what are words for?

Sniglets, for those of you who are too young to know the difference between 33 and 45 is a lot more than just 12, were "words that should be in the dictionary, but aren't." They were part of this really funny -- and very 80s -- show on HBO called Not (Necessarily) the News, which I just loved when I was a kid, even though most of their political satire flew like a flock of nuclear-war-triggering geese right over my young head

They were hit and miss, but when they hit, they were pretty funny. For example, a hit and a miss:

Cheedle: The orange residue left on fingers after eating Cheetos or some other cheesy snack (Hall 1984: 21)

Blivet: to flip your pillow looking for a cool spot (Hall 1984: 14)

Everybody get it? It's silly. Anyway, I just made up two Sniglets of my own:

UPExcitement (you-pee-excitement): The feeling of happy anticipation one gets upon hearing a UPS delivery truck speed down the street, because their package is finally being delivered.

UPEnvy (you-pee-envy): The feeling that same person gets when UPS does not deliver to their house, but instead drops a package with a neighbor.

I will now take the extraordinarily pretentious step of releasing my new Sniglets, which could earn me millions of dollars and buy me a mansion and a yacht, under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 License, with a badge and everything.



Sweet.

Comments

[KarmaCorn]

I actually had a Sniglet published in one of his many Sniglet books - a big accomplishment for teenage me. Here it is:

Chocregation (Chock-re-gay-shun)v.: The act of separating your M&M's into color groups before eating.

[Jonathan Dobres]

Incidentally, a blivet is also the technical term for an undecipherable figure, like the devil's pictchfork. If you wanted to get super dorky about it, I suppose you could look at it as the kind of figure that Picard thought about planting in that lone Borg to haul back to the Collective and disable them. But I'm not that kind of dork. No, sir.

[John]

So...psychohistory, catch-22, and malaprop are cro-sniglets?

Words that should have beeen in the dictionary and weren't, but created prior to 1980.

[CHV]

I wonder where the hell Rich Hall (creator of Sniglets) is today?

I recall he was great on NNTN, did a brief stint on SNL, and promptly vanished from the entertainment landscape. Maybe he went back to doing stand-up.

For the record, my fave sniglets:

Doork (.n) - A person who tries entering a building thru the exit door.

Funch (.v) - To flip a bed pillow in an effort to find the cool side.

[Moose]

Quite abundant in North Carolina - Splotsum (n) Possum that never make it completely across the highway.

Careena (n) damaged highway guard rail.

[Red Queen]

My favorite official Sniglet: Sheet-o-stat, wherein you hang one foot out of the sheets in an effort to regulate your body temp at night.

Unofficial, made up by my husband: Chronoprompter, to habitually set the clock ahead 10 minutes in an effort to be on time.

I'm sure there are others, but we still use these years and years later.

[CHV]

Wil:

Not to go all elitist on you, but that "Blivet" definition posted from Wikipedia is definately wrong (shock of shocks).

The description is correct, but the actual sniglet verb is not.

[Stoner]

In any order of french fries, the potentater is the biggest french fry and the minutater is the smallest fry.

[kissmychakram]

Ah, "The Meaning of Liff" (as mentioned above) - such memories. My favoutite ever is:

Cairo (.n) - the sound of a hubcap coming to rest in the road.

[iamhoff]

Great flashback, Wil. My 2 fave sniglets are:

Furnidents - the dents in the carpet left when you move a piece of furniture.

and for the dog lovers...
Pupkiss - the wet residue left on a window by a dog's nose.

[R]

I have to add one more UPS one.

UPFrustration: when UPS rings your doorbell...and has you accept a package for your upstairs neighbors whom you cannot stand.

[seattlemax]

Well, Mr. Fudd, I hope that license works out for you.

[CHV]

A handy sniglet source:

http://lawenforcer.net/humor/sniglets.htm

Another personal fave:

Snackmosphere (.n) - The sealed air pocket trapped inside plastic snack food bags (e.g. potato chips, nachos, etc.)

[Grimmstail]

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/31804 is an appropriate article from not so recently.

I'm just sayin, is all.

I never knew that I was a Chocregationist before today. Interesting. The only Sniglet that I can remember was musquirt - the watery stuff that comes out of mustard and ketchup containers if you don't shake them first. (I think it was a Sniglet. I still use it to this day.)

[Kirsten]

I remember this from some show before NNTN...can't remember the name. Anyway, I made one up:

Icesucktivity: The force that holds the last ice cube to the bottom of the glass, forcing you to tip your head waaaay back, tapping on the bottom of the glass at the same time. This usually results in the ice falling and smacking you between the eyes.

[murgadroid]

My wife has one from when she was a kid:
Schlorbisch (sp?)
The dried ketchup ring that remains when you take the lid off the bottle.

[Julie-O]

My favorite sniglet was "Cinemuck" (the unidentifiable stucky substance on the floor of a movie theatre). I still use that one.

[prof_rocko]

To this day, every single time I write a check, I think about the sniglet "meganegabar"... :^)

[Julie-O]

Oh, another good one: Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at 3 in the morning and cannot be cast out.

[Julie-O]

And one from my husband ...

"Traff*cked" - what drivers become in Los Angeles when driving on the freeway during rush hour.

[MJ]

You forgot:
Schwee: The sound the doors on Star Trek make when opening and closing...

[Red Queen]

I remembered another favorite: Checkuary, the time between January 1 and when you finally start writing the correct year when filling out your checkbook.

[EdwoodCA]

"Butt-Dial": When you unintentionally place a cell phone call when the phone is in your back pocket.

[simbeau]

deplate - DE-plate

to remove a customers plate from the table in a restaurant.

[FEJ]

I think my favorite original sniglet was
Aquadextrious which is the ability to turn off the bath faucets with ones feet.