Sniglet 2.0
Remember Sniglets? Ahhh, the 80’s. Sniglets were invented by Rich Hall on Saturday Night Live, they are words that “aren’t in the dictionary, but should be.” I think that so-called neologism (fancy talk for making up words) has become more mainstream these days. Of course, it’s been around forever, that’s how languages are born and evolve, and one of the most famous neologists was William Shakespeare. Isn’t it funny to think that people who went to his plays were hearing some words for the first time, and they must have been thinking how weird they sounded, and now they are considered a standard part of our language (he coined “watchdog,” “eyeball,” “unreal”, for example)? There are also a host of other authors who were/are neologists.
Sometimes I find myself making a comment that Mimi from the past would have had no idea what Mimi from the future is saying. “I IM’d her and told her I’d be at the Meetup.” “I saw from her Facebook status that she’s out of town.” Here is some internet and 00’s culture-inspired neologism for you, a la Mimi (mimologism):
| Sniglet 2.0 | Definition | Use in Sentence |
|---|---|---|
| ADID | Attention Deficit Internet Disorder: an affliction whereby you cannot get a single task completed while at your computer, because your attention is divided between many different windows and tasks, and there are so many distractions available. | “My ADID acted up a lot when I added that new application that showed a window every time I got a Twitter update, because I wanted to click on every update.” |
| pasteocampus | The area in your brain that you use to remember what you most recently stored in your computer’s paste buffer. | “Oops–that was the wrong link I just posted–thought it was the link for that funny Youtube video of dogs dancing. I need coffee, my pasteocampus must not be functioning properly.” |
| fishkatorian | Easier to remember alternative for “pescetarian,” or someone who eats no meat other than fish. Especially useful for describing “exotic” diets to midwesterners. | “Isn’t one of your friends a fishkatorian?” (actual quote from my Dad) |
| webcampose | The instantly recognizable pose that results when someone takes their own picture from a web camera. Monitor glow on the face, outstretched arms framing the shot, and a messy bedroom in the background are also indicative of the pose. | “Doesn’t that guy have any friends who can take pictures of him? I don’t think so, because his webcampose is really bad.” |
| internetcred | The credibility that you gain on the internet, based on the quality of the items that you write or post. | “He has no internetcred because he posts humorless jokes on Facebook all the time.” |
| postremorse | The feeling of dread that comes when you realize you posted something in a public place that will offend someone you know, and you can’t delete it. | “I really shouldn’t have posted that remark in Facebook about that party being boring, because I just remembered the host is one of my friends there. . . I have a lot of postremorse.” |
| googlitis | The affliction whereby victims believe that all forms of information that are not on the internet are inferior and too much work to utilize. | “Due to my googlitis, I searched for my neighbor’s phone number on the internet for 15 minutes before I remembered it’s written in my address book.” |
| silaclick | The technique used to silently click a mouse’s button while talking on the phone so that the person on the other end doesn’t realize you’re doing things on your computer. | “I discovered that my laptop’s built-in mouse is a good choice so that I can silaclick on my email while talking to people.” |
| palinfreude | The paradoxically good feeling that you get pre-election, similar to the German term schadenfreude, when the political party you oppose does something really stupid during their campaign, so that your party will benefit. | “I had a lot of anticipatory palinfreude before the vice presidential debate, because I was hoping Sarah Palin would say something stupid.” |
| paniclick | The panicked mouse click you make on a weblink when you realized you just clicked on the wrong link, and you want to do it quickly before the wrong webpage loads. | “When I perform a paniclick, I’m so good at it that I usually make it before the wrong page loads.” |
You can also check out NetLingo, a website that lists new words created and used to describe the internet and its content. Feel free to list your Sniglet 2.0’s in the comments below!
Posted: October 5th, 2008 under 80's, Internet, Politics.
Comments: 3
Comments
Comment from Dede
Time: October 8, 2008, 3:22 am
I had a very close call this week, and I am so glad to report that I have no postremorse, but very well could have. Let’s just say that I need to check my work e-mails a little bit closer before I reply to all. Yep, I almost zinged my boss. Ooopsie. So, thank you, Mimi, for putting a name to that thing I almost did.
Comment from Cynthia
Time: October 15, 2008, 7:29 pm
I did this a couple days ago when twitter updated my face book page automatically. Luckily I removed the Box and de-authorized twitter and non one is the wiser . . . Also–twitter has a delete function–pretty nice, eh?
Comment from Rebecca
Time: October 23, 2008, 6:53 pm
Recently wrote a blog post about the book, Nudge, and two parts of the brain we rely on to make decisions: the inner Mr. Spock and the inner Homer Simpson. http://is.gd/4DxA
Which one do we rely on to make up Sniglets?
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