Words that ought to be in the dictionary, ’08 edition

aniston (verb) the inability to just let it go already

by Scott Feschuk on Monday, December 22, 2008 7:00pm - 72 Comments

Words that ought to be in the dictionary, ’08 edition

Let’s close out the year by reflecting on the personalities and events of 2008 and compiling the Third Annual List of Words That Ought to be Added to the Dictionary:

aniston verb the inability to just let it go already: Twelve years after the championship game, Roger still anistoned that untimely fumble.

bernanke verb to appear bewildered and helpless in the face of events. syn. paulson, flaherty, federline

blagojevich noun 1. one who commits a crime with comic ineptness: That blagojevich robbed a bank without a mask—or a gun! 2. a grown man who wears a marmot upon his head.

bush verb to long achingly for someone’s departure: After finding half a pizza in the crack of our sofa, my wife began bushing about my couch-crashing best friend.

cheney noun 1. a creature, rarely seen in public, possibly mythical, believed to feed exclusively upon kitty-cats and the souls of orphans. 2. one who successfully hunts the most dangerous game of all—man!

Conservative (orig. Canadian) noun one who advocates and strictly adheres to principles of free market political orthodoxy, right up until achieving power.

dion verb 1. to refuse to abandon a failed idea even when it’s obvious that no one likes it: Beyoncé is dioning this whole Sasha Fierce thing. syn. greenshift. 2. to resign in failure and then, not long thereafter, to resign even sooner in even more failure. 3. adjective blurry, out of focus.

dow verb to decline so rapidly as to force the monocles of heretofore wealthy tycoons to pop from their eye sockets.

greenspan verb to reappraise after his departure one widely believed to be competent at his job and realize he was, in fact, not: When the auditor discovered that our financial records consisted of nothing more than doodles of a fancy yacht, a private island and bags marked with a dollar sign, we began greenspanning about our departed CFO.

harper verb to overplay one’s hand. noun the belief in some cultures that a simple blend of polyester and cotton, when spun into the shape of a vest, can confer human qualities on inert objects.

ignatieff verb 1. to have something you’ve long desired simply fall into your lap: King Arthur, while relieving himself, was ignatieffed by the Holy Grail atop the urinal. 2. to smile in a manner that suggests the very act of smiling is causing tremendous discomfort. noun 1. the world’s only known set of self-aware eyebrows.

jackman noun a genre of screenwriting wherein the plot is meticulously constructed to maximize shirt removal. syn. mcconaughey.

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  • Jack Mitchell

    iggy, adj. from ME ighiye, OF ingiz (var. ignez), LL ignabilis, funny-looking.
    1.a. inevitable yet somehow undesirable; fated.
    The iggy morn hath come, purloining hope Shak.; The hour was iggy Milt.
    1.b. spruced, lacquered. His deandrof was ygone, his brows yghiy Chauc.

    whence
    2. noun, abstr. Luck, destiny. Calamity. Iggy come, iggy go Dryd.

  • MJ Patchouli

    couillard (noun): a term used by card players to denote a winning pair.

    • s. weber

      oh that is funny, you have my vote

      • brent hodgson

        I’ll second that!

    • waiting for change

      Touche (not touch) !

    • AKS

      my vote too!

  • steve

    Separatist (noun): word used by a governing minority government in a last desperate attempt at remaining in power.

    • Ben

      I’ll second that.

  • Sophie

    Rae-verb 1. To do something for the greater good, only to have it totally backfire on all your hopes and dreams. I donated to the Salavation Army, but it totally Raed when it showed up on my joint bank statement as money spent on prostitution

  • MJ Patchouli

    Gregoire, omg, I beg of you: either stop drinking wine or stop posting …

  • Pierre

    Coalition: A group of 3 (or 4) useless idiots, who think they can un-democratically seize control of a country, while another useless idiot is asleep at the switch. (See Canadian)

    Canadian: A person who is a citizen of a country without a working government (for that last 6 years), although it costs more in taxes than if there was a working gorvernment. (See American)

    American: Often used as a synomym of Canadian.

    MP (Canada): A person who is paid immense sums of money not to work for 7 months of the year. For the remaining 5 months, the person actually attempts to work, but is paid during that time to under-achieve.

    North American Auto Industry: A mythical thing which has not existed since the late 1970′s. None the less, it costs taxpayers a fortune in tax and other credits, and annually, at that.

    Scott Feschuck: A Canadian Ego, larger than William Shathner’s and Simon Cowell’s combined.

  • Stacey

    Ghomeshi (noun); an irriating sound that won’t go away. Sue had a ghomeshi in her car ever since the nmechanic left loose parts in the motor.

    • http://kevinsolez.blogspot.com Kevin Solez

      Oh, Giam is my favorite and that Q, well, it’s awesome. Did you hear the one with Bob Einstein?

  • YK

    Believe it or not, we have added this a long time ago:

    Rogers (v) – to be screwed by a large corporation. Eg. I’ve been rogersed again.

  • YK

    Believe it or not, we have added this to our vocabulary a long time ago:

    Rogers (v) – to be screwed by a large corporation. Eg. I’ve been rogersed again by my bank.

  • Greg

    Your article sucks. Not funny. Get your facts straight. Pick on people that actually screwed the world up. All Americans.

  • Gregoire

    Greg, that’s a bit nasty, that last statement: “Pick on people that actually screwed the world up. All Americans.”

    Fact is, you don’t know most Americans. But if you did, you’d see that most Americans are decent people, just like not all Canadians are not self-obsessed grudge-nursers (see Alberta and Quebec).

    Oh, also, I understand how American-bashing requires no thought or creativity, so people usually go for it (see Rick Mercer and t he CBC) but taking the easy path betrays a certain amount of ignorance, even in people who are so convinced they are worldly and enlightened.

