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My wife and I have coined a Portmanteau using the words "tragedy" and "travesty": it could be spelled "trajesty" or "tragesty". We both misunderstood the word travesty to be a synonym with tragedy; now I know that that is incorrect - it appears that I am not alone (for example). Just for reference, travesty means a false, absurd, or distorted representation of something.
I prefer the spelling of "trajesty", mainly because it looks better. However, I also prefer it because it reminds me of a court jester, one who would often present a false or absurd representation of something merely for entertainment purposes.
What do you guys think the perfect application of the term "trajesty" would be?
What are some of your favorite Portmanteau's?
There was a Don Martin cartoon in Mad Magazine in the early 1060d, about the time they got rid of the Department of Marginal Thinking, when it stopped being funny of guy in a tuxedo who stepped in front of an orchestra, grabbed baton out of a satchel, waved it, and the boys in the band suddenly were six foot rabbits, and he suddenly realized he had grabbed the satchel that said "magician", not "musician". I always think of that cartoon when I hear mathemagical numbers tossed around, like a political debate or a Fox News broadcast.
There was a debate this week where the incumbent mayor was tossing out that there was a reduction in crime over the last year, the challenger was talking a rise in crime over the mayor's term. Turns out, when the news people did the fact checking, the one was talking violent crime, the other all crime, which went in opposite directions, the one was talking the city, the other about the metro statistical area. In any case, they were both lying through misrepresenting statistics, showing that politicians locally outnumber statesmen, 2-0, which is probably true most everywhere.
in any case mathemagical is my favorite portmanteau to hate.
deaconB said: in any case mathemagical is my favorite portmanteau to hate.
Did you mean to type "to date" instead of "to hate"? As someone who's doing tutoring in math, I really like that term. Working with a 7th grader currently, and he's having trouble with mixed numbers and fractions. I use that term all the time to grab my tutoree's attention and add a little "fun" to the process.
tutoree’s
I suspect you misspelt victim's.
Hate is a "variable constant". I hate stubbing a toe, hate okra, hate smoke-filled rooms, hate arriving late, but I don't stay awake nights plotting against any of them. Paper cuts. though, and the mother of my late first wife, though, would be worth considerable personal sacrifice to rid the world of them.
Which brings us to pure-D. Merriam-Webster includes it in their premium dictionary but not their free one, and Google doesn't find it in other reputable dictionaries, but they spell it "puredee" which brings their reputation into question. Judging from comments - I didn't spring for the premium dictionary - it is short for pure-damned. I had mostly seen it as deviltry, rather than damned. Subtle difference, I realize, but if someone is doing something out of pure-D cussedness, there is a certain humor and playfulness to his actions, while there seems to be nothing humorous about damnation. Or paper cuts, or my former mother-in-law, Beelzebub.
I've never lived in the south, according to cartographers, although I'd argue that Indiana is a southern state that was accidentally misplaced, and according to James Carville, Pennsylvania is two cities with Alabama between. And Cincinnati is a rivertown suburb of New Orleans. So maybe I have lived in the South after all. So am I wrong about pure-D?
Your 7th-grader is right to be confused about mixed numbers. Expressing a rational number as an integer plus a fraction makes no sense; rational numbers ought to be expressed as ratios I'd be simpler to say you wear a size 55/8 hat or a size 57/8 hat. (And calling those "improper" fractions is a pure-D libel.)
Writer Julie Schott in Elle magazine apparently is the inventor of the portmanteau thighbrow.
It's a crease that forms on some women’s upper-thighs when they sit or kneel that has the curve of an eyebrow. Apparently, Julie thinks it's necessary for great beauty. It's not enough that you went to a plastic surgeon to carve out a thighgap. Second opinion, please, preferably a Gallop poll of girl-watchers. There are fans of the bosom, foot fetishists, leg men and as Letterman found out, at least one Assman, but I've never heard a fellow claim that he's particularly fond of thighbrows. In fact a quick survey of my neighbors (admittedly small and mostly female) reveals that not only have none of them ever heard of a thighbrow, nobody admits to having ever seen one.
It must be difficult to write for a fashion magazine, constantly striving to find additional ways to make women feel inadequate. I suppose the next thing will be having an especially petite malleus.
deacobB said: Your 7th-grader is right to be confused about mixed numbers. Expressing a rational number as an integer plus a fraction makes no sense; rational numbers ought to be expressed as ratios I’d be simpler to say you wear a size 55/8 hat or a size 57/8 hat. (And calling those “improper” fractions is a pure-D libel.)
Not sure what you mean by "pure-D libel" but agree with your take on mixed numbers. You rarely find mixed numbers in a technical publication. Rather, they would be expressed either in decimal form or as a pure fraction.
Problem is, this kid wants to go to culinary school and become a professional chef. He's gonna have to deal with things like "If I need 1½ teaspoons of salt for 6 servings, and I want to have 10 servings, how much salt should I add?" At this point he's just doing the arithmetic as an abstract problem, but later he'll need to do that as a matter of practice. So that's the "hook" I'm using to keep him motivated.
Pure-D also gets written as puredee. It's bad practice to mention Satan's name, in some people's mind, so the expression developed (deviloped?) in the southern bible-belt region. Half the time, deviltry is thought to be just wickedness, and the other half, it's created with a touch of humor, figuring that frustration will weaken the individual and make him susceptible to appealing to Old Nick for assistance.
Considering all the ill that's been done in the name of God, I sometimes have to wonder if the difference between the god of Abraham and Jesus and all the other gods that the First Commandment asserts exist, is that Jehovah has a good press agent while Satan, et al, do not.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
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