Thursday, July 17, 2008

Coined of the realm

Copyrighted phrases 2007-08
Kathmandu

Just a few bits of terminology that have sprung to mind in the past 7 months or so. If you use them without
crediting me I will hunt you down like a redbone coon hound hunting a polecat under a Mississippi full moon.

E-Crastination:
The most socially acceptable form of "creative procrastination;" that is, procrastination involving work online: whether Flickr, Google, Google Earth or Wikipedia ("I'm doing research"), Facebook, one of the myriad chat gadgets (in the guise of "staying in touch" or "networking" when you're really putting off work). At a distance, E-crastination is indistinguishable from "work" - because you are studiously typing away and leaning intently into your laptop.

Dynocracy: A hereditary form of democracy passed on through the bloodline or via marriage, as seen in contemporary Nepal (the Koirala family), India (the Gandhis and many more), Pakistan, Phillipines & Nicaragua (widow successors) -- and now thanks to the Bush family, America.

See "Family Affair," January 2008.



Pseudhu: a type of intinerant performance artist dressed as a Hindu holy man or "Sadhu," but actually just a bum wearing the costume and garb of a sadhu, asking for traditional alms. About 90% of the "babas" and sadhus you see on the road, conspiciously offering tikka in exchange for a handout, are not sadhus - they are Pseudhus.


Chatalog: An internet text chat copied wholesale to a blog, providing "spontaneous' ready-made content. Special thanks to Amod Dange.


I know there are a few more rattling around in my brain....more to come.

4 comments:

Vinod_Sharma said...

Nice ones.

There is one that I had coined which comes readily to mind: MOCKOCRACY...mockery of democracy. In Hindi-English combo, it is phoneticaly "maukacracy"... the democracy in which the focus is on making full use of the "mauka" - opportunity to enrich oneself. Something like that is happening right now in Delhi.

Susan Warren Utley said...

Great words. Expecially loved E-crastination but unfortunately it came to mind too late. See Mitchell's post about words that really should exist. They were given to him by a teacher some time ago.

http://mitchells2000.blogspot.com/2007/07/words-that-really-should-exist-from-to.html

Anonymous said...

I liked Dynocracy. It suits perfectly well. Good ones.

Sudipta Chatterjee said...

You should definitely check out www.urbandictionary.com -- that's the place! Pseudhu was cool, though! :)