A.Word.A.Day -- AWADmail Issue 820

When my son was an adolescent, I described him to a friend as a real watchtv. I think it unlikely this tosspot noun will ever catch on, which makes me a bit of a doubtword.
-Dayamati Richard Hayes, Albuquerque, New Mexico (dayamati gmail.com)

Nursenickel: A person who is five times more miserly than a pinchpenny.
-Annie Graham, Chattanooga, Tennessee (caulfieldst epbfi.com)

Bitenail: One who’s always worried about the circumstances surrounding them.
-Raymond Muzaaya, Kampala, Uganda (muzaaya gmail.com)

Spillbeans: Someone who can’t help but always give away the surprise. “I’m planning a surprise birthday party for my granddaughter. But don’t tell Sue! She’s a total spillbeans.”
-Andrew Wigman, Munich, Germany (andrew.m.wigman gmail.com)

What do I call senators, such as the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and what they do? Well, I might call them killbills. Because they essentially kill the legislation when it can never come up for a vote. There are other variations: quashbill, scotchbill, scuttlebill could apply, too. But killbill works, esp. in the context of gun violence, the issue of the day.
-Nancy Ognanovich, Annapolis, Maryland (nognanov bgov.com)

Showgun: A powerful person who uses antiquated and ambiguous legal language to justify the use of military technology in the slaughter of innocents. (Not to be confused with gun show where the trade in such technology is even less regulated than elsewhere in this least-regulated nation.)
-Alan W. Ritch, Santa Cruz, California (aritch berkeley.edu)

Toptale: One who turns conversations into competitions by one-upping the speaker.
Example: If you laugh at yourself for binge-watching five episodes of Stranger Things, he saw both seasons in one sitting. If you ran your first 10k, he just did the Ironman. If you ruined your suit in the thunderstorm, his basement was flooded. If you saw Lin-Manuel Miranda on Broadway, he won VIP tickets and met him backstage. If your aunt just peacefully passed away, his died last week by spontaneous combustion. In short, he’s a relentless and insufferable toptale.
-Margaret Stein, Omaha, Nebraska (stein_margaret bah.com)

Throwstone: Someone who is judgmental towards others and blinded towards one’s own behavior. From the Bible John 8:7 “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
-Alexandra Duenow, Kansas City, Missouri (aduenow nts.edu)

Jabberjog: One prone to bore you to tears with his latest fitness fad/gadget.
-David Price, Hong Kong (dprice netvigator.com)

Packtale: Many things a person says or talks about while packing to leave.
-Talha Devecioglu, Istanbul, Turkey (whatthewhatwithwhat gmail.com)

Moplens: One who habitually engages in displacement activities, such as constantly cleaning one’s eyeglasses, to avoid having to directly explain a compromised position or answer a difficult question. Thus one who nervously avoids condemnation.
“Unlike Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump’s latest selection for press secretary has proven to be an inveterate moplens, repeatedly cleaning his eyeglasses with such fervor that reporters soon lose interest in pursuing their questions.”
Jim Webster; Whipjokes and Wonkubines in Trump’s Whitehouse; Fake News Press; 2018.
-Jim S. Webster, Berkeley, California (jsibleywebster mindspring.com)

My beautiful fiancée can turn from a giggleguts to a grumbleguts in the blink of an eye. Both are quite cute, which seems to infuriate her even more when she’s being a grumblebum!
-Jorge Arriagada, Brisbane, Australia (jorge.arriagada health.qld.gov.au)

My fearless prediction is that at least 45 of your contributors will offer something along the lines of:
Spewtweets: One who obsessively overwhelms the Twitterverse with noxious rants.
-Al Billington, Fort Collins, Colorado (ruth60al comcast.net)

Twisttweet: A tactical statement made by a very stable genius to base people.
-Charles Harp, Victoria, Canada (texzenpro yahoo.com)

Lobshade: A person who uses Twitter or other social media to level negative comments or criticism at another person, especially when unprovoked by current events or circumstances. Example: After a quiet week on his Twitter account, President Lobshade awakened early on Saturday for his lobshade habit, once again referring to Senator Elizabeth Warren as Pocahontas.
-Kathy Root, Norwalk, Ohio (kathygroot icloud.com)

Flipfinger: A scofflaw with *real* attitude.
-Kathy Matay, Great Falls, Virginia (kathymatay gmail.com)

