Wordsmithing - an Attempt to Get Creative Terms in the English Lexicon

I always get a kick out of the American Dialect Society Word of the Year. The 2009 winner should be announced in early 2010, and even more exciting is that they will also be announcing Word of the Decade for 2000-2009!

The past couple of years of 2007 and 2008 have been kind of downers with subprime and bailout being the winners of Word of the Year, albeit reasonable considering the economic climate and social relevance of both terms. Absolutely everyone I know uses these terms in everyday conversation now, especially with working in a financial organization.

The preceding two years of 2005 and 2006 were a bit more fun with truthiness (which refers to the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true. As Stephen Colbert put it, "I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart.") and plutoed(to demote or devalue someone or something, as happened to the former planet Pluto when the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union decided Pluto no longer met its definition of a planet).

I always wondered how I would use plutoed in a sentence. "We just had a re-org at work and a few people are so plutoed!"

I'm still trying to figure out how to get some of my personally made-up words into the lexicon, such as:

nightsticked - Does this word really need an explanation? You just need to recall the name Rodney King. "It was a routine traffic stop, but because I smarted off I got nightsticked". Can't we all just get along?

motard - this is a hybrid word, a cross between 'motorist' and 'retard'. You probably run into motards every day on your commute, regardless of whether you live in a metropolitan area or a rural town. They are much more obvious with the overuse of cell phones while driving. This is my favorite made up word of all time!

touron - here is another hybrid word, a cross between 'tourist' and 'moron'. This is essentially a motard with an out-of-state license plate, slowing up traffic to gawk at whatever they are gawking at, or refusing to acknowledge they are hopelessly lost. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite roll off the tongue as smoothly as motard.

aerodynamicity - the art of the science of aerodynamics. Yes, I realize this is pushing all boundaries of good grammar. I haven't used this word in years due to all the eye-rolling it caused.

I know my chances are slim to see any of these ever make it into general usage, but I figure if Rachel Ray can make it into the dictionary with 'EVOO" (Extra Virgin Olive Oil), then why not give it a shot? Maybe eventually, The American Dialect Society will consider me!