Chronophagous is a rare word that means “time-consuming.” WOMBAT is an acronym that stands for Waste of Money, Brains, and Time. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Chronophagous WOMBAT”
I was talking with a faculty member at an unnamed university the other day, and he was describing his faculty meetings as chronophagus.
The eat time.
Yes.
Chronos for time and fag is for eating.
Yes.
He was suggesting that he had made up that word.
But yes, perfect, right?
Time meeting.
Chronophagus.
Oh, yeah. I always called them time sinks.
Time sinks.
A heat sink is something that absorbs heat. A time sink is something that absorbs time.
Right. Right. And chronophagus, of course, from Greek words that mean time, chronos.
And the phagos in chronophagus means to eat or has to do with eating.
For example, a sarcophagus is a stone coffin that eats up the body and it decomposes there.
I also told him that another term for those kinds of meetings is WOMBAT.
What’s that stand for?
Waste of money, brains, and time.
It is not a waste of money, brains, and time to give us a call.
