..cations

Daycation: A really short holiday.

Naycation: A holiday taken by someone who hates holidays, and spends the entire trip saying no to whatever her/his travel companions suggest.

Flaycation: An S&M couple's holiday.

Laycation: A holiday with an explicitly focussed agenda.

Gaycation: A holiday in LGBTQ-friendly destinations.

Greycation: Senior citizen holiday.

Hey!cation: Basically, Goa, where you meet everyone you went there to get away from.

Décation: Shobhaa takes a break.

Feycation: A doomed holiday.

Yaycation: Whoopie! A holiday at last!

Fraycation: A nervous holiday.

Jaycation: An exotic holiday, something one immediately posts pictures of on Facebook to provoke jealousy. Also: Saycation: a holiday you take just so you can talk about it later.

Veycation: Oy! A kosher holiday.

Wheycation: No milk solids, please.

LostYourWaycation: Look at the damn map, will ya?

Lehcation: Ladakh is wonderful around now.

Praycation: Most of India's tourism.

Quaycation: Sittin' on the dock, strollin' the promenade..

Quakation: Disaster tourism.

Raycation: Take me somewhere sunny!

Fakation: Where you tell everyone you're going out of town, but you stay home and watch lots of TV and don't bathe.

Playcation: A holiday where the kids get taken care off while Mummy and Daddy get drunk and get some sexy time.

Maycation: If that leave application gets approved..

Mehcation: "How was your holiday?" "Meh."

Sleighcation: Dashing through the snow..

Slaycation: Where serial killers go.

Weighcation: Eat like pigs all day.

Imprecation: Eff-all holiday.

Intoxication: Eff it. let's stay home and drink.

Inspired by a bit in World Wide Words, a newsletter I subscribe to, in which a reader riffed on the neologism 'staycation.'

Vacation blues. A cry of linguistic distress arrived from David Rosen: “The Boston Globe of Saturday 16 August carries a picture of a golfer in the buff and describes taking a naked vacation as nakationing. I suppose, like staycation for those who do not travel for vacations, it is a variation on vacation. What's next? Will the equine set take neighcations? Those who like the sea take baycations, and will fresh water enthusiasts take lakeations? Will those who do not have vacations as a work benefit envy those who have paycations? The possibilities are limitless.”

Have I left any alphabets for you? Enjoy.

The new economy

Social Media Climber

noun.
Someone who assiduously builds himself (it's usually a him) up as a social media expert with copious blog posts, tweets, et cetera that cite what the genuine innovators have done, and adds on a layer of jargon and marketing speak in the hope that clueless brand manager types will hire him as a consultant, and similarly ignorant media will think of him as an expert. (The latter is likely, because media types tend to have take the 're' out of 'research' and hit Google, and the SMC will have ensured high rankings by linking to — and being linked back to reciprocally by — other SMCs.) If either of these things happen at least once, he will then post/tweet/status-message it to all and sundry. Over time, he starts to believe it himself.
The only people more boring than SMCs are SEOs.

Forensic Journalism

Closely related to investigative journalism, but happens only after the event. When there is, unquestionably, a body, so to speak.

Pseudipi

All the surface characteristics of a real Udipi restaurant, but it isn't really.

Tell-tale signs: chillies in everything; they serve pau bhaji; they serve a paper masala dosa without blushing.

Machaismo

A word that came to us as we were watching a group of young males from a city that we used to live in. Does it need explanation?

Added, 27th June: Well, maybe one small explanation. In parts of South India, "macha" is used by males to address other males of their acquaintance. Kind of like "yaar" in the North, or "pal," "buddy," or (for the fossils and Wodehouse fans), "old chap," "old bean" and other such male bonding terms.

Arghasm

Let's say you crack a really bad PJ. Your listener / reader goes 'argh.' Which is what you were aiming for. It was good for you, no? Because you just had an arghasm.

P.S. And when you have multiple interlocutors?* You then have multiple arghasms.

* Like on this blog.**

** Theoretically.

Word-spotting

We saw a couple of dandy neologisms the other day, and we just have to share. The beauty of these is that they don't require an explanation. Well, okay, with the first one, a portmanteau, you need to know that "shloka" is a Sanskrit word that means a verse, usually a prayer. (See the Wikipedia definition for more details.)

Here you go.

Shlokaneering
Spotted on the Sarai Reader List, in a mail from S Fatima

Wantrepreneur
Spotted on Valleywag; can't find the exact post or author, alas. here (Thanks, Hanisha)

Neologisms (nope, not blog-related)

These came out of typos on Caferati ages ago. Spot of wickedness we had, where we "defined" words that were spelled wrong.

Transrelate = To put into perspective for those who just don't get it.

Polygoat = Someone who can butt into conversations in several different languages.

Diaspuri = allegedly desi food available abroad that is not quite the real thing.

If we remember right, someone else came up with "polygloat." Don't remember the definition but here's ours:

Polygloat = someone who is very snooty and superior about being able to speak several languages.

