We’ve all had those frustrating moments when we can’t retrieve a word from memory. This phenomenon even has a name: tip-of-the-tongue syndrome, or TOT.
The good news is that an occasional bout of TOT is normal at any age—although it does become more frequent as we get older. But rather than beating ourselves up about it—or stressing that we’re losing our minds to dementia—I propose that we cut ourselves some slack and just make words up.
Hey, Sarah Palin does it (inspiring an earlier Boomer Haiku post with my first batch of made-up words). That said, here are a few more new words for those times when you can’t quite recall the whatchamacallit:
Apprehensile—Anxious or fearful that something bad will happen if you wrap your hand around an object, as in “Mary was apprehensile about grabbing the stick shift”
Asshat allocation—A life management strategy in which you balance risk versus reward by adjusting the percentage of asshats in your life according to your tolerance, goals and timeframe
Autonomousy—To be timid and nervous, but in an independent way
Camaradorito—Mutual trust and friendship among people who eat a lot of DoritosTM together
Catstankerous—What it smells like after the cat poops in the litter box
Confidentural—Feeling secure about wearing dentures
Exacerbaste—To make a meat dish worse by pouring too much sauce or fat over it during cooking
Friendemonium—A chaotic frenzy of indiscriminately adding people as friends on Facebook
Funeral plotz—To collapse or be beside oneself with strong emotion at any point in the wake or services for a deceased loved one
Hallucinuate—To suggest a seemingly real perception of something not actually there; a form of gaslighting
Hootspa—A place with therapeutic services for owls
Kebobscenity—Something offensive that’s cooked on a stick
Libidolt—A person (usually male) who doesn’t have a clue about how to arouse a woman
Manuberable—When a man is capable of being steered or directed to be a superlative example of his gender
Menschtruation—The regular flow of honorable people through your life
Minush*t—Minor details that are less than trivial
Momentush—A derriere of great importance or significance, as in “Given the media attention it has received, one might think that Kim Kardashian has a momentush”
Multipluckation—The act of tweezing multiple unwanted facial hairs
Nosh-e-ated—To have snacked or eaten between meals to the point of nausea
Obsneakquious—Sly and devious to an excessive degree
Persona non granita—A person without a trendy drink made with crushed ice
Perspicakous—Having keen mental perception and understanding of cakes
Phenomenumbnuts—The observable existence of an exceptionally slow-witted or inept person
Prophygalactic—Intended to prevent a disease throughout the entire Milky Way
Querulust—A passion for whining or being argumentative
Sang fried—Conquered karaoke stage fright by performing drunk
Self-despermination—Male masturbation
Snark plug—One who delivers snide remarks with great energy
Verboatsity—The quality of talking excessively about one’s boat
So, what about you? Got any suggestions for new words we should add to our vocabulary? While you’re thinking about it, here’s this week’s Boomer Haiku:
Finding the right word
sometimes means making it up.
Know what I’m saying?
P.S. To the best of my knowledge, these are original words I (I Googled each one to see if they were in use anywhere else). If I’ve misappropriated any, it was unintentional!