    For the record, I am Canadian. And I don’t have to bash American’s to feel good about being Canadian.

    • AKS

      As an American, I say thank you!

    • http://kevinsolez.blogspot.com Kevin Solez

      The truly funny thing about Canadian Anti-americanism is that, since it requires so little thought, it is in essence no different than the bigotry of the uneducated in the southern U.S. Y’know, those that don’t like stuff because it’s not them.

      So, here are these navel-gazing, self-assured Canadians, feeling superior for no other reason that they have adopted a very familiar chauvinistic bigotry. This is not to let the American Government off the hook for engaging in adventurous homicidal rampages for the benefit of various industries they’re in bed with. You want to fight terrorists, you blind idiots, attack Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Is that some kind of revelation to you?

  • waiting for change

    Dion -(verb) ; Any idea that taxpayers reject but Liberal politicians continue to support. ex; Let’s for a coalition so we can “dion” equal rights in Quebec.

    Infotainment- (Noun) ; discription of what passes for journalism in the various media those days.
    Ex; Instead of reporting on the facts of the Liberal EI scandle it was given the importance of ‘infotainment’ on the evening news.

    Hypocrite- (Noun) ; Discription of a politician who mouth is on auto answer. ex; Alo/anglophones in Quebec saw Charest as a hypocrite for making the remark “I will work for all Quebecers” before he has had a chance to even form a new cabinet.

  • BigBeat

    spezza – verb/noun/adjective/adverb/adnoun/adadjective – def. – to misfire every shot inexplicably despite having the proper gear, talent, etc. e.g. – “The Missus got me some Cialis, but I’m still spezza.”

    • Two Yen

      Jason has been in the top ten in scoring on a points per game basis for the past two years. That’s pretty good in my books – something not even Cialis could guarantee.

  • radiofreecollingwood

    Guergis (v): To rise far above your evident competencies based on your ability to read prepared scripts and set aside previously-stated principles. i.e. “I totally guergised my way into that job.”

  • spicydoc

    Feschuk (v):

    To find and keep a job (despite the lack of any talent or credentials) because you coincidentally share a surname with somebody capable. eg “I was going to be cut from the team, but because my name is Dwayne Gretzky, I Feschuked a spot”. See also Feschuk, Dave.

  • archangel

    Feschuk — Abrupt utterance of humour to justify guilt.

  • http://www.thisbuddyofmine.com this buddy of mine

    tarsanding: (v)…to find the pearl among mountains of filth.

    “It took some tarsanding, but that fat chick has a good personality”

  • TDK

    I support “gomeshi”, “avery” and of course “couillard” as new additions.

    Radio2 noun 1. to leave something in much worse shape than it was in before 2. to damage a national treasure for no apparent reason: When that crazy geologist guy took a hammer to Michelangelo’s Pieta he really did a Radio2 on it.

    Duffy noun 1. an inconcievable event takes place where money changes hands 2. to sell ones soul for 134,000 per year: Louis Vuitton getting Keith Richards to appear in advertising for their hand bags was certainly a duffy.

  • Jack Mitchell

    duffy (noun). A culinary specialty of PEI. The stomach of a sheep is first extracted and blown up with hot air, then left to moulder for half a dozen years until it becomes the subject of village ridicule. It is then heavily coated in lard and baked in the Upper Part of the oven until it dissolves in its own bitter juices.

  • ml johnstone

    Duffy: verb: meaning to move from a position with low profile to one with high profile.
    Wallin: verb: meaning: to network. She found herself wallin with several Conservatives at a recent meeting for members of the media sympathetic to a challenged government.

  • Kathleen MacLeod

    Harper [verb] 1. to always insist on having one’s own way ; 2. inability to delegate due to the belief that you are the only person who can handle any job no matter how menial ; 3. inability to participate in anything without the assurance of winning [otherwise, the event is canceled] ; When it appeared as if the other boys would overtake little Stevie, the principal was pressured to harper the race.

  • Kathleen MacLeod

    Ritchie [verb] to maximize return on investment. After a few short years of minor inconvenience, e.g. cuddling up to a piece of gristle, Guy ritchied the situation.

  • D Fourney

    Feschuk – you have outdone yourself with this year’s list. I laughed so hard I think I might have hurt myself. Keep up the good work.

  • http://www.macleans.ca/feschuk Scott Feschuk

    As much as I enjoy defying conventional wisdom, and as much as my grandma enjoys all the entries making fun of me, I’m going to declare MJ Patchouli the winner for both breast- and hilarity-based reasons.

    MJ: send me at email at sfeschuk@sympatico.ca and I’ll dispatch your prize via the spellbinding power of “the internets.”

    Sincere thanks to all who entered — several definitions are disarmingly better than the ones I produced.

    The best of the Christmas season to everyone!

    • Danza

      ha ha it wuz hilarious. i have to come to this website more often. = )

  • http://kevinsolez.blogspot.com Kevin Solez

    Dear Scott,

    I feel compelled to inform you that many of these words were already defined by yours truly. For Example:

    Obama (vb.) – To disarm one’s enemies by implicitly breaking the taboos that gave them their power.

    Dion (adj.) – inexplicably awesome despite the circumstances.

    Greenspan (vb.) – Scott, you say that to Palin is to do what has already been defined as to Greenspan, i.e. “to speak words generally accepted to be part of the English language, but to make no sense while doing so.”

    and,

    Harper (n.) – A psychological condition that renders one incapable of accepting personal responsibility for anything, while having the paradoxical trait of believing that nothing is done right unless it is done by oneself.

    Thanks Scott, your others are spot on.

    ~K

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