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!

This form does not yet contain any fields.

    Search
    « What’s O.J.'s Next Gig? A Knife Convention? | Main | The Lobby Bone Is Connected to the House Bone… »
    Friday
    Sep302005

    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 |
    Print ArticlePrint Article

    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.

    Notify me of follow-up comments via email.