A lexicon for the 21st century.
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Phrase ‘see-za-nul ad-‘ven-cher diss-‘or-dur Mis-packing for travel to a foreign country, failing to take into account weather conditions that prevail there. Usage: When Diana went to Machu Picchu in June, she packed her favorite cotton capris and T-shirts, and wore velcro-strap sport sandals. Arriving, she learned it was winter in Peru, and realized she’d fallen prey to Seasonal Adventure Disorder. Luckily, vendors at every outpost sold baby alpaca sweaters, hand knit mittens, and long stripey pants.
V. ‘lay-dee-dress For women, to dress in retro-elegant feminine styles of other times. Usage: The hostess threw a glittering dinner party with an Eisenhower-era menu, and asked her male guests to wear black tie, her female friends to ladydress— Mad-Men style. The women complied enthusiastically, and were splendid with red nails and lips, powdered faces, and crinolines poufing the skirts of their pastel brocade frocks.
N. soo-‘pur-ee-‘or-it-tee ‘kom-pleks A cat’s smug, prideful attitude when it has positioned itself in an unusual resting spot, like a shoebox, shopping bag, or other unorthodox perch. Also, supurrior (adj.) Usage: Opening the closet door, Meryl found Boots napping in a pocket of the shoe organizer, halfway up the wall. The cat, waking, cast a half-lidded supurrior glance at her owner, and looked incredibly pleased with herself. Boots was well on her way to developing a supurriority complex.
V. ‘o-vur-‘durv To eat so many appetizers that you lose your appetite for a meal. Usage: At the art opening before his anniversary dinner with Lila, Victor pigged out on saté skewers, honey-roasted cashews and prosciutto-wrapped asparagus. As they left, he realized with regret that he’d overdoeuvred, and would be too full to enjoy their long-awaited feast at Gramercy Tavern.
V. ‘feet-peep In a public restroom, to crane the neck and glance under the stalls to see if they are free—or if pairs of shoes indicate they are taken. Usage: After the movie ended, Gisela raced to the women’s room and pushed open the door of a stall without feetpeeping to make sure it was empty. To her embarrassment, it was occupied.
N. ree-‘flin-chun When you look at yourself in the mirror and think you look terrible. Usage: After pulling an all-nighter, Devan splashed water on his face and pulled his fingers through his hair, trying to look presentable. But when he caught a glimpse of himself in a shop window as he walked to work, he shuddered at the ghastly reflinchon. At the office, he napped under his desk.
N. ‘wun-hoss-‘shay A relationship that, like the one-horse buggy in the old Oliver Wendell Holmes poem, has no visible defect or flaw, but has a built-in expiration date, at which time it self-destructs, leaving no trace of its prior existence. Usage: “What? Aren’t you going out with Dinah? I thought you lived together!” “Yeah, we were a one-hoss shay— the whole thing evaporated after three years—it’s like it never happened.”
(Phrase) ‘kat-ta ‘en-tree Gibberish entered onto one’s computer by a cat scampering on the keyboard. (Also kitteh entry.) Usage: As Samantha tried to write, her kitten leapt onto her laptop, seeking attention, and typing a string of nonsense letters with her paws. Samantha gently removed her, erased the cata entry, quit out of her document, and spent five minutes amusing the cat with a bouncy toy.
§-An egret’s plume to Tori for the idea.
V. an-tiss-si-primp To wait for your companion or date to get ready, even though s/he’s completely dolled up and looks good to go. Usage: Robert arrived at Dana’s apartment fifteen minutes late, hoping she’d be ready to go, but had to spend twenty minutes anticiprimping anyway, waiting for her to finish making invisible improvements to her get-up.
(Phrase) ‘truk-kul-down-ek-uh-‘nom-iks A system that kowtows to greedy segments of society by lavishing public resources on them, pretending that such generosity will benefit the wider community. Usage: The government bailed out the banks early in 2009, hoping that catering to Wall Street would help Main Street. But toward the end of the year, as unemployment topped 10%, prosperity returned only to the banking sector. The moneymen rewarded themselves with billions in taxpayer-financed bonuses, and it became clear that truckle-down economics didn’t work any better in the oughts than trickle-down had in the ’80s.
