The Blaine County Journal News-Opinion - We've Got The County Covered

Most every reader has some curiosity about words-what a new word means or what the origin of a common word or saying might be. Despite the ascendency of technology in how we communicate, there are still a large number of people who enjoy words and playing around with how they can be used-doing word games.

A logophile (lover of words) sent me, in one of those "internet joke postings" that flood our emails, an old list of the winning entries in a contest, hosted by the "Washington Post," to create neologisms. That got me thinking about other word games I've been involved with over the years and so, gentle reader, I decided to share some of those "jeu de mots" (play on words).

First, about the contest to create neologisms

A neologism is a word created with an alternate meaning to a common word. For example, in the contest referenced, the first listed winning neologism was "coffee (n), the person upon whom one coughs." Balderdash, which means nonsense writing or talk, as a neologism became a noun meaning "a rapidly receding hairline." You get the idea, take a common word, come up with a humorous, new definition. Such a large number of readers submitted an old favorite that the editors listed it by popular demand: "Frisbeetarianism (n.): The belief that when you die, your soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there." Older readers may remember comedian George Carlin, the creation of the word frisbeetariansim was attributed to him.

My research revealed that the "Post" had abandoned the neologism contest a few years ago and added several new contests about words. One that I found quite entertaining was "Ask Backwards," a contest where an 'answer' is published in the newspaper and readers are asked to create questions to match the answer. For example, a weekly answer was "Swiss chard but not a Swiss bank account." A couple of listed winners that I liked included, "What can you use if you're out of lettuce?" and "What grows best with lots of sunshine?" A Washington, DC resident, familiar with areas where the most expensive restaurants are located, submitted this question: "What can $27 get you in Georgetown?"

Just a few more comments about neologisms. Some new words, especially those related to technology, regularly become a part of our language. How many times a day do you hear someone suggesting "why don't you just Google it?" For you Luddites (people who reject technology) Google is one of many search engines available to find information on the internet. 'Googling' means to do online research. The term has become, literally, a verb most people understand.

While learning more about neologisms, I discovered a new one related to the internet that I'd never heard but instantly understood the meaning associated with it. Someone who is clueless can now be described as "404." Internet users will recognize 404 as an error message when one server can't communicate with a another server. Easy to see how the jump to 'clueless' to describe a person could be made.

And then there's paraprosdokians

While you might not recognize the term paraprosdokians, you may very well use them. A paraprosdokian is a 'figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected and frequently humorous or insightful." A common one I hear, to describe frustration when someone tries to do a good deed and is somehow rebuffed or there's a negative, unintended outcome, is, "No good deed goes unpunished." Even if you've never used or heard the comment, you can see the meaning and truth in the phrase.

Many paraprosdokians have been around for some time and cover a range of topics, to wit: "To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target." Or, "Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more that standing in a garage makes you a car." And many paraprosdokians are just plain sound advice, like "You do not need a parachute to skydive, you only need a parachute to skydive twice" and "Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad."

Creating the 'tainted idiom'

Most readers likely are familiar with sayings that succinctly sum up a point, like the old saying "A fool and his money are soon parted." James Thurber was an essayist and cartoonist for the "New Yorker" magazine. He loved word games and wrote several short stories that involved word games. One game he described was called 'the tainted idiom.' Every language uses idioms, phrases that based solely on the words used don't make sense-like "it's raining cats and dogs" doesn't literally mean cats and dogs are falling out of the sky, it means the rain is really coming down hard.

So, Thurber's game was to taint the meaning of an idiom by changing only one letter in the phrase. For example, "A stitch in time saves nine" could become "A stitch in time saves none," the slight change in spelling totally alters the intention of the original saying. I used to play this game with a friend in Georgia. We each carried a list of sayings that we fiddled with to make in to 'tainted idioms.'

One last word play: Ghost

Back to writer James Thurber, he was famous for his fascination with "Ghost." A blog called "State of Play" described the rules of Ghost: "A player thinks of a word, and says the first letter. The next player adds another letter, which continues that word without completing it. ...each player tries to add a letter to the growing word without making a complete word." The player who begins with the first letter may have one word in mind but subsequent players, to avoid completing a word, try to come up with longer words to stay in play. When a player adds a letter that completes a word, they lose. Scoring is like the basketball game "horse." It's a great game to play in the car to entertain kids, for about thirty seconds.

Thurber and his circle of literary friends created a version of the game they called "Superghost." In this version players could add letters either at the beginning of the series of letters or at the end, but still trying to avoid finishing a word and losing a point. If your turn was to add letters, front or back, that could potentially make a real word from "HLO" you can see it was a game requiring a large vocabulary. (here's some words you might have thought of: matchlock; decathlon, hydrochloric, chloroform and monthlong, or not).

A request to "Journal" readers

Okay, now it's your turn. I'm curious about word games readers play...or recall playing in the past (for example, "Scrabble" is a word game that just about everyone has played at some time). If you will send the name of the game(s) and a description, I'll write a follow-up story sharing the games readers play. You can email your word game to: attention Steve Edwards at bcjreporter@mtintouch.net. Or write and send the game description to Steve Edwards, P.O. Box 279, Chinook, MT 59523. Add a phone contact in case I have questions about the game you described. Thanks.