About This Site

Figaro rips the innards out of things people say and reveals the rhetorical tricks and pratfalls. For terms and definitions, click here.
(What are figures of speech?)
Ask Figaro a question!

Search

« What’s O.J.'s Next Gig? A Knife Convention? | Main | The Lobby Bone Is Connected to the House Bone… »
Friday
30Sep

What Do You Call No-Bid Contracting? Halliburtin’.

DateFriday, September 30, 2005 at 06:21AM

nast.gifQuote:   "Lobbyists were trolling for hurrigains almost before New Orleans flooded." Term used in Pseudodictionary.com, a site dedicated to made-up words

Figure of Speech:   neologism (NEE oh loh gism), the new word

What’s a $200 billion hurricane windfall with no oversight?  That kind of money merits its very own word,  so we submitted "hurrigain" to Pseudodictionary, a website that boasts more than 20,000 neologisms.

Three easy ways to coin a neologism:

  • Base it on a name (a figure called an eponym)
  • Change a part of speech (an anthimeria)
  • Combine two words in a punning fashion. That's what we did here.

Snappy Answer:  "And we'll call no-bid contractors villainaires."

Got a snappier answer?  Email Figaro.

AuthorFigaro | CommentPost a Comment |

PrintView Printer Friendly Version

EmailEmail Article to Friend

Reader Comments

There are no comments for this journal entry. To create a new comment, use the form below.

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.

My response is on my own website »
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
All HTML will be escaped. Hyperlinks will be created for URLs automatically.