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A Way with Words, a radio show and podcast about language and linguistics.

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New year resolutions
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1
2014/12/29 - 8:41pm

Hi word- nerds!!

I was hoping that you could help me with my new year’s resolutions. I am trying to write them as almost a little poem. I would like to make it easy to remember, fun and also sort of in disguise.

This is the list so far.

- Ablactate – Stop drinking chocolate milk
- Agitate – Drink a protein shake each day
- Ambulate – Take 10 thousand steps a day
- Inspirate* - Wear my perfume ‘muse’
- Lucubrate – Learn about/read up on something new.
- Lustrate – Tidy up my house (I’m a real slob)
- Perspirate* - workout
- Precipitate – Get out of bed on time.

* I know that these are not real words.

As you can see from my list, I’m not adverse to puns at all. I’m actually quite proud of agitate. I do need some help, my list is not quite right. In particular, lustrate sounds too sexy, and precipitate sounds a bit like I’m waking someone else up with a bucket of water. 

Do you have any suggestions? I'd love to read your resolutions too. 

deaconB
744 Posts
(Offline)
2
2014/12/30 - 7:08am
  • Cogitate - thinking about your list
  • Isolate - nothing else here to distract me
  • Meditate - working hard at it
  • Respirate - working so hard at it, I can't catch my breath
  • Fryatate - long, thin, hot golden-brown pieces of Russet Burbank
  • Annihilate - hard to resist when all this work has given me an appetite
  • Gravitate - because you don't lose weight eating french fries
  • Oblate - because sitting and eating gets me out of shape
  • Somnambulate - I'd walk a mile for a bed
  • Discombobulate - because these don't sound much llike sane resolutions
  • Amitoolate - I don't think so, 'cause NYE isn't until tomorrow night

I guess you know why I leave resolution to optical engineers.

Guest
3
2014/12/30 - 9:37pm

Maybe I'm dense, but I don't comprehend this at all.

Guest
4
2015/01/01 - 3:43am

I love it deaconB !

Guest
5
2015/01/02 - 3:58pm

I think I get it. MugatoGumboot is trying to create a mnemonic list of resolutions. Not sure why that's needed, aot a written list, but I get the idea. I would suggest only one change: replace "precipitate" with "non-procrastinate" to avoid the water bucket implication. That's assuming you're looking for words that all end with an "ate" sound, which appears to be your intent.

But I do not get the "inspirate" resolution. Is this a resolution to wear perfume regularly? That may no longer be "politically correct," as more and more venues are prohibiting the use of perfumes and colognes. Personally, most artificial scents bother me. Especially on elevators or airline flights.

Guest
6
2015/01/03 - 6:42am

How about inaugurate for doing something now?

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