Friday, January 18, 2008

Neologism time!

Last night (shortly before I literally fell over with fatigue while typing the "Form of the times" post below) I was chatting in Gmail with an old high school buddy (whose name shall remain unknown, unless he discloses it, for reasons shortly to become clear).

He and I have an easygoing way of talking; things just come up and we roll with them. For example, a week or so ago, I all of a sudden said, "Somebody's got to do something about the word 'queue'. 'Line' is more than adequate. In fact, queue is sufficient grounds for the colonies to have seceded from Britain." He agreed. And on we went.

(Surely you agree as well. So on we go.)

Well, last night he suddenly informed me––spurred by what experiences I cannot and would not know––that "There needs to be a word for what happens when you walk into a public restroom that smells just foul, and then as you walk out, other people coming in think you made the stench."

How could I not have agreed? Such a tragic happening should at least have a name by which we may perhaps, in moments of fear, exorcise it.

My neologizing powers actuated and I typed out an example usage: "Oh man, I just got shat-up at the rest stop!"

He liked it. Was he trying to name a "shit-up"?

I thinkered more (props to M. Ondaatje): "I was a 'stool' pigeon."

And then he done bring the pain: "I got stool pigeoned."

Sheer collaborative gold.

Now it's just a matter of working up a formal definition and submitting it to the Urban Dicitonary. I posted it here for "e-chival" purposes and to gratify my own neologistic urges.

Don't get stool pigeoned: carry a lighter.

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