Saturday, September 23, 2006

Why I Am a Kloon

I think inventing new words should be an Olympic sport. It's a really fun thing to do if you're bored. I do it all the time. I believe words are the one thing that you can never have too much of. (Credit and Alicia Silverstone are the other two.) In fact, I've even coined a new word for this very activity -- "choogling". (No connection with "googling".)

Choogle, v : To invent a new word or term or give a new meaning to a word or term that already exists.

As mentioned in the definition above, there are two forms of choogling. You can either create a completely new word of your own, as "choogle" itself is a good example of, or you can use a word that already exists in the language, but giving it a new meaning. For example, I could tell you to sod off by saying, "Iron the dog!"

My new ambition in life is for someone studying the etymology of a term three centuries from now, to trace it back to a certain Arnold D'Souza who first used it sometime in the early 21st century. (Let's call people with stupid ambitions "kloons".)

One of the reasons why I like making up new words is because I suffer from a rather insufficiently stocked vocabulary. I'm often thinking about a situation or a concept and I just won't be able to think of a word to describe it. Now I can just choogle my way out of such situations. (I call people with insufficiently stocked vocabularies "bums".)

Of course this doesn't always help me practically. I often find myself in conversations that go something like the following:

Me: Say, you know that thing? The -- ummm -- wishet? Did you, ummm, flumengate the wishet?
Kim: Ummm... Come again?
Me: The wishet! I keegled Tom and told him to woozle you about it. Ummm.. at least I think I did.
Kim: Ummm... What the dickens are you talking about?
Me: (In frustration) Iron the dog!

I'll call conversations with an inordinately large count of "ummm"s in them "boopers". As you can see the above booper got us nowhere, except that Kim's dog probably had a wrinkleless fur coat the next day. Boopers are not good.

You may also have noticed that a lot of my terms contain a double "o" in them. I've grown partial to the double "o" construct. I leave it to you to create a term to describe such words.

What new words of your own have you come up with?


lara said...

eee..i looved the "double o contruct". sloopy.
i think you should call these words..floobles? eh..they just feel like floobles.
btw..if *you* aren't pleased with your vocab then I am definitely in dire need of studying a dictionary...will get to that now..
ps. whenever you actually come up with your life's ambition, you could never be a kloon.
boo =)

Rachel said...

Kerflooshie ~ The sound of flushing someone's crappy idea down the toilet.

Playtah said...

That was good times! Here's some of mine...

Clipperdabble - to play in the branches of a tree

Umbersnuppish - haughty, high and mighty

Sprunk - a mixture of curiosity, contempt, and cautious interest

Dripplesnap - rain, gloom

Arnold said...

lara - "floobles" it is then! and don't worry.. I'm SO a kloon!

rachel - Extra points for the "double o" in that!

playtah - thanks.. that was quite a collection there.. must start using some of them myself...

RT .. hXc?LqD said...

lolzz .. really really gud concoctions here!! must say .. a whole lotta talented "chooglers" in this world!! :D
here are mine tho .....

floobergasted adj : the act of being dumbfounded every time u discover a new "flooble"
flooked adj : the act of being hooked on2 floobles
floovention n : yet another flooble invention!!
ecstoosy n : overwhelming joy experienced post-floovention

me ecstootic nw!! :D lolzz

PS: this is what happens when u got loadsa imp.things 2 do in life but still choogling is of utmost importance to u!!!!!
Anyone got a word for this act??

RT .. hXc?LqD said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Arnold said...

RT .. hXc?LqD - Thanks for the contributions.. I have no problem with enabling "email-subscription" for this blog.. if only I be knowing how.. anyone?

Anonymous said...

so u found it!! :D thnx!!

Anonymous said...

At first, it was too surreal to be true...
I thought I'd found your twin ...

Then I realised you're much worse.


mullingovermythoughts said...

crumchum- a term for people like me who you wish would blow away but who always manage to stick around indefinitely!!!

Bheekling said...

Reading your blog is a refreshing change :D
Unfotunately I'm not good at making things up from scratch so I can't think of a word to describe that refreshing change :P

Alex said...

"Choogling" has already been coined. See Creedence Clearwater Revival's song, "Keep on Choogling".

Arnold said...

alex - yup, i know.. i've heard the song.. and i LOVE CCR!

that's where i actually got the word from..

Alex said...

Me and my friends play this game all the time. Basically, "make up a word, GO!" and off the top of your head you have to make a completely fictional word. It's harder than one would think.

Giles Shingler said...

Choogling is not a new word (he said patronisingly). It is at least 40 years old. The band Creedence Clearwater Revival used it in the song "Born on the Bayou". I bought their greatest hits when I was approx 20 years old as I thought the "born" in the tital might bee like the great romance of "to the manor born" which was on uk television then. C.C.R. featured in the film "apocalypse now" by Francis Ford Coppola playing a different song Suzie-Q. I think "choogling" is what trains did back then like the chattanooga-choo-choo.

Arnold said...

giles shingler - Hehe. Thanks. Quite a lot of info there. Though that's where I got the name "choogling" from -- the CCR song.