Add more?

p.s. Check out the worthy Word Mint, where a team of dedicated neologists (if that's not a word, now it is) churn 'em out on a daily basis. Our Mousetrap review here or here.

Neoblogisms (Getcha neologisms right here - Part Deux)

Blog Neologisms 101: Take an existing word and hack it about a bit. Add or subtract a letter, or a syllable, and hey, presto!*

Right. On with the show. *sounnd fanfare* We proudly unveil, exclusively for your discerning eye, our latest neologism:

Neoblogism: Word coined to describe something in the blogosphere. Contains the word "blog," with smart-arse additions.

Now then. Continuing on from where we left of yesterday, part Two, for your delectation.

We have the simple stuff out of the way. Now we'll go for two- three- and four-letter additions. And we're gonna open it up to you. Leave a comment with your neoblogism and its definition, and if we like it, we'll pull it up here.

Update 1, 2006-05-17

First, a quick run through of some existing neoblogisms, so you don't re-invent the wheel: bloggerati and blognoscenti, blogorrhea, blawg, splog, bleg and blegging, blogroll, permalink, podcast. (Have we left out anything?)

Then, a quick mention of proper nouns that have become verbs, like Dooce and Fisk via the blogosphere, or have been verbiformed (we just made that one up), like slashdotted. (Got more?)

Then – coz it's our blog – our own contributions.

Blogabulary: words frequently used in the 'sphere. Including, but not limited to, neoblogisms. eg. Hit Counter, Track back, Hat Tip, Blogroll, link whore, link love.

Blogger Pradesh: The loose community of Indian bloggers.

(at) bloggerheads: Pick yer sides, there's a scrap happening in the 'sphere.

Bloggerel: Poetry on blogs.

Blugly: Terrible blog template.

Blongblong: The blog equivalent of blingbling. Membership badges, "Blog of the month in Transylvania" badges, the little national flags thingies showing you how many people from those countries are currently visiting, etc.

Oblogation: The compulsion you feel to reciprocate a blogroll link.

Now, we have work to finish, so we'll come back later to pull stuff in from the commentspace (which is a word we stole from Megha.



* This follows the grand tradition of the word "blog" itself, a portmanteau word which started out as "weblog" before the inevitable shortening took place. (If you're remotely interested, we wrote about the history of blogs for a magazine a few years ago. No site for the mag, but our copy is here.)

Getcha neologisms right here

It is not enough to have invented the term "collablogs."

We vant more, more, more.

And, as we just saw on Sepia Mutiny, it is important to make the claim first.

So, let's start with the easy bits, and thereby secure our place in history.

Ze method is seemple, junior. Take log and add a letter before it, and make up something. Right, here we go. And yes, some of these are stuff we'd barf at if you said it, so pliss to suggest improvements. We'll share the Wikipedia space, wokay?

Alog: [Hm, Abhi of SM says it reminds him of something dirty. Someone explain that to us. Update: TMB very kindly just completed our education. Thanks TMB. So shall we say Alogs are the kind you should flush away?]

Blog: [Gah. Taken.]

Clog: Dutch blogs.

Dlog Bhai-log ka blog.

Elog: Blogs about marine snake-like creatures. (pronounced "eelog")

Flog: Sado-Maso journals.

Glog: Blogs by Japanese dipsos.
Update: Honesty compels us to admit that Glog is taken. It's an abbreviation of cyborglog, which refers to a blog run by a person using wearable computing devices. It's a very interesting word, come to think of it. Two portmanteau words – Cybernetic + organism = cyborg, and web + log = blog – joined to make a third!)

Hlog: Blogs by those irritating pedants who point out to you that words like who, why and when are pronounced hwo, hwy and hwen.

Jlo-g: Jennifer Lopez fanblogs.

Klog: Blogs by breakfast cereal fanciers.

Mlog: Poison recipes only. Emlog. Hemlog. Hemlock. Gerrit? Ah never mind.

Nlog: Journals by people who don't like digital stuff. Update: For the person who emailed demanding an explanation, analogue.

Olog: [Open to claims, this one] Update: Teleute recommends "A blood group specific elitist blog."

Plog: [Stolen by Amazon. Also means "Project Log."]

Qlog: Blogs written on portable computing devices while standing in line.

Rlog: [As with O, even we couldn't think of something silly enough for this one.] Update: Another reco from Teleute – Ourlog. Humlog in its online avatar.

Slog: Sarcastic name for blog written by someone on office time using office computer and office broadband.

Tlog: [Gah. Your call.] Update: The prolific Teleute suggests this be devoted to Arnie fans.

Ulog: Blogger posts one line, and then the commenters take over, writing reams and reams of stuff they should be putting on tgheir own blogs.

Vlog: [Taken by those chaps with digital video cameras.]

Wlog: Um. Welsh blogs?

Xlog: P0rn blog

Ylog: Most of the blogs in the 'sphere. The ones about which everyone wonders "why on earth does s/he think anyone would want to read that?"

Zlog: Mi casa es su casa.


Right class. For homework, fill in the ones we left out, and tomorrow, we'll do two-letter add ons. Ooh. Fun.