A.Word.A.Day -- AWADmail Issue 1042

My mother-in-law, Alice, is known for her rather gloomy perspective on the world. We use the word alicize instead of catastrocize in our family.
-Ellen Lepine, Newark, Delaware (ellell udel.edu)

Robertize: To break a travel book into sections, selecting only the pages or places on one’s itinerary.
This came about when, e.g., the Lonely Planet tomes on a particular country were too heavy and space consuming for a backpack. Robert (brother-in-law) would use a Stanley knife to separate the chapters or sections he needed. It has been a family joke and good advice for travelling ever since. Such banter as “Have you robertized Portugal yet?”
-Susan Grant, Sydney, Australia (susangrant internode.on.net)

I refer to a long-delayed (or otherwise messed up) mail delivery as having been DeJoyed.
-Dan Herr, Lancaster, Pennsylvania (danherr.234 gmail.com)

A Sallyrush is used in our family to describe an error in thinking that one cannot seem to stop making, even after having been corrected. An example, with which most of us will be familiar, particularly after bank holiday Mondays, is the persistent feeling that we are a day behind. It was named after a school friend who was prone to making this type of error.
-Nich Thomas, Newquay, UK (nichth gmail.com)

Breitbart: To edit a video in order to create a false impression contradictory to the truth.
-Daniel Miller, Laredo, Texas (milldaniel gmail.com)

For over a half century, my family had an adventure company in Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada. For around 25 of those years it was a coastal kayaking and hiking business.
Our co-workers would start to have extremely vivid dreams after their long days’ work.
The company was named after my father and called Stan Cook Sea Kayak Adventures and we called these dreams Stanmares. Most mornings we would have a great bunch of laughs going over what Stanmares the guides had the night before. Everything from finding yourself leading a tour and when looking around none of your guests had paddles, to sitting in a quiet cove watching the whales swim around and under the kayaks with suddenly some of them coming to the surface and speaking in English to the paddlers. Overall, it became a right of passage for everyone to have Stanmares as the season progressed and when we run into those folks, now much older with their own families, we still have a hoot about the crazy dreams paddling all day for a couple months would create.
-Stan Cook, St. John’s, Canada (stanjr wildnfld.ca)

I worked for a company years ago where a guy named Leo “fixed” machines by turning them off and on repeatedly. So, when something broke, we’d say, “Did you Leo it?” Even to this day, I use this expression accordingly, though I usually have to explain.
-Beth Keena, Pittsboro, North Carolina (b_keena yahoo.com)

A Miriam is someone who goes back several times to check that she/he’s completed something. After a neighbor who would go back to her house numerous times to make sure she had locked the door.
-Elizabeth Hannan, Tellico Plains, Tennessee (skywayliz gmail.com)

A friend named Betty often mixes metaphors, as in “That really hit the horse’s mouth!”. Among our family and friends, those are referred to as Bettyisms.
-Karen Leech, Ellicott City, Maryland (50kcleech67 gmail.com)

My father insisted that it was acceptable to hit the left-turn signal AFTER entering an intersection. I have heard strangers describing being trapped behind someone who has done this as I was Georged, our family phrase.
-Sarah Goodman, Vancouver, Canada (sjanegoodman gmail.com)

Doing a Diane: Sadly, named after me; I was pretty depressed in college. Doing a Diane meant being at a party where everybody is laughing and having fun except Diane, who is sitting in a corner and saying, “Nobody loves me.” Luckily, now there’s medication...
-Diane Saltzberg, Los Angeles, California (dlsaltzberg gmail.com)

We designated a response to a question that failed to answer the question a Phyllis after my sister. When asked what time she got home, she would invariably respond with something accurate but unenlightening:
“What time did you get home?”
“We left after the second movie.”
Yes, this was in the long-ago time of double features.
-Howard Baldwin, Lake Oswego, Oregon (baldwin.howard gmail.com)

A former West Virginia University basketball player, 6’-11”, was initially a typical height for a precision shooting guard. He experienced a relatively late-growth spurt in high school and grew into his 6’-11” frame while maintaining his long outside shot marksmanship. In the 2005 NCAA men’s basketball tournament Pittsnogle made several long-range shots and the term, “You’ve just been Pittsnogled” was born. To be Pittsnogled is to be subjected to a barrage of made outside shots in basketball by a tall outside shooter. (video, 1 min.)
-Mark W. Fought, Blacksburg, Virginia (mntnrmark gmail.com)

My neighbors and I Kravitz. After Mrs. Kravitz on the show Bewitched. Of course we do it it in a good way, looking out for each other. “I was Kravitzing this morning and saw a stranger walking around your house.”
-Marie Bender-Muir, Ambler, Pennsylvania (mrbart verizon.net)

One of our most used eponyms is Peggy, coined after the long gone commercial that featured a burly, hairy chested telemarketer who called himself Peggy when asked his name. Henceforth, every telemarketing call we receive is from Peggy.
-Carol Dragon, Quakertown, Pennsylvania (dragonmom40 gmail.com)

I am a picky but gentle copy editor (for free), and a self-identified Strunkian. E.g., “Charles’s crown,” “tend” instead of “have a tendency to,” and the serial comma (just illustrated). After Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, a most valuable “Little Book”. I am also a Gilbertian (after W.S. Gilbert) and of course a Savoyard after a theatre.
-Evan Hazard, Bemidji, Minnesota (eehazard paulbunyan.net)