Meanings that have no words

Most concepts have words to describe them, yet there are many that don’t. I hereby give you, yes you, the right to name those nameless concepts.

Here is one example. When you buy yogurt and remove the foil covering, there usually is a layer of yogurt stuck on it which is quite nice to lick off when nobody else is looking. What do you call it?

Yoghscum

Funny you mention that. Toronto’s Globe and Mail has a great column in its weekly Books supplement in which readers are challenged to come up with words or phrases in response to various topics. This week the challenge was to suggest a word or term for something for which there is no word in English, by altering another word or term.

Examples:

Shaggenfreude: the delight in someone else’s miserable sex life.

Shimmygrant: a woman who is allowed to enter the country because she is an exotic dancer.

Cafkateria: dining establishment where ordinary food metamorphoses into unidentifiable casseroles.

Castrastrophe: a “whoops!” during a vasectomy.

Obfuskate: to play hockey in a confusing manner.

Some-sex marriage: when the honeymoon’s over.

This reminds me: Back in the early 1980s, there was a comedy show on HBO called “Not Necessarily the News” and there was a segment hosted by Rich Hall called “Sniglets”. Sniglets are words that should be in the dictionary but aren’t. Here are a couple links

sniglets

wiki sniglets

:bravo: :notworthy: