Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Penema

Meaning: The trigger for writing copiously.
Pronunciation: Pen-nee-ma.
Usage: Arundhati Roy & Arun Shourie are always in search of a penema.
Root: Pen + Enema.

Monday, February 27, 2006

Yellection

Meaning: A voice vote.
Pronunciation: Yell-lek-shun.
Usage: The yellection sealed the fate of the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha.
Root: Yell + election.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Formullah

Meaning: One who swears by formulas.
Pronunciation: For-mullah
Usage: When the stakes are huge, I prefer to be a formullah.
Root: Formula + mullah (a religious man).
Note: Google shows up the word. But it's not been used in this context.

Bhaiceps

Meaning: Mafia muscle.
Pronunciation: Bhai-seps.
Usage: No one takes panga with him, thanks to his bhaiceps.
Root: Bhai (the Bombay slang for mafia man) + Biceps.

Showmosexual

Meaning: A person who believes in attracting attention by showing more skin.
Pronunciation: Rhymes with homosexual.
Usage: If you're not a showmosexual, you have no future in Bollywood.
Root: Show + more to be sexual.

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Tamgaru

Meaning: A person of Tamil & Telugu lineage.
Pronunciation: Tam-ga-roo.
Usage: Chennai has more than a million tamgarus.
Root: Tam (Slang for tamilian) + Garu (a telugu suffix for a person)

Jeespot

Meaning: The vermillion dot on a married women's forehead that acts as a big turn-off for potential suitors.
Pronunciation: Obvious.
Usage: Shamim thought he'll ask his neighbour out for a date. But he backed off when he saw her jeespot.
Root: The Sindoor (vermillion dot) is the married woman's cryptic way of saying, "Look dude, I am married." In North India, when you address a woman sporting the Sindoor, you attach a respectful suffix 'jee' to her name. As in Priyajee, Shanthajee, Bhavnajee...Therefore the dot that makes you go jee is the jeespot.

Shyfocals

Meaning: Contact lenses.
Pronunciation: Rhymes with bifocals.
Usage: Rani Mukherjee wore dark tinted shyfocals in Black.
Root: People slip into contact lenses when they're shy of wearing spectacles. So that's Shy + Bifocals.

Friday, February 24, 2006

Frugalbandi

Meaning: A musical show put together by 3 or more people with minimal equipment and almost no rehearsal. Simply put, a public jamming session.
Pronunciation: Frugal-bun-dhi
Usage: I love the spontaneity of frugalbandis.
Root: Frugal + Jugalbandi (a hindi word that means a musical show put together by two people.)

Cutpros

Meaning: Film editors who edit with Final Cut Pro.
Pronunciation: Cut-prose.
Usage: There's a demand for at least 100 more cutpros in Chennai.
Root: Obvious.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Hushtachar

Meaning: Silence over corruption.
Pronunciation: Hush-ta-char.
Usage: The good man's hushtachar is to blame for the bad man's brashtachar.
Root: Hush + Brashtachar (Hindi word for corruption)

Scorndom

Meaning: Contempt for wearing condoms.
Pronunciation: Scon-dum.
Usage: In rural India, men think it's almost macho to have a healthy scorndom.
Root: Scorn for condom.

Prosetitution

Meaning: Writing for money. And nothing else.
Pronunciation: Prose-tea-tuition.
Usage: Copywriting is 99% prosetitution and 1% inspiration.
Root: Prose + Prostitution.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Teavorcee

Meaning: One who's kicked the habit of drinking tea.
Pronunciation: tee-vor-see.
Usage: I used to guzzle 15 cups of lemon tea, everyday. Then one fine day, I turned a teavorcee and started my flirtation with chilled beer.
Root: Obvious.

Paiyengar

Meaning: An Iyengar boy.
Pronunciation: Pai-young-gaar.
Usage: We are on the look out for a well-educated, well-placed paiyengar earning a fat salary.
Root: Paiyan (Boy in Tamil) + Iyengar (orthodox tamil brahmins)

Puprentice

Meaning: A newbie apprentice.
Pronunciation: Rhymes with apprentice.
Usage: If you're a female puprentice, the whole office will be thirsting to meet you. If you're a male puprentice, no has time for you.
Root: Pup + Apprentice.