Although I have to undo autocorrect whenever I type it, a makebond is a chemist who is good at building molecules, whereas to make bond is what scofflaws do after they are arrested.
-Preston J. MacDougall, PhD, Professor, Department of Chemistry, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee (preston.macdougall mtsu.edu)

Slurpsoup: Someone with poor table manners.
-Penelope Miller, London, UK (penelopemiller hotmail.com)

Guttlesnopes: Someone obsessed with rooting out fake news.
-James E. McLandress, Winnipeg, Canada (JMcLandress waa.ca)

Shillfox: Someone who is an advocate and promoter of propaganda and misrepresented facts.
-Rob Reber, Fort Mill, South Carolina (rreber comporium.net)

Puffbladder: An overweight politician who talks poisonous nonsense, nonsense that is as dangerous as the venom from the similar-sounding Southern African snake.
-Alistair Scott, Gland, Switzerland (alistair alistairscott.com)

Trumptruth: 1. one who denies the truth by falsely calling it fake news. 2. a sad sad person.
-Terry Troutt, Lakewood, Washington (deandog largerpurpose.com)
Also sent by Harlan McKay, Las Cruces, New Mexico (Harlandlc yahoo.com) and Alan W. Ritch, Santa Cruz, California (aritch berkeley.edu)

Spintruth: One who interprets facts to make them more favorable to their own self interests.
-Maria Cypher, Oakland, California (maria catchwordbranding.com)

Poisonmind: One who corrupts people’s minds (or) brings out the worst qualities in people through speech/discourse.
-Sivaraman Masilamani, Northborough, Massachusetts (nallasivam gmail.com)

Twisttruth: Someone who manipulates the truth or creates alternate facts to support an argument.
-Josie Bergstrom, Norfolk, Virginia (JBergstr vbgov.com)

blabfolly: the President
chuckslur: the President
flingbarb: the President
grabgroin: the President
heavewoe: the President
slingbane: the President
-Jeff Balch, Evanston, Illinois (balchowsky yahoo.com)

Writepaper: A researcher who is obsessed with writing papers.
-Dr. Ramakalyan Ayyagari, Tiruchirappalli, India (rkalyn nitt.edu)

Spreadword: Someone who shares novel words with hundreds of thousands of people every day. Example: That Anu Garg is a real spreadword.
-John Shillington, Edmonton, Canada (john.shillington gmail.com)

Pamperheart: A very giving person, friendly, hospitable, that always makes you feel at home, providing all her/his effort and support without pretending anything.
Usage: coming back from Asia, Alex was so glad to remeet old school mates after so many years, especially Lisa. She became soon his pamperheart, helping him to settle in the local community.
-Andrea Fumagalli, Milan, Italy (andrea.fum gmail.com)

From my ride into the office this morning: honkhorn and flipfinger. This morning’s traffic was bad and, as a result, richly mixed with hornhonks of varying ages and sexes as well as the occasional flipfinger.
-Frank Brown, Atlanta, Georgia (frank.brown travelport.com)

Scoffwork: One who displays contempt for work. Especially in minor ways, such as failure to perform rudimentary tasks.
-Peter Conner, Rochester, Minnesota (conner.peter mayo.edu)

Pouncepark: A motorist who hovers beside a bank of cars, waiting for the first hint of an available parking spot.
-David Astle, Melbourne, Australia (davidast bigpond.net.au)

How about a countbird for an Audubon member who is a regular at the bird counts?
-Nancy Roe, Presque Isle, Maine (nancyproe gmail.com)

My devised word is turntongue, a man or woman who frequently and ungracefully corrects his or her speech in mid-sentence, for fear of causing offence to his or her listener(s).
-Henry Moursund, Corvallis, Oregon (henrymoursund gmail.com)

Postface: Someone who posts a lot on Facebook and other social media. (Usage: “Omg, another pic of his dinner? What a postface!”)
-Robin Eileen Bernstein, New York, New York (robin robineileenbernstein.com)

Bobnoggin: A person who glibly or thoughtlessly agrees to anything they’re presented; a yes-man.
-Sam Heck, Portland, Maine (sam.heck gmail.com)

Lickboot: A sycophant (inspired by bootlicker).
-Swaminathan Seetharaman, Coimbatore, India (swaminathan.seetharaman wipro.com)

Spurnkin: A misanthrope.
-Michael Har-Even, Jerusalem, Israel (har.even.m gmail.com)

Hoover-Hoover: A supreme suck-up.
This gem takes into account both the British and American use of hoover, which to Brits means to vacuum (Did you hoover the carpet?) and to Americans means a person who sucks up -- like a lickspittle!
-Lissa Love Gay, Knoxville, Tennessee (gayl utk.edu)

Houndpost: Someone who reads all of your posts on social media closely in order to discover something they can criticise or disagree with.
-Rhiannon D’Averc, Tonbridge, Kent (rhidee hotmail.com)

Snapself: Someone who is overly concerned with their social media image, continually posting selfies.
-Alger Waller, Granville, Ohio (algerwaller yahoo.com)

My tosspot coinages: cravefame, gildname, shiftblame (and grabdame?).
-Marion Wolf, Bergenfield, New Jersey (marionewolf yahoo.com)

Hugblunder: One who makes a mistake and pretends it was deliberate.
Example: No matter what he does, his hugblunder followers think it is the best course of action. Imagine a group of followers so devout they would rally behind the “covfefe” typo.
-Ancilleno Davis, Oxford, Ohio (davisao2 miamioh.edu)

Dumptrump: A discerning voter. As in “Many dumptrumps showed up to vote in Pennsylvania.”
-Peggy Hayes, Columbus, Ohio (peggy571 icloud.com)

Squatbubble: One who only gets news from a small number of bias-confirming sources and never ventures beyond those sources. “The squatbubble settled into his well-worn sofa religiously every morning, just in time for ‘Fox and Friends’.”
-Chris Crosby-Schmidt, Woodbury, Minnesota (crosb017 umn.edu)

Tucktail: A politician or cabinet member retreating from the scrutiny of the justice dept., press, or the public.
Snipwrinkle: A plastic surgeon.
-Thomas Heenan, Yanbu, Saudi Arabia (thomasheenan99 yahoo.com)

Rungutter: A word for candidates for, and members of, Congress and State Legislatures in America who attempt to obtain and maintain for life a position of prominence, power, and luxury while always avoiding any actual constructive work, by the easiest and cheapest method that there is: endlessly appealing to the lowest moral and ethical ugly gut feelings of their constituency at no matter what cost to the poorest and most vulnerable among them and no matter how many of them die much earlier than necessary due to their failure to provide protection or assistance. The number of Congressional and legislative rungutters have greatly increased recently.
-Eugene Claburn, West Windsor, New Jersey (nowgene gmail.com)

Holdbriefcase: It’s based on the colloquial Czech term Podržtaš for an insignificant assistant (whose sole job it is to hold someone’s briefcase), who often pretends to be an important businessperson.
-Martin Sindelar, Princeton, New Jersey (msindelar ets.org)

Vendmot: A purveyor of words. From French vendre (to sell) + mot (word).
-Steve Donohue, North Augusta, South Carolina (donohuester gmail.com)

My tosspot word is a combo of a “sort of” German word and slang, katzenschmoozen -- one who likes to cuddle or schmooze with cats.
-Carol Simon, Wickenburg, Arizona (carolfsimon gmail.com)

A number of years ago I used to do training in Spanish at a company in Mexico. One of the engineers there seemed to have an unfortunate talent for breaking the test programs written in class. I dubbed him mataprogramas (the program killer), from the Spanish matar (to kill).
-Michael Moran, New Berlin, Wisconsin (mmoran digalogsys.com)

Yiddish equivalent of a kissass could be a Kushtoches.
-Jeffrey Ridenour, Crawfordville, Indiana (jridenour1 gmail.com)

Spewlike: One who uses the word “like” at least three times in every sentence.
-Jan Moursund, Eugene, Oregon (janetmoursund gmail.com)

Killtruth: An individual, particularly a political spokesperson, who repeatedly denies obvious truths and pushes alternative facts.
-Martin Cobern, Cheshire, Connecticut (mecobern cox.net)

Stirpot: A person who intentionally stirs up an all ready fraught situation. Or, a person who intentionally creates or encourages controversy.
-Paula Brown-Gray, Lambertville, Michigan (pbrowngray gmail.com)

Venthorn: A person who talks incessantly but never listens.
-Unal Norman, Ankara, Turkey (unalnorman gmail.com)