send or receive communications (such as calls or text
messages) or access the Internet but remains usable for other functions
Avo: avocado
Bougie: from
/bourgeois; /informal, usually disparaging: marked by a concern for
wealth, possessions, and respectability
CBD: cannabidiol, a
nonintoxicating cannabinoid found in cannabis and hemp
Cybercrime:
criminal activity (such as fraud, theft, or distribution of child
pornography) committed using a computer especially to illegally access,
transmit, or manipulate data
fav: favorite. (Just a
new alternative spelling for “fave.”
fintech : products
and companies that employ newly developed digital and online
technologies in the banking and financial services industries
flight (definition
4c): a selection of alcoholic drinks (such as wines, beers, or whiskeys)
for tasting as a group
force quit ,
transitive verb: to force (an unresponsive computer program) to shut
down (as by using a series of preset keystrokes)
Generation Z:
the
generation of people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s
GOAT: the greatest of
all time : the most accomplished and successful individual in the
history of a particular sport or category of performance or activity
gochujang: a
spicy paste used in Korean cuisine that is made from red chili peppers,
glutinous rice, and fermented soybeans
guac: guacamole
hacktivism:
computer hacking (as by infiltration and disruption of a network or
website) done to further the goals of political or social activism
hangry: informal;
irritable or angry because of hunger
haptics: 1. the use
of electronically or mechanically generated movement that a user
experiences through the sense of touch as part of an interface (such as
on a gaming console or smartphone)
2. medical: a science concerned with the sense of touch
hophead: a beer
enthusiast
Instagram, Instagramming:
both a transitive
and intransitive verb: to post (a picture) to the Instagram
photo-sharing service
Latinx: pronounced
either “LA-tinks” or “la-TEE-nex”; of, relating to, or marked by Latin
American heritage —used as a gender-neutral alternative to Latino or Latina
marg: margarita
medical marijuana:
marijuana that is available only by prescription and is used to treat a
variety of medical conditions (such as pain, anxiety, nausea, and
glaucoma) — suprising that this term is being added just now, no?
mise en place:
pronounced “mee zahn plahss”: a culinary process in which ingredients
are prepared and organized (as in a restaurant kitchen) before cooking
mocktail: a
usually iced drink made with any of various ingredients (such as juice,
herbs, and soda water) but without alcohol : a nonalcoholic cocktail
nanobot: a
microscopically small robot: a robot built on the scale of nanometers
rando: slang, often
disparaging; a random person: a person who is not known or recognizable
or whose appearance (as in a conversation or narrative) seems unprompted
or unwelcome
ribbie: the baseball
abbreviation RBI (run or runs batted in) turned into an acronym
salty (Meaning 4:
informal: feeling or showing resentment towards a person or situation:
bitter. “I completely forgot about our date and left my girlfriend
waiting at the restaurant for over an hour. Now she’s all salty.”
—Nicole Lane. “They made me shave my beard and cover up my tattoos,
which I was a little salty about.” —Jon Niccum
self-harm: the
act of purposely hurting oneself (as by cutting or burning the skin) as
an emotional coping mechanism
shy bladder:
paruresis: an inability to urinate in the presence of others (as in a
public restroom); the fear of being unable to initiate or sustain
urination when other people are nearby
tent city: a
collection of many tents set up in an area to provide usually temporary
shelter (as for displaced or homeless people)
time suck
informal: an activity to which one devotes a lot of time that might be
better or more productively spent doing other things [I CAN THINK OF NO
EXAMPLES OF THIS PHENOMENON.]
TL;DR: texting jargon
for “too long; didn’t read” —used to say that something would require
too much time to read
zoodle: a long, thin
strip of zucchini that resembles a string or narrow ribbon of pasta
zuke: zucchini
Nice GOing*: The results of Week 1292
/*Non-inking headline by Jesse Frankovich/
The home page at OEDILF.com now tallies 99,801
approved limericks. While the 25 entries in this week’s Limerixicon
results wouldn’t turn over the odometer, I’m pretty certain that Chris
J. Strolin and his team of volunteer editors would heartily approve at
least 199 entries to Week 1292 for their Omnificent English Dictionary
in Limerick Form: I had far more well-crafted limericks to choose from
among the almost 1,000 entries.
To submit your inking or non-inking limericks to OEDILF, check out the
site’s FAQ page. (We
wouldn’t be so presumptuous as to send them to Chris ourselves.) If the
poem you’re submitting got ink in the Invite today, please note that, as
humblebraggedy as possible, to OEDILF; if it didn’t, you don’t have to
say. The usual protocol there is for one or more editors to work with
you to fine-tune your submission; “workshopping” is a great way to get
advice from some really skilled limericists. And unlike with the Invite,
you can use a pseudonym.
No jaws dropped at the news that this week’s Lose Cannon winner was
Brendan Beary: This is at least the fifth time Brendan has finished
first in limerick contests alone — that includes a 2006 two-man Limerick
Smackdown with Chris Doyle. This is just Brendan’s second cannon (I’ve
been giving them out for about a year), but it’s his 39th Invite win
and, with his four blots today, his 1,062th ink.
Runners-up Gary Crockett and Chris Doyle are both also frequent
hangers-out in the Losers’ Circle, but it’s exciting to see the return
of Paul VerNooy, whom we hadn’t seen in about five years. Paul gets his
17th blot of ink and just his second appearance “above the fold” with
his surprise-narrator-in-the-punchline joke. (Brendan’s “Godot” winner
is of the same genre.)
*Limerisque: Unprintables from Week 1292*
Some people argue that /all / limericks should be risque. I don’t
subscribe to that philosophy, but there’s certainly a strong tradition
of bawdiness. The last few entries in this week’s results ran only
online, since I’ve never had a taste complaint from Web readers, and
that’s where I put Jesse Frankovich’s “glans” limerick, and Brendan’s
“bugger me,” and Warren Tanabe’s “gl fo.” But then there were these,
some of which were designated “Convo only” by their writers:
When you’re cuddling your lover in bed,
Here’s a tip that will stand in good stead:
Have her tend to your glans
Using one or both hands—
You’re certain to come out ahead. (Duncan Stevens)
Cried Melania, “No, Donald! Ew!
What the hell did you just go and do?”
“It’s the Golden Rule: Pee
Onto others,” said he,
“As you’d have them pee onto you.” (Jesse Frankovich)
Happy Hannah the Hooker turns tricks.
Got a chest cold and needed a fix.
She gleaned rubbing her chest
With Vick’s worked the best
After rubbing Tom’s, Harry’s and Dick’s (Jon Gearhart)
For gossipers, Stormy’s a treat,
Dishing dirt about Trump that’s replete
With salacious details
Of a tryst where he fails
To pass muster. His boner? Petite. (Chris Doyle)
Father Fein teaches art and design
At St. Joseph’s and likes to give wine
To the lads that he blesses,
Then gladly undresses.
Oh, yes, every good boy does Fein. (Chris Doyle)
*MASTERS OF NAAN: LOSER BRUNCH, SEPT. 16 AT NOON*
Come join me and other Loserly fans of Indian food for this month’s
Loser brunch: It’s at Aditi, a surprisingly nice restaurant in the strip
mall across from the Kingstowne cineplex, a few short miles outside the
Beltway at theVan Dorn Road exit in Northern Virginia. It’s one of my
favorite buffets, and a great value. RSVP to Elden Carnahan on the
Losers’ Web page .
And Happy New Year to my Jewish landsmen — and anyone else who wants to
party like it’s 5779.