Flamebassy

Meaning : a burning embassy
Usage : Several Danish flamebassys opened up in the muslim world over the past few days
Pronunciation : flame + bass + ee
Root : flame + embassy

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Moneypal

Meaning: a filthy-rich friend, who can be duped into buying anything.
Pronunciation: mani-pal
Usage: I have my moneypal buy books I can't afford.
Root: money + pal

Flait

Meaning: an ungainly gait.
Pronunciation: flayt (rhymes with gait)
Usage: Her flait is a turn-off.
Root: flail + gait

Gharithmetic

Meaning: The fine art of balancing home needs with a limited income.
Pronunciation: Ghur-ryth-matic.
Usage: The Indian housewife's gharithmetic can offer you more insights than a Harvard case study.
Root: Ghar (Hindi word for home) + Arithmetic.

Talksickology

Meaning: Study of obnoxious phrases and words.
Pronunciation: Homonym of toxicology.
Usage: As a linguist, I often wonder why no one offers a PhD in talksickology.
Root: Study of sick sounding talk.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Squashiorkor

Meaning: The weak state of the body after a game of squash.
Pronunciation: Obvious.
Usage: If you're athletic you feel charged after a game of squash. If you're like me, you'll end up with squashiorkor.
Root: Squash + Kwashiorkor (weakness due to malnutrition).

Chickstermination

Meaning: Mass killing of chicken resorted to on the onset of bird flu.
Pronunciation: Chix-termy-nation.
Usage: We condemn Hitler's genocide. But don't mind staying silent on the issue of chickstrmination.
Root: Chicken + Extermination.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Classanova

Meaning: The biggest flirt on campus.
Pronunciation: Rhymes with casanova.
Usage: I met our classanova, the other day. He's now a pale shadow of his former self.
Root: Obvious.

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Chennaive

Meaning: Chennaiites with old Madras qualities.
Pronunciation: Chen-nai-eve.
Usage: If you ask me, I'd rather be with the Chennaive than hang out with the Madracease.
Root: Chennai + naive.

Madracease

Meaning: Aggressive, ambitious, crafty, fun loving, outgoing, cosmopolitan Chennaiites.
Pronunciation: Homonym of Madrasis.
Usage: The BPO revolution has spawned a new breed of Madracease who are very Mumbai in their outlook.
Root: Madrasis are often associated with traits like conservative, no-nonsense, simple, guileless, trustworthy etc. Madracease are people who have stopping being so.

Potshala

Meaning: A hideout for smoking pot.
Pronunciation: Pot-sha-la
Usage: If Rajesh is not at office or home, he must be in the nearest potshala.
Root: Pot + shala (hindi word for place). Word derived from paatshala.

Plucquisition

Meaning: A ballsy but hostile acquistion.
Pronunciation: Pluck-kwi-zeeshan.
Usage: It is to be seen if Lakshmi Mittal manages the plucquisition of Arcelor.
Root: Pluck + Acquisition.

Friday, February 17, 2006

Thought Soccer

Meaning: Bouncing ideas off.
Pronunciation: Thot-socker.
Usage: I get my kicks playing thought soccer with minds I respect.
Root: In soccer the ball gets dribbled, kicked and sometimes people use their head. Replace the ball with a thought, it seems to make a nice metaphor.

Phonevita

Meaning: Pep talk over phone.
Pronunciation: Obvious.
Usage: I was really down and out. My dad's phonevita got me back on track.
Root: Obvious.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Hunchayat

Meaning: A jury that goes by gut feel.
Pronunciation: Rhymes with Panchayat.
Usage: Creative initiatives need to be judged by hunchayats.
Root: Hunch + Panchayat (an informal village jury in India)

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Funderestimate

Meaning: Underestimating the humour quotient.
Pronunciation: Rhymes with underestimate.
Usage: Bollywood gags invariably fall flat because they funderestimate the audience.
Root: Obvious.

Starverchi

Meaning: One who cooks only when there's no other option.
Usage: When it rained poonais and naais in Chennai, I had to play starverchi.
Pronunciation: Sta-var-chi.
Root: Starver + Bawarchi (the hindi word for a cook).

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Baternity

Meaning: An excruciatingly long innings.
Pronunciation: Batter-nity.
Usage: Geoff Boycott's baternity at Leeds, took 10 hours. He managed to pile up 246 runs. For this effort, he was dropped in the next test match.
Root: Bat + eternity.

Spendearment

Meaning: Buying love by splurging on gifts.
Pronunciation: Spend-dear-ment.
Usage: A lady will say 'I do' depending on the terms of spendearment.
Root: Spend + Endearment.

IRN

Meaning: An NRI who's returned to India.
Pronunciation: Eye-aar-ren.
Usage: India's prosperity will be steered by millions of enlightened IRNs.
Root: IRN is NRI headed backwards. Also IRN means India Returned NRI.

Surmouse

Meaning: A not-so-wild guess.
Pronunciation: Sir-mouse
Usage: The statement 'Ganguly will never be in the one day team' is a surmouse. While 'Ganguly will never be in the Indian team' is a surmise.
Root: Surmouse is the singular of surmice (phonetically surmise). So it will always be a smaller, milder guess.

Pegnant

Meaning: Having a bloated beer belly.
Pronunciation: Peg-nunt.
Usage: I need to do some exercise to shed my pegnant look.
Root: Peg + pregnant.

Monday, February 13, 2006

Hefemeral

Meaning: 10 seconds of international fame attained by stripping for the playboy magazine.
Pronunciation: Rhymes with ephemeral.
Usage: Playboy bunnies are hefemeral celebrities.
Root: Derived from Hugh Hefner, the founder of Playboy magazine. Hefner was often referred to as Hef.

Recartography

Meaning: The technique of altering geographical borders by redrawing maps.
Pronunciation: Re-carto-grafy.
Usage: Recartography will be in vogue in a decade or two.
Root: Re (again) + cartography (science of map making).

Sleekonomics

Meaning: The art of making the economy look good by resorting to window dressing.
Pronunciation: Slee-ko-nomix.
Usage: I think the Chinese are wizards in sleekonomics. They've hoodwinked the world into thinking, they're a super power.
Root: Sleek + economics.

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Janusoplasty

Meaning: Face transplant surgery.
Pronunciation: Jay-nus-o-plasty.
Usage: What if Osama Bin Laden has undergone a janusoplasty?
Root: In roman mythology, Janus is a two-faced god. Since a face transplant is about acquiring a second face, I thought linking it to Janus would make sense.

Base Transplant

Meaning: Getting yourself a bigger butt via plastic surgery.
Pronunciation: Obvious.
Usage: The success of JLO might inspire many to go in for a base transplant.
Root: Face Transplant.

Laloo Paratha

Meaning: A caste-laced sop dished out for votes.
Pronunciation: La-loo-purr-atta
Usage: To win the Tamilnadu election, Jayalalitha may cook some laloo parathas for the weaker sections.
Root: From Laloo Yadav, a pastmaster at caste politics. And aloo paratha.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Schmuckoustic

Meaning: Stupid sounding.
Pronunciation: Sh-muck-coo-stick
Usage: Who is more schmuckoustic? Laloo or Dubya?
Root: Schmuck + acoustic.

Shunusual

Meaning: Avoiding the usual for the sake of being different.
Pronunciation: Shun-you-usual.
Usage: In advertising, you're forced to be shunusual most of the time.
Root: Shun the usual.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Dubyarn

Meaning: Shallow justification for a patently unjust act.
Pronunciation: Dub-yarn.
Usage: Hitler's dubyarn for his conquests was that germany needed more living space.
Root: Dubya + yarn.

Pentaguns

Meaning: Weapons supplied by the CIA.
Pronunciation: Pen-ta-guns.
Usage: America pumps in the pentaguns first. And then a puppet democracy.
Root: Pentagon + guns.

Kalashnikkah

Meaning: Married to a cause that involves weiding the gun. Invariably the AK-47.
Pronunciation: Cal-ash-nick-kaah
Usage: If you ask my honest opinion, it's about time the Kashmiri separatists dissolved their kalashnikkah.
Root: Kalashnikov + nikkah.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Optiogram

Meaning: Sending a message with one's eyes.
Pronunciation: Op-tee-o-gram.
Usage: It was a tense meeting. I could make out from my boss's optiogram that it was pointless to argue anymore.
Root: Opti (eye in greek) + gram (as in the suffix in telegram, hologram, phonogram).

Monday, February 06, 2006

Toonslaught

Meaning: A blasphemous attack done in jest, using cartoons.
Pronunciation: Toon-slot
Usage: Conservative Islamists all over the world are enraged over the European toonslaught on Prophet Mohammad.
Root: Toon + Onslaught.

Jetonation

Meaning: A plane explosion.
Pronunciation: Rhymes with detonation.
Usage: CIA has intelligence that the Al Qaeda is planning a series of jetonations in smaller countries.
Root: Obvious.

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Whatsyayana

Meaning: The go-to-guy for all coital queries.
Pronunciation: Watts-ya-yana
Usage: Every campus has one whatsayayana.
Root: What + Vatsyayana (the author of kama sutra).

Pyaarthritis

Meaning: When love makes you go weak in the knees.
Pronunciation: Pyaar-thry-tis.
Usage: It was a pyaarthritis moment. Vineet didn't know what hit him. He went straight to Sonali and proposed to her.
Root: Pyaar (Hindi word for love) + Arthritis (a condition that makes your knees weak).

Showpium

Meaning: The irresistible pull of showbiz.
Pronunciation: Rhymes with opium.
Usage: Showpium is the reason why people are glued to their televisions.
Root: Obvious.

Friday, February 03, 2006

Babooboo

Meaning: A blooper or a snafu committed by a bureaucrat.
Pronunciation: Babu-boo
Usage: Many good governments earn a bad name, thanks to babooboos.
Root: Babu (the hindi word for a bureaucrat) + boo boo.
Note: The word is not a fresh coinage. It's probably a name in some language.

Talksymoron

Meaning: Anything that sounds retarded.
Pronunciation: Toxy-moron.
Usage: I think the word 'Kewl' is a talksymoron.
Root: Obvious.

Dunnomad

Meaning: A knowledge seeker who travels from website to website in search of information.
Pronunciation: Doe-know-mad
Usage: Dunnomads are cyber gypsies with a brain.
Root: Dunno (don't know) + Nomad.

Antarickshaw

Meaning: A futuristic space cab that can cart 2 or 3 people at a time.
Pronunciation: Unther-rickshaw.
Usage: I am a space tourist. I love getting on to an antarickshaw and seeing new galaxies.
Root: Antariksha (Cosmos in sanskrit) + Rickshaw.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Punctualious

Meaning: very meticulous about use of punctuations.
Usage: G.B. Shaw was very punctualious in his writings.
Pronounciation: pank-chu-é-li-us
Root: punctuation + punctilious

Paraboli

Meaning: Making an outrageously about-turn statement.
Pronunciation: Para-bolee.
Usage: Mayawati is the queen of paraboli.
Root: Parabola (geometrical representation of a u-turn) + boli (hindi word for speak).

Voodoonym

Meaning: When you assume someone else's name with an intent of bringing disrepute to that name, the assumed name is called a voodoonym.
Pronunciation: Woo-doo-nym.
Usage: Beware, someone, somewhere might be using your name as his voodoonym.
Root: The meaning kinda sums it up.

Shoutnumber

Meaning: To be drowned out by a torrent of voices.
Pronunciation: Obvious.
Usage: The opposition was shoutnumbered by the ruling party MLAs.
Root: Shout + Outnumber.

Piquebrain

Meaning: an annoying person
Usage: Harry is a piquebrain.
Pronounciation: pick-brain
Root: pique (verb) + brain

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Manimosity

Meaning: A feeling of ill will against men.
Pronunciation: Manee-maw-city
Usage: Jilted women tend to develop manimosity.
Root: Man + Animosity.