The game's objective is simple. One person thinks up a non-existing word - say, Huliphor and writes this in a message. Anyone who wishes may then give a definition that a) sounds plausible, b) is funny, c) is both, or d) is worth noticing for some other reason.
Additional honor can be obtained by giving more credible linguistic details (like the etymology), by providing adequate illustrations or by providing (writing) a fragment that makes use of the word in question.
It's even better if that fragment is humorous in itself by, say, pointing to an existing author, work or style.
I have never considered to formalise this by thinking up some boring award system, though I can probably be done.
As far as I see it, the merit of this game is wholly in the pleasure of writing extremely silly things.
Here's a couple of examples:
KRUFFIMIAL small portable harmonium featuring a whole tone scale in use in Russian Orthodox churches up to the late 19th century. The K. was played solely by priests or higher ranking clergy in chastise-services, where parishioners who had perpetrated a misdemeanor were symbolically 'flagellated' with thunderous preaching, accompanied by ominous-sounding augmented chords, played on the K.
next: PUNICULISTIC
JUGGLERUT - (1) street artist that has seen better days (2) strong alcoholic drink destilled from seagull nests, prawns and heath bushes (Orkney Islands) (3) the indifferent shrug that someone makes when realising that the contribution they just made to the argument is not going to be taken up by anyone
next: MISPERLIOUS
INHAYRNESS : the frame of mind that is required to appreciate a plate of Haggis. Also: a particularly successful contestant in caber tossing is said to possess great inhayrness. Often wrongly translated as machismo or bravura - but there is a particular element of raging, eye-rolling, yet clammy seething involved that those words do not quite capture. A similar case can be made for the Spanish word Duende - that is usually translated as Quality or Authenticity, which misses the point in a similar way.
next: VOLLOPUE
BUMSHABBLE : a conversation carried out in a pretended chummy tone with strong hidden tones of menace, administered by the dominant person in a gang / group of colleagues / sport club / mafia branch / rock band / elvish mailing list to intimidate a newcomer
next : FRITTINKLE
BOBJOBBIE : a job that is mistakenly referred to as easy (ah, our Bobbie can take care o' that) but which turns out to be repulsively hard and complex and cause for much mishap
POLLATUTU : African game, loosely based on the traditional demon-exorcise dance of the N'Pongo people, where the possessed person is slapped around the ears with a certain type of local fish. In pollatutu, there are five teams of five players. The idea is that each player has to touch as many ears of members of the other teams without being touched themselves. To further complicate matters, there is a protective guard called bumshabble (qv) that three of the five players wear. There is a certain area of the playing field called bushbohobnobni where unprotected players of a given team may try and take the bumshabble of their team mates.
LOOPINGTOOTING : to pairwise thread from one shop to another without ever buying anything, while maintaining a spirited conversation
I didn't believe my eyes .. I simply wanted to buy a shirt but not a chance! The place was simply packed with loopingtooting matrones.
SUDEFRED : endearing, albeit slightly derogatory term for a friendly, simple-simonish type of man
(from German süss - sweet and Dutch Frederik Fluweel {lit. Velvet Frederick} - dandy)
Ah, Barney's such a sudefred ..
ERLICTURE : (legal) legal verdict lying - re. gravity, gruesomeness, brutality, somberness, inevitability and impressiveness - somewhere between the shibboleth and the regular command
Judge Crow banged his gavel and ordered an Erlicture in the case of the "dancing landlord" - which gave rise to much heated speculation among the assembled lawyery
ABASUU : the grim, tight-lipped resoluteness with which a Ninja decides that the rest of his life is going to be determined by revenge
Yobakoto-san took a formal bow to honour the spirit of the deceased. When he turned around the wild light of abasuu shone in his eyes - and all that looked upon him fled in terror.
next: PRANAMAÑANA, SUFFROUGE, BOKHOLM
TWITISHNESS : in the likeness, or pertaining to the quality, of an upperclass twit
----Gervaise Brook-Hampster ------ Vivian Smith-Smythe-Smith --- Simon-Zinc-Trumpet-Harris
----------------------- renowned upperclass twits -------------------------------
Other noteworthy upperclass twits include Nigel Incubator-Jones and Oliver St John-Mollusc
(with thanks to Python, Monty)
next: POYNKINPANT
PRANAMAÑANA of practitioners of alternative treaments, the unconcerned dismissal of skeptical inquiries
After Sanskrit prana - holy - and Spanish mañana - tomorrow - in the Mexican laid-back connotation of 'ahh, tomorrow is another day'.
When confronted with the worsening of the symptoms of numerous of his ex-patients, the well-known cranio-selectronic healer Ankin 'Toogle' Tatonic Cadillac Fatize, with great display of pranamañana, burst into a bellowing laugh (San Diego Herald)
SUFFROUGE (fr.) reddening of the face, caused by a state of worked-up politically correct moral anger
The exact shade of red of the suffrouge on the Reverend's face had to be seen to be believed, but after having given this some thougth, Billie decided that his word alone would have to do (the Five Merry Cousins and the Secret of The Talking Carpet)
BOKHOLM : piece of waste ground on the outskirts of town that attracts t-shirted, adolescent males (in much the same way that kitchens attract cats) in order to do boisterous, loud things
after Bokholmen, a rather high-spirited Norwegian coming-of-age ritual - alternative etymology: Dutch Bok - male goat and Holm - lightly forested meadowland
No, I'm not coming to your place, Louisa persisted. I'd have to pass that bokholm near Interurban Road on my way back, thank you very much, she concluded primly, though - Jeremy could not help noticing, not entirely believably.
next : PARAGOODLE
OMPOMPOLUSAC : (1) technical name for the cone-shaped outcroppings (usually three in number) on the hat of a court-jester's uniform. (2) bag on the end of a long pole, as handed by the "Frere Fou", adjutant of Prince Carnival in Louisiana, mocking the Catholic service collect bag. (3) title of a traditional Zydeco song "I left my Ompompolusac that night on the vestrophiliac"
Next: BERIGOPHILE
TURGNARL : ritual food taken by the Monks of Ur in their high service of Traal. Prepared by taking the fruit of the Spotted Marsh Wallop (Cincantraxi Vulgarii), soaking them with fermenting lentils in salty water for half a year, drying, flagellating, and roasting them slighty. The brownish, gnarly result contains a high concentration of an irritating chemical which causes violent sneezing episodes when consumed. The Monks, due to their rigorous training, showed remarkable resilience to the effects of this chemical. The exact gradation of their individual resilience was established in extensive sneezing marathons and played an important role in the sacral hierarchy of the religious ceremonies.
next : MILLICKTER
HILLOBAMPERTY: (slang, North Yorkshire, UK) overly and obtrusively jovial, as in a person who slaps everyone on the back when he enters the village pub merely for comical effect e.g., if the slapped person is just taking the first sip of a fresh pint or happens to be an elderly lady
from Hillo - Hello (spoken with a Y. accent) and to Bamper (Y. dialect) for knocking, hammering)
Tha' Cutbert Peels' so 'illobamperty - ya shoo' 'af seen 'm los' nigh' n' th' Lion Inn 'n Kirkbymoorside! (Dalziel and Pascoe)
BLERK: (1) annoying child (2) wooden paddle used to (a) flatten dough for traditional Swedish inch-thick pancakes with, to (b) (trad.) chastise unbelievers with; (3) an unintentional embarrassing noise produced by a bodily function
It would have taken a sharp observer to notice the reaction on the faces of the assembled Notary Supervisory Board when a shrill blerk escaped from one of her Ladyship Gwendolina Strose Utkinsop's nether regions
(Lawrence Durrell: The Memoirs of Theodore Stephanides)
next: WAMPEEN
HULIPHOR: figure of speech that is in fact a generalised metaphor in much the same way that a tensor is a generalised vector: it is equally hard to explain without getting too technical.
An example of a zero'th order huliphor (aka plain speech) is: life sucks.
A first-order huliphor (a metaphor) is, say: life's a banana or life's a vice-president;
a second-order huliphor (a meta-metaphor) could be: life's anywhere the rain doesn't fall;
and a third-order huliphor (a meta-meta-metaphor) would then be: life never falls - nor fails - where 'Spain' could expect the net Inquisitive Season.
The Finnish scholar Kriittaattoonu Torkuurii Tottaatten was said to be affluent up to fifth-level huliphors, but no-one has ever been able to decipher his writings.
-> A select company of linguists and philosophers at the University of Walamaloo, Australia, claims to have established a way to write fractal-dimensional huliphors with the aid of a computer program called BruceForce, but attempts to verify this have failed because, at that moment, the bar closed.
Next: AGROOBLS
AGROOBLS: (polynesia) a sudden short outburst of anger in the trancelike state brought on by the continuous nasal incantations, consumption of strong fermented, cafeine-containing ritual beverages and forced staring in a potassium-coloured purple charcoal fire during the V'piigti night of the coming of age ritual of adolescent males. At the moment of Tiplootio, the boy jumps up, tears of the ornate headdress, plunges his head in a bucket of cold water and exhales violenty, culminating in a loud roar which sounds like "Agroobls!!!"
This is the sign that his transition is complete.
next: BLAFFATURE
BIDENTICULATE : (Lit.) 'spoken between two teeth [ Latin 'bi' - two, 'dens' - tooth, and and 'articulare' - to speak distincly ] {hissingly} spoken through the teeth of clenched jaws, therefore: acquiring power of delivery and accentuation by sheer wrath or pressure rather then by clarity; bidenticulation: a school of design that does away with all the heavily chromed rods and globules, polished anthracite and thin red lines - but instead glorifies crudeness as its prime directive; bidenticulator: power compressor; bidenticulative: (legal) holding one's requisitory in a rather blunt manner (the more sophisticated barrister societies have regulations against it); bidenticulatte: fashionable, remotely coffee-based beverage that is prepared by spraying fat-free, homogenised milk through a superheated mist of decafeinated coffee in a so-called bidenticulatrice. As we speak, vastly simplified home versions of bidenticulatrices, weighing no more than six tonnes, are becoming fashionable (ill. below)
personal bidenticulatrice model DeLuxe Pro Executive XQR-1i by Saatchihuko Heavy Industries
for the demanding urban pointy-haired manager of today!
~ also available in mauve jalopisee, denton brown, canary twill and hockton black
next: NOGGINGTON
SEARBATHER : the technician in Polish industrial cabbage-boileries who is in charge of the equipment that lowers the cabbages in the boiling kettle; a harsh diplomat; small bird found only in Rotorua (NZ) (diplodocii thermophilus) that enjoys taking baths in volcanic hot mud pools - also named spasiskin
'If we're going to get that searbather Mme Silvestra poking her nose in our business again, we might just as well surrender to the rebels immediately!
S'Bandi "Smile at me" Tatate, the dictator, looked almost pale. He dropped the UN telegram on his desk, threw his fearsome hulk back his leather chair and mopped his forehead with a monstreous red-and-white handkerchief.
(Ethel Porridge: the Revolution came and went with a smile)
next: PRESIKHONG
The withered old Appalachian peasant leant on his pitchfork, tilted his head, red as a pomegranate, and spat on the ground. It made a sound like a gunshot. "I think you're a revenooer", he leered from under his heavy bristling brows. "A re-revuer? C-c-certainly not!" the gangling youth from Boston volunteered "... although I m-m-must admit, I would love to bring the Back Bay Polka to the stage of the Bean Revue one day ..." his eyes misted over. The peasant grumbled inconclusively.
A minute past. Somewhere, in the distance, an owl hooted.
BASTINATOR : (1) someone who does not, like a procrastinator, delays beginning tasks, but who immediately rejects them. A procrastinator's typical response is oh, yes ... maybe later .. when I ... ohh what's that? while a bastinator would reply no **** way!
(2) the technician in Polish industrial cabbage-boileries who is responsible for the fine tuning of the delicate prodding apparatus that assesses whether the cabbages are sufficiently cooked through; bastinatore: the mafia staff member who decides when it's "enough"; bastinacle: the highest arcade in a medieval castle - usually the stage of floret fights because it makes the participants silhouette so dramatically against the sky; bastinaculum: small room in a monastery where the novices have to perform the passing-out test
The assembled family members fell silent and all turned towards the door. It opened with a nerve-pinching grating and revealed the angular features of Salvatore "Sammy the Giggler" Gingello. Tony, the brute, signed a quick cross. Someone whispered "Donna Maria".
E arrivato - il Bastinatore.
Ethel Porridge - Oregano and old lustre
next : ALTEVERE
CREDOCRETOSUS : the sycophantic, glib attitude of obsequious cooperativeness and make-believe solvability that is a prerequisite to obtain a loan from a bank. Bank staff that assess loan request are specially selected and trained ruthlessly in so-called Credocretosiums to enhance their sensitivity in detecting these qualities; credocretosic: of main-land Greeks, the propensity to lure tourists into the false belief that they're from Crete in order to acquire an aura of philosophical adroitness; credocretin: (F.) small, largely useless delicate decorative truffle-grater, traditionally made from ivory; credocretinuous: that special quality of a glib person who somehow always seems to get away with even the most improbable of lies
The second day of a Credocretosium camp
- Mommy, Ronnie's being all creosotic again! He wants my lollipop!
- Zelda! How many times do I *whack* have to *whack* tell you that it's credocretosus? Well? Well???
- Wehhhhh!!!!!
- Cryin's not gonna help ya young lady! How d'ya expect to grow up to proper banker ever like this? Now? Now??
Let the money roll (TV Soap)
next: CRENTAHWHEEGER
