Marginal Revolution: Missing words

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Missing words

Many everyday concepts require words which simply are not there. Barbara Wallraff's excellent Word Fugitives: In Pursuit of Wanted Words offers a list...

Often after I've heard of something for the first time - a food, a place, a person -- I start hearing about it everywhere. Shouldn't there be a word for this?

"Newbiquitous" is suggested.

Is there a word for the common experience of saying something to your child and then realizing -- often with a shock -- that you sound like one of your own parents?

"Mamamorphosis" is one idea.

My husband and I are in search of a word for the fear of throwing a party and having no one show up.

"Guestlessness"?

How about people who hit the "send" button for email without first attaching the file?

"Deficit sending" is recommended. Or "sends of omission."

Jonathan Zuber wants "...a verb meaning 'to go do something and return having absentmindedly done one or more other things instead.'""

Any ideas?

You can put other requests, or suggestions, in the comments...

Posted by Tyler Cowen on April 21, 2006 at 06:57 AM in Education | Permalink

Comments

I want better words to describe someone who is no longer subject to death from most diseases or old age, but who can still be killed via accidental injury or homicide. "Immortal" implies that one is immune from all causes of death (including accidental injury). "Ageless" also seems to be a misnomer--they will still have an age, but they won't have the physical debilitation that is now nearly synonymous with age. To say they have an "indefinite lifespan" seems clumsy. Any suggestions?

Posted by: Christopher Rasch at Apr 21, 2006 8:08:08 AM

You already know mine.

Posted by: Jacqueline at Apr 21, 2006 8:30:15 AM

Recently, the interest rate yield curve was inverted. I think that when it goes back to normal it should said to "unvert."

Posted by: John Schafer at Apr 21, 2006 9:37:20 AM

"How about people who hit the "send" button for email without first attaching the file?"

I refer to this (and the related phenomenon of accidentally sending a half-finished email) as "premature epistolation."

Posted by: Tim at Apr 21, 2006 9:45:52 AM

I'm still waiting for Chinese 'renao' to be adopted as an english word...

Posted by: bbartlog at Apr 21, 2006 10:01:32 AM

Didn't we already do this is the 1980s during the brief but intense "Sniglets" craze?

Posted by: Richard Bellamy at Apr 21, 2006 10:26:18 AM

If resureccting an obsolete word counts, I nominate "velleity." It means the slightest possible urge or whim, the sort that produces a moment's thought but never leads to any action.

Posted by: Peter at Apr 21, 2006 10:37:17 AM

Athazagoraphobia, the fear of being ignored or forgotten, probably covers the fear of your guests not showing up (i.e. ignoring your invitation).

Posted by: DK at Apr 21, 2006 10:57:56 AM

I have such a need for velleity that I'm resurrecting it immediately. :)

Posted by: speedwell at Apr 21, 2006 11:58:11 AM

In social science, there are two sorely needed.

First, a noun for voluntary affairs, mechanisms, or processes. Suggestion: "volunation". Does government coercion improves on volunation?

Second, a noun for the degree of alignment of personal consequences and social consequences. Suggestion: "consequencity".

Another: A term for the character of economics associated with figures like Smith and Hayek, emphasizing the distinction between voluntary and coercive action. That character holds that, by and large, volunation exhibits greater consequencity than government intervention. Suggestions?

Dan Klein

Posted by: Daniel Klein at Apr 21, 2006 1:20:41 PM

Christopher:

immorbid. adj. Not subject to life-threatening disease or deterioration. (Coined by Wil McCarthy in his novel, The Collapsium [2000])

Posted by: Damien at Apr 21, 2006 2:21:28 PM

If it does not exist already, a word I'd appreciate would describe the experience of having a word/phrase/noun that you should remember but lingers just beyond the the scope of your immediate memory.

Posted by: James Ianelli at Apr 21, 2006 11:21:17 PM

Thanks, Damien!

Posted by: Christopher Rasch at Apr 22, 2006 11:09:07 AM

"the experience of having a word/phrase/noun that you should remember but lingers just beyond the the scope of your immediate memory."

That's basically having something "on the tip of your tongue". How about "tongue-tipped" for brevity?

Posted by: Michael Hartl at Apr 22, 2006 1:08:07 PM

"That's basically having something 'on the tip of your tongue.' How about tongue-tipped' for brevity?"

"Tongue-tipped" is adequate, however I'd like something closer to a word than an amalgam of a phrase. A word I'm thinking of to describe this experience could be "menlapse."

Posted by: James Ianelli at Apr 22, 2006 9:12:42 PM

Instead of inventing words that are needed to better describe unnamed phenomenon, several friends and I have spent a ludicrous amount of energy combining already serviceable words to increase their affect in conversation. Two self explanatory examples:
Dramastic
Disastrophe

This is how we waste our lives.

Posted by: mike lorenz at Apr 24, 2006 11:06:32 AM

The folks at languagelog tend to refer to the "newbiquity" phenomenon as the "recency illusion."

Posted by: Joe at Apr 24, 2006 8:11:27 PM

My kids have to mute the TV during the commercials and when the show comes back on, they yell at me to "demute